Richie Furay

Richie Furay

The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center
Mar. 20, 2015

Mar. 20, 2015

The first day of spring and the snow is falling. It’s all good. Richie Furay and his band are playing “The Kate”, The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center and Theater in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
Richie Furay, a singer, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer who is best known for being a founding member, singer, guitarist and songwriter of Buffalo Springfield in 1967 with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin. Furay later co-founded the supergroup Poco with Jim Messina and the Souther Hillman Furay Band with Chris Hillman, and J.D. Souther.
He was also just inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. Now that is a pedigree most would envy.
The Empty Pocket’s out of Chicago warmed up the audience with a great sound that lifts your spirits. A fun band with a sound all their own and are a pleasure to see perform. I will be following their music in the future.
When Richie took the stage it was good to hear his voice again and it’s so distinctly recognizable. He still has the voice he had 40 years ago which is amazing.
The Richie Furay Band treated the audience in the intimate venue of about 250 seats to a stellar night of music at it’s best.
Jessie Furay Lynch, Richie’s Daughter, is expecting and due in May so she was unable to accompany the band for this stop of their tour.
They were joined by Erika Brett from the Empty Pocket’s and her beautiful voice fit like a glove.
Richie, along with Scott Sellen on guitar and banjos, Jack Jeckot on keyboard and Harmonica, Alan Lemke on drums and Aaron Sellen on Bass.
The band took us all along on an entertaining show of past, present and future music played exceptionally well. “For What It’s Worth” which turned into a sing-a-long, “Pickin’ Up The Pieces”, “Good Feelin’ To Know”, “Fallin’ in Love” “Kind Woman” and some of his newer songs
“We Were The Dreamers”, off his just released new album “Hand in Hand” about his time with Poco was a real crowd pleaser. They were indeed legends.
The entire band meshed so well and seamlessly their songs resonated off the walls of the old hall and made the atmosphere both comforting and welcoming. The audience took it all in like a deep breath. An exceptional concert by one of the greats singing some of his anthems of a generation.
Richie Furay is also just a nice guy and it shows in his pure enjoyment of the moment. He was instrumental in the whole Colorado sound so prevalent in the early 70’s. He spoke as if he was talking with a room of old friends about some of his experiences with Neil Young, Steven Stills,Poco and life in general.
If you get a chance to see Richie Furay, do it while he is still touring. It was a such a good feelin’ kind of night and we were all destined to leave with a smile. He said at the start of the show that he wanted us to leave glad that we braved the snow and came out to spend an evening with him. Two hours later we were. What a way to start spring.

Review by Donna Erichsen
Photos by George Bekris