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.

When deciding how to produce Loggins' first solo album, Messina met with Clive Davis, then president of Columbia Records.

With music trends moving away from folk, Messina presented Loggins with several songs that spilled over from his days with Poco and Buffalo Springfield.

"[4] Among the material Messina contributed was "Listen to a Country Song" (which would be a hit single for Lynn Anderson when she recorded it the following year), "Nobody But You," "Same Old Wine," and "The Trilogy," which included "Peace of Mind".

Messina worked long hours with Loggins and encouraged him to purchase an electric guitar and play it on his solo debut album.

Messina assembled "The Kenny Loggins Band" by summoning old friends drummer Merel Bregante and bassist/singer Larry Sims (both formerly of The Sunshine Company), multireedist/violinist Al Garth, multireedist Jon Clarke (performing with the Don Ellis Jazz Band) and a friend of Loggins, keyboardist Michael Omartian, who played on the album but dropped out once touring began.

However, Omartian played on the next two albums and the ensemble was also augmented on each of their studio releases by Los Angeles-based session percussionist Milt Holland.

Nonetheless, by the end of 1972, the group, now renamed "Loggins and Messina", had toured extensively and they would eventually sell over 20 million albums.

The album leaned more toward rock and Messina used several young and upcoming studio musicians as his rhythm section.

In 1993, Brooks and Dunn recorded "Mexican Minutes" written by Messina and co-authored with Kent Robbins in Nashville.

In 1989, Poco's original lineup (consisting of Messina, Richie Furay, Rusty Young, George Grantham, and Randy Meisner) regrouped for a successful reunion tour.

They had a successful nationwide tour that produced a CD and DVD entitled Live: Sittin' In Again at the Santa Barbara Bowl.

The Latin-based arrangements feature trumpet, percussion, drums, piano, and nylon acoustic guitar in melodies reminiscent of the music of Cuba and Spain.