Poco drummer George Grantham has stroke

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., July 30 (UPI) -- Poco drummer George Grantham was being treated at a Massachusetts hospital Friday for a stroke he suffered as the band began its show the previous night.

One song into their Springfield Summer Concerts Series performance Thursday night, Grantham collapsed and was taken to Bay State Hospital. While Grantham -- a founding member of the band -- was undergoing surgery, the rest of the band played the rest of the show acoustically.

Rick Alter, a spokesman for Poco, said doctors are optimistic that Grantham will make a full recovery, but it is not known whether he will drum again. Alter said Poco would play a scheduled date Friday in Cape Cod without a drummer, and then go from there with George Lawrence, a drummer who worked with them in the mid '90s.

One of the leading bands of the Southern California country-rock movement that included Jackson Browne, the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, Poco had just completed taping a reunion concert at Nashville's Belcourt Theatre for an upcoming DVD release.