{"id":4054,"date":"2011-11-01T10:33:39","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T17:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4054"},"modified":"2011-11-01T10:34:05","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T17:34:05","slug":"america-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/11\/america-2\/","title":{"rendered":"AMERICA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>AMERICA<\/h2>\n

A classic pop group\u2019s 40th anniversary is marked by triumph and tragedy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Gerry Beckley and Dewey\u00a0Bunnell of America are celebrating their fourth decade together with an album of cover versions, Back Pages<\/em>, which harks back to the group\u2019s formation as high school friends living abroad in England. America immediately scored with megahits like \u201cA Horse With No Name,\u201d \u201cVentura Highway\u201d and \u201cSister Golden Hair\u201d before fellow founding member Dan Peek departed to make contemporary Christian music in 1977. Beckley and Bunnell went on to continued success as a duo, and in 2007 enjoyed their highest-charting album in 25 years with Here & Now<\/em>. We spoke with Beckley from his home in California about his group\u2019s durability and Peek\u2019s tragic death from\u00a0heart disease in July.<\/p>\n

How did you decide which songs you wanted to do on Back Pages<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We had done so many albums where it was our own material, and there was a selection process for all of that\u2014you lay all your cards on the table and let everybody else comment. This was a different set of criteria. I picked songs that I thought were strong and that I would like to sing, and Dewey did the same thing. Then Fred Mollin, who produced the project and has an incredibly deep knowledge of music, had his own list. The three of us threw in well over 50 tunes, and then everybody narrowed it down. It\u00a0was a cool process.<\/p>\n

How do you and Dewey relate now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s gone through many changes over the years. We first met in high school, before we were even in a band together, so there\u2019s a foundation that goes way beyond the 40 years. Once Dan left in \u201977, that was one of the bigger adjustments, to go from a three-piece to a two-piece, but if anything it strengthened our relationship. We call it a democracy, but what we really mean is that whoever is more passionate about a particular issue, the other will\u00a0usually defer to him.<\/p>\n

When did you last talk to Dan?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We spoke earlier this year about a couple of tunes he had and the idea of getting together to work on them. We hadn\u2019t spoken for quite a while, but I did on occasion get an email from him, so it wasn\u2019t like we never heard from him. It was a pretty open story. People would ask us, \u201cWhat about Dan?\u201d and we\u2019d say, \u201cWell, he\u2019s got his own website and he continues to record his own music.\u201d But it\u2019s been a very emotional few weeks.\u00a0It was just way too early for anybody.\u00a0He was only 60.<\/p>\n

You were on some of Dan\u2019s solo stuff. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, in fact a YouTube clip came to me just the other day with the making of one of his contemporary Christian albums, and the producer had a camera in the control room. I come in saying hello to everybody, and there\u2019s Dan. It was a bizarre sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/em>. Fortunately that was a really great session and everything worked out really well, and it\u2019s all there. You can just sit and watch the recording process and how we figured our harmonies out. I can thank\u00a0Google Alert for that one.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for America?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Back Pages<\/em> album is a very good example of something we\u2019d never done. It just goes to show you that when you think you\u2019ve covered every space and you\u2019ve played everywhere, there\u2019s always something else going on. Recording other people\u2019s material was so rewarding. I can imagine there\u2019s at least another album there if we find the time to do it, because there was such a long list of great songs. So,\u00a0onward and upward.<\/p>\n

\u2013Jesse Thompson<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Whoever is more passionate about an issue,
\nthe other will usually defer to him.\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AMERICA A classic pop group\u2019s 40th anniversary is marked by triumph and tragedy Gerry Beckley and Dewey\u00a0Bunnell of America are celebrating their fourth decade together with an album of cover versions, Back Pages, which harks back to the group\u2019s formation as high school friends living abroad in England. America immediately scored with megahits like \u201cA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[1623,2723,2722,16,2682,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4054"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4057,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4054\/revisions\/4057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}