Jim Messina

James Messina (born December 5, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, singer, guitarist, recording engineer, and record producer. He was a member of the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield and the soft rock duo Loggins and Messina with Kenny Loggins.

James Messina was born in Maywood, California on December 5, 1947, and raised in Harlingen, Texas until he was eight. He spent much of his childhood split between his father's home in California and his mother's home in Texas.

His father was a guitarist and greatly influenced his son's musical career. Messina began playing the guitar at the age of five. He later became interested in the music of Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson.

When he was 16 years old, he recorded an LP with "His Jesters" titled The Dragsters, which was released in November 1964. One notable track was "The Jester", on which he played lead guitar; it was included on the 2003 CD Lost Legends of Surf Guitar Volume 1.

While with Buffalo Springfield, Messina served as a recording engineer, producer and musician, replacing bass player Bruce Palmer on two songs from their final album, Last Time Around.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.