Kenny Loggins - Great Songs, More Guitar Than You'd Expect & an Awesome Beard

Despite a lengthy and successful stint as a '70s singer-songwriter in a renowned duo with fellow melodious Californian Jim Messina, Kenny Loggins could never seem to attract as much widespread admiration as a solo artist as he probably deserved. I guess his '80s songs seemed too cheery and perhaps naively optimistic for "serious" music fans and critics to embrace. But listening to this guy's solo catalogue again, this time a bit more closely than ever before, I'm struck with just how damn irresistible his melodies tend to be and how much of a craftsman he is in putting them together into sparkling pop/rock arrangements. Couple this with the fact that hardly anyone gives him any credit at all for being a pretty skilled guitarist, and you end up quite pleasantly surprised. Of course, I've never been completely unaware of Loggins' grasp of his particular soft rock niche; I just felt hamstrung by my slavish devotion to classic rock and hard rock back then to admit it. But I say this now, and I say it proudly: No more silence!

• Kenny Loggins Artist Profile
• Top 10 Kenny Loggins Songs of the '80s
• Soft Rock Genre Profile

Album Cover Photo Courtesy of Columbia Records