Legendary rock group America -- Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell -- will celebrate the January 16th release of their CD Here & Now that night with a performance on the "Late Show With David Letterman" featuring special guest Ryan Adams.
The group will perform "Ride On" from Here & Now, which was produced by Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) and James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) and features guests like Adams, Ben Kweller, and members of My Morning Jacket and Nada Surf.
Bunnell says "
Ride On" is "
the closest thing to a rocker for me on this album. Ryan Adams plays a real retro guitar on it and Ben Kweller plays a little electric piano ala Ray Manzarek of The Doors." He adds, "
'Ride On' is a retro-sounding song that has a Sixties psychedelic feel. Adam [Schlesinger] added some 'sha la la' vocal pads things to the pre-chorus that drew it into a little more of a pop vein from it being just a jam song. The theme is about pushing on.it's a rallying song."
Here & Now will be released as a double CD (Sony BMG/Burgundy Records) with one disc of new material and a live CD recorded at XM's studio encompassing their massive hits like "A Horse With No Name," "Sister Golden Hair," "Ventura Highway," "Tin Man" and others. In addition to Schlesinger and Iha, special guests appearing on the new material include Ryan Adams, who plays on "Ride On," Ben Kweller who joins Jim James and Patrick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket on a cover of their haunting acoustic tune "Golden," and Ira Elliot and Matthew Caws of Nada Surf join the group on their own rendition of Nada Surf's hit "Always Love." Elliot also appears with Mark Rozzo of Maplewood on a new song that Rozzo wrote for the band called "Indian Summer." Fountains of Wayne drummer Brian Young lends his skills to a number of tracks including "Chasing The Rainbow" and "One Chance," both written by Beckley, as well as "Walk In The Woods" which Bunnell wrote.
My Morning Jacket's Jim James calls America the ".premier architects of harmony. They built temples in my brain as a child and the ruins are still there." In a recent Spin magazine article, Schlesinger said, "America wrote timeless songs with great harmonies" (September '06).
America, best known for their #1 hits "A Horse With No Name" and "Sister Golden Hair," was the top selling band on Warner Bros. Records of the 70's notching 11 U.S. Top 40 singles and 17 gold, platinum and multi-platinum albums. The group was honored in 1972 by winning that year's Grammy Award for Best New Artist. America has recorded and toured regularly ever since, performing about 100 shows a year around the world. For the latest tour dates, in-studio photos and Beckley's ongoing "View From The Hotel" photographic series, check out venturahighway.com.
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