![]() So how did you exactly meet and when did you realize that you shared something distinctive musically?īunnell: As kids we all came from different places and were somewhat nomadic, coming from military families. Back in 1970 you’re all living in London and everyone in the band are sons of fathers in the Air Force who are stationed there. REVIEW: Seeing as this is your 50th Anniversary Tour, lets go back to the beginning when the band first formed. By the late-70s, inter-band conflicts combined with an exhausting touring and recording schedule exacted its toll on the group, with Peek departing from the fold and later passing, it is a testament to their resilience and passion that Bunnell & Beckley have continued to inventively forge forward both in the studio and as a live performing band.Īs we began our interview, I realized that to fully understand where the group is at now, one needs to start at the beginning, when they first met as American teenage expatriates attending high school together in London, England.Īs our conversation continued for well over 30 minutes, I also found Dewey Bunnell to be sharp, thoughtful, remarkably candid, and incredibly personable: indeed, he is the only star of this caliber I have had the privilege to interview who was an inquisitive about me as I was of him - asking me about The REVIEW, talking about the Great Lakes of Michigan, where he and his family have a cottage on the Wisconsin side that they reside at four to five months of the year, and throughout our conversation revealing that he is as deeply a historian and fan of popular music as he is a participant within it. With six-certified gold and/or platinum albums, their 1st Greatest Hits collection History hitting four-plus million in sales, their overall catalog has always encompassed an ambitious artistic pallet that displays a flawless blend of divergent styles and genres as wide-open as the country they adopted their name from.įifty years of such sustained and significant success is not without its pitfalls. The combination of Beckley’s strong melodic pop rock sensibilities and Bunnell’s use of folk-jazz elements, slinky Latin-leaning rhythms, and impressionistic lyrical imagery contrasted like a perfectly mixed cocktail with Peek’s harder edged country-rock leanings and highly personal lyrics. With the band making its way to Saginaw for an appearance at the historic Temple Theatre as part of its 50th Anniversary Tour on Friday, April 8th at 7:30 PM, recently I enjoyed the rare opportunity to sit down for an interview with guitarist, vocalist, and co-songwriter Dewey Bunnell, who along with founding members Gerry Beckley and the late Dan Peek, cultivated a unique niche in popular music when they quickly harmonized their way to the top of the charts on the strength of their signature song, A Horse with No Name, creating a long string of hits that quickly followed throughout the 1970s & ‘80s, including their best-known tunes I Need You, Ventura Highway, Tin Man, Lonely People and Sister Golden Hair.Īpart from the strength of their melodic material and signature vocal harmonies, the group’s stature extends well-beyond the surface perceptions of their greatest hits, largely because their sound is continuously evolving as America’s journey has found them exploring a wide variety of musical terrain. With an impressive caliber of success that has now spanned five decades, there are very few musical alliances that have fashioned together such a broad catalog of memorable songs as the perennial favorite classic-rock group America.
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