It’s rather difficult to believe it was only last year America was first able to elbow its way onto the musical stage of the Late Show with David Letterman. America. The band that rings out on commercial classic radio stations all around the world. The band that gave us modern classics such as “Horse With No Name,” “Ventura Highway,” and “You Can Do Magic.” The band that has not only delivered 16 studio albums, but has been the subject of just as many retrospective compilations.
As hard as it might be to believe, when America took to the Letterman stage last January to celebrate the release of their latest recording, Here & Now, and powered their way through a rendition of “Ride On,” it was indeed their time on the show. After four decades of maintaining one of the most dedicated live schedules imaginable, with a little help from some newfound musical friends, the classic rock stalwarts finally made their Late Show debut. And it was an experience that was well worth the wait.
“That really was the first time ever that we did the David Letterman show,” affirmed America co-founder Gerry Beckley. “Letterman gets hounded daily from people wanting to appear on the show, and I’ve got a feeling that in this case it was because we had Ben Kweller and Ryan Adams willing to appear with us, and that gave them the extra impetus to put us on.”
The seemingly ad-hoc union of the iconic duo—which Beckley fronts with his longtime musical cohort Dewey Bunnell—and two of music’s brightest rising stars was by no means just a shrewd publicity stunt. It was actually a very fitting introduction to what equated to the rebirth of one of music’s classic ensembles. After some 20 years, America was back on a major label and Kweller and Adams were but two of a number of contemporary musicians quick to lend their respective talents to the recording of the new album.
Under the guiding hand of producers Adam Schlesinger and James Iha, Here & Now also features the musical weight of Jim James and Patrick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket, Matthew Caws and Ira Elliot of Nada Surf, and Mark Rozzo of Maplewood. With Beckley and Schlesinger having shared a blossoming admiration of each other’s musical undertakings, the seeds were sown for collaboration. But the original impetus for the two getting together was far removed from the idea of recording an America album together.
“The real backbone of the project came about in a very organic way,” Beckley explained. “I was a fan of Adam’s group Fountains of Wayne, and it turned out that he was a fan of ours, and we started swapping e-mails and songs. That initial spark wasn’t intending to be a project as I was just reaching out to a like mind. At this point in my life, after so many years, it’s really more about staying connected to the energy that’s going on. There are great things happening all across the spectrum, not all of it is to my taste, but some of them are. This was one of those things where I really wanted to hook up with him.”
When Beckley ventured to New York, he and Schlesinger started recording, and it wasn’t long before the latter’s production partner—James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins fame—became involved and the resulting work was being sent to Bunnell. With the recordings catching the attention of an A&R representative from Sony, America was quickly signed to the label’s Burgundy Records imprint and, in the summer of 2006, the collective reconvened in a New York recording studio.
In drawing together a contemporary take on America’s classic sound, the resulting recording marks a significant milestone for the band. Their traditional sound has not only been given a fresh face, but also the commercial support it so richly deserves. And there’s perhaps no better example of the musical reinvention than in their rendition of “Indian Summer,” a song originally penned and recorded by New York folk rockers Maplewood.
“All of that stuff is true, and I am very proud of all of those things. It wasn’t
conceived in a back room with an intent to light a spark under this old name—it happened in a very organic way,” Beckley asserted before recounting the Maplewood connection. “I remember playing a lick in the middle of ‘Indian Summer’ and I was trying to get it, but the lick was their twist on ‘Ventura Highway,’ so I’m there trying to play their twist on my mine—it was one of those time-space-continuum things.”
The album’s genesis is a fitting affirmation of a band whose own development was just as organic. Formed in London in the early ’70s by three high school friends (Beckley, Bunnell, and Dan Peek) whose fathers were all American servicemen based in the UK, the ensemble quickly rose to prominence via three-part harmonies that drift upon an air of acoustic sentience. With their first two albums yielding the hits “Horse With No Name” and “Ventura Highway,” America firmly established itself as a musical force. It was your typical rags-to-riches story.
“London is like New York—it’s one of the music capitals of the world,” Beckley explained. “We put together this three-guys-singing-harmonies because CSN had started and James Taylor was big and the acoustic harmony thing was well on its way. And it sounded so good, what we were doing. So we played for this guy who knew a guy, and he marched us around to every record company in town. Everybody was interested and we picked Warners, so it was a real Cinderella story that then completely caught fire.”
And catch fire it did. The trio built on their early success with a series of albums under the production guidance of famed Beatles’ producer George Martin. But when Peek suddenly departed the fold at the end of the ’70s, Beckley and Bunnell were left to continue the America crusade as a duo. While the ’80s found America gracing the top of the charts again with “You Can Do Magic,” a revolving cast of backing musicians saw the band constantly reinventing itself, which made for a somewhat fluid musical existence.
After shifting through several guises that reflected the musical tides, the duo ventured back to basics and, by the end of the ’80s, Beckley and Bunnell were directing much of their energy toward their live shows. For longer than a decade now, the duo has been undertaking something like 100 live performances each year. It’s a grueling schedule, and, in taking them to all corners of the globe, serves as a tribute to their widespread resonance.
“I think it is kind of the payback,” Beckley said. “We have been so fortunate to have had this career, and its longevity has had a great deal to do with the number of hits we’ve had over the years, and there are many things that contribute to that. The classic rock radio format has kept those songs played and alive and in people’s minds, but they were also hits all around the world—as opposed to some groups who only had hits in certain countries. In our case, these songs were hits everywhere. So that helps fill the schedule.” m
Freelancer Brett Leigh Dicks can be reached through Arts Editor Shelly Cone at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 15-22, 2009.