IEBA to Honor Loggins & Messina with Lifetime Achievement Award at The 2008 Annual Honors Dinner

Nashville, TN (October 6, 2008) – The International Entertainment Buyers Association will honor the most successful duo of the early 70’s, Loggins & Messina, with the prestigious IEBA Lifetime Achievement Award during this year’s annual IEBA Honors Awards Dinner on October 14 hosted by Joe Piscopo.  The talented duo will also perform that evening for IEBA members, offering a peek at their upcoming 2009 tour.  Past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Styx, Alice Cooper, Ronnie Milsap, Cheap Trick, Kenny Rogers, Brenda Lee, Charlie Daniels and Lou Rawls.

IEBA will also honor the Country Music Association’s 50th Anniversary at the awards dinner with performances by Crystal Gayle, Joe Nichols and Diamond Rio.  Agency for the Performing Arts (APA) will receive the Agency of the Year Award and Steve Moore, senior vice-president of AEG Live! will present a very special industry award.

Limited seats to IEBA Honors are available for $75. Contact 615-251-9000. www.ieba.org

Loggins & Messina
Next year will mark the return of the most successful duo of the early 1970s—a group whose most enduring songs were so well crafted that they still resonate today.

When they first met, Jim Messina was already a well-established success story, having produced and played with the legendary band Buffalo Springfield and later with the country-rock pioneers Poco.  Loggins, meanwhile, was a young singer/songwriter with far less experience, but with talent to burn as evidenced by early compositions like “House At Pooh Corner” and “Danny’s Song.”  Then Sittin’ In (1972)—originally envisioned as a one-off joint release intended to introduce Loggins as part of a Messina six-album production deal with Columbia Records—became a major smash hit.

In the next few years, a series of albums would follow in rapid order—1972’s Loggins & Messina, 1973’s Full Sail, 1974’s double-live On Stage, the same year’s Mother Lode, 1975’s cover song set So Fine and 1976’s Native Sons. The Best of Friends collection followed later that year and in 1977 another live album aptly titled Finale. With that, Loggins & Messina—who had sold 16 million albums and become one of rock’s most popular draws—was over and apparently done.

In the decades apart, Loggins established himself as a solo artist with a series of albums starting with 1977’s Celebrate Me Home, 1978’s Nightwatch, 1979’s Keep The Fire, 1980’s Alive, 1982’s High Adventure, 1985’s Vox Humana, 1988’s Back To Avalon,1991’s Leap of Faith, 1993’s Outside: From The Redwoods, 1994’s Return To Pooh Corner, 1997’s Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: The Greatest Hits of Kenny Loggins and The Unimaginable Life, 1998’s December, 2000’s More Songs From Pooh Corner, 2002’s The Essential Kenny Loggins, 2003’s It’s About Time, 2008’s How About Now, as well as a number of high-profile soundtrack contributions.
   
During this time, Jim Messina recorded five solo albums: 1979’s Oasis, 1981’s Messina, 1983’s One More Mile and 1996’s Watching The River Run. Messina also reunited with Poco for the 1989 album Legacy, and established the Songwriters’ Performance Workshop. “The purpose of the workshop is to empower amateurs,” explains Messina.

When Jimmy joined Kenny at a benefit at Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theater, Loggins noticed something else. “As soon as we hit the harmonies, I was struck by the fact that I hadn’t heard that sound in a long time,” he says. “It hit me like the Everly Brothers hit me the first time they got back together. There was something that in thirty years I had not been able to duplicate with anyone else. There’s a spark here that I’ve completely forgotten about.”

Both men saw 2005’s Sittin’ In Again and their national tour as a chance to look back at what they’ve achieved, treat audiences to an astounding trip back in time and create a whole new generation of fans.

Kenny Loggins & Jim Messina’s music rocked the hearts and rolled through the souls of an entire generation. Their 2009 tour is sure to be a major event.

CMA’s 50th Anniversary
By 1958 rock ‘n’ roll loomed large across the nation threatening to win over millions of Americans who listened to country music. That same year a bold group of visionaries created the Country Music Association (CMA) to meet that challenge by promoting country music. The CMA began modestly with 233 members and a tiny staff. Today the organization boasts over 6,000 members from more than 40 nations around the globe. The CMA produces one of TV’s most successful awards shows, Nashville’s enormous four-day CMA Music Festival—also showcased on network television—and many other events, as well as a charitable foundation
that has raised millions. Five decades ago the CMA founders took the first step on what would become a wondrous journey that would take country music to new heights and lead it to a brighter future than anyone could have imagined.

IEBA Honors
On the closing evening of the conference each year IEBA salutes those that have shaped where we are and those that continue to reinvent the entertainment industry. Past honorees have included Patti Page, Loretta Lynn, Lou Rawls, Brenda Lee, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, Wayne Newton, Barbara Mandrell, Porter Wagoner, ZZ Top, Styx and numerous others.