I've Got A Reason
by The Richie Furay Band

First solo albums tend to function as a license for self indulgence; the artist is finally free of the stifling influence of those other guys who resisted his songs, his lyrics, his arrangements.

You know, oppressive guys like Jim Messina, George Grantham, Timothy Schmidt.

This album is no exception, and as if that weren't danger enough, this one is also way overtly a conversion-to-Christ album, which is just about the Worst Possible Thing That Can Happen to the output of a singer songwriter.

Well this is actually the rarest of animals, the solo album that is pretty much as satisfying as the band the guy was in. There's "All Things Must Pass," but the Beatles are all over it, and he was not intending to leave the band. There's "Ace," but it really is a Grateful Dead" album released under Weirs name. Maybe "Steven Stills?" but he had been through so many acts that it lacked the special emphasis of I'm leaving and making my own album...

One has to not reject "I've Got A Reason" out of hand because Jesus, and be willing to grant Richie the mangement of his own spiritual life, and be prepared to trust him to share the experience without trying to impose it on you; but if you can do that, this is as good as a goodish Poco album. A self indulgent one, but not a failure at all.

And the best of it is that the very material--"Look At The Sun," "Over and Over Again," "I've Got A Reason"-- that in other hands might come off as aggressive or oppressive is here easy to indulge, understand, and appreciate. One winds up liking him better, as opposed to wanting to cross the street to avoid him.