Few musical artists résumés list membership in a band inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame; fewer still can lay claim to being a founding member of the seminal band credited with creating Country Rock; and only one artist can include all the above in addition to being one half of the most successful duo of the 1970s.

When chronicling the current commercial and critical success of artists like Keith Urban, Brooks & Dunn, and the pairing of Alison Krauss & Robert Plant, it is not overstating things to say a direct line can be drawn back to Jim Messina’s legacy with Buffalo Springfield, Poco, and Loggins & Messina.