ALBUM:
Here and Now
www.venturahighway.com
TAYLORS USED:
614, 615, 654, 714, 814
SONG CLIPS:
Indian Summer
Ride On
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The first time I saw America in concert more than 30 years ago, Gerry Beckley, the band’s co-lead singer, guitarist and keyboard player, walked on stage in bare feet, a white t-shirt, and faded jeans with holes in the knees. Smiling from ear to ear, he had a dark tan and long, thick blonde hair that flowed halfway down his back. Coolly and casually strutting across the stage, he was the absolute embodiment of his band’s breezy, sun-drenched songs. But then he sat down at the piano and played the bittersweet and beautiful “Daisy Jane”, and demonstrated unequivocally that he, and America, were more than just sunshine and golden hair.
But some people have never been able to see past the tan and the pop charts. Since America released its eponymous debut album in 1971, music critics, many of whom wouldn’t recognize a beautiful melody if it fell out of the sky and landed in their head, have consistently undervalued this band. From the beginning, America has had more musical depth and substance than its melodically-challenged detractors have recognized or acknowledged.
But I guess success, and good music, are the best revenge. Now in its 36th year, and with two if its three original members (Beckley and Dewey Bunnell) still in the fold, America is on an unlikely late-inning creative roll. The group’s new release, Here & Now, its first major-label project in 23 years, is America’s strongest effort, start-to-finish, since the classic 1975 album Hearts, a vinyl copy of which I still own and still listen to, crackles and all.
For currency’s sake, Here & Now features contributions from such musical hipsters as Ryan Adams, Ben Kweller, James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), and Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, and this does bring a new energy to the band. But thankfully, it all still sounds like America (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it). The wonderfully stacked harmonies and “oohs” and “ahhs”, Beckley’s impossibly catchy melodies, and Bunnell’s sunny major 7th-chord jaunts and darker-tinged minor-chord ruminations are evident throughout. The record gets off to a great start, with a sweet but intense Beckley tune titled “Chasing the Rainbow”, which just refuses to leave my head. The second track is a lovely tune sung by Bunnell called “Indian Summer”, which features a Taylor 12-string. There isn’t a weak song on this record.
— Jamie Reno
Read Jamie's review of Gerry Beckley's latest solo record, Horizontal Fall, here.
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