After engineering their second album, Buffalo Springfield Again, on which he also served as something of an uncredited producer, Jim joined the group playing bass and producing their final album, Last Time Around. When the Springfield splintered in 1968, Jim and Richie Furay, along with Rusty Young, who's played pedal steel guitar on the original "Kind Woman," were already formulating a plan to hang onto the rock 'n roll shoes while adding some spin from the country influences they'd loved and grown up on. 

Jim remained with Poco for less than two years, but in that short tenure Poco had not only carved out a previously unknown genre of music called country/rock, but also nurture the talents of Eagles-to-be Randy Meisner and Timothy B. Schmidt. "There really was a sense of something new and exciting in the air at that time," Jim says. "By the time we showcased for the heads of a number of the labels, we were tight and rehearsed and the program was sequenced, and we came on that stage like a freight train." While Poco's chart performance and commercial success was less than their historical importance, their impact was nonetheless profound.