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Health & Fitness

America: Keeping the dream alive at Tarrytown Music Hall

America will be performing at Tarrytown Music Hall on April 11.

America is one of those bands that stood the test of time. With their classic hits, “Horse with No Name,” “Sandman” “Ventura Highway”, “Sister Golden Hair,” “Don’t Cross the River,”  "I Need You", “Lonely People” to fan favorites“ “Tin Man”, You Can Do Magic."  An interesting fact is that The Beatles producer, George Martin; produced seven of their albums. The original lineup was Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek. The trio called themselves, America; named after their homeland. Beckley, Bunnell and Peek had much in common; their love of music and they were sons of American fathers and British mothers. Their fathers served in the United States Air force at RAF West Ruislip London and all three attended London Central High School at Bushey Hall. Bunnell was the only one born in Britain. Peek passed away in 2011.

I spoke to one-half of the duo, Dewey Bunnell. He seemed very enthusiastic about coming back to Westchester. The last time America was here was in 2010 at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill to celebrate their 40th Anniversary. America returns to delight their adoring fans at Tarrytown Music Hall on April 11.

“We put out an album last year called, “Back Pages” (2012) with a lot of singer-songwriters that we’ve loved and been inspired by over the years,” Dewey said by phone. He continued, “We play some of the songs like Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” we do a Gin Blossoms song and a Buffalo Springfield song (on the album) but that project was a labor of love. This year, there's no recording project we’re just “keeping the dream alive” out there playing the shows that we love to play.”

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The band play anywhere between 85-100 shows per year.

“We’re on the road quite a bit. I’m very comfortable that we’ve been a team for a long time. Our drummer has been with us 40 years, our guitar player 38 years,” Bunnell said. He continued, "We like to play together and we like the shows and we have a very loyal fan base and I think the show has evolved—“We’ve added video enhancement in the last few years which is the single, biggest visual thing that you see when you come to an America show. He added, "Several of the songs have this collage work that we’ve put together (Gerry and I had a hand on some of the images but the work was done by Rich Campbell our bass player) and our road manager that are synched to the specific song so we get a lot of feedback from people that they love it and so do we. But it’s the core of the show as with any veteran band is going to be the hits from the 70s and it’s the reality that we’re a 70s band which is fine and we’re happy to be reliving those times on stage every night and hopefully that’s people come to see us for.”

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The celebration of their 40th Anniversary continues. 

“It kind of dragged on—We technically did form in the 1970s so it was 40 years in 2010 and we made a big splash then. Some people say, “Well, your first album didn’t come out until ‘71” so it’s been 40 years since that album and then it didn’t go to number one in the states until ’72 so you kind of create this ‘monster’ when you pick an anniversary; but we got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame which was really fun to commemorate the 40th it’s like any milestone and then you move on to the next.”

Their show at Tarrytown Music Hall expects to be a 'walk down memory lane.' Their first album put them on the map commemorating their 40th Anniversary.

“We play a 90-minute set—it’s a cross-section of our catalog with our 40th Anniversary. We open the show with an introduction with a collage of old album covers and pictures of us with George Martin, Muhammad Ali, and Bob Hope.  We started at the middle of the set revisiting the first album and that has kind of evolved into a little piece scenario we still do four songs from the first album; it’s like with anything you’re remembered with ‘first impressions’ so we spotlight the first album. We’ve taken it further and decided to spotlight our other albums with a couple of songs in a row and we’re doing an album that we did a few years ago called, “Here and Now” with two songs from that album “Chasing the Rainbow” and “Ride On” and a couple of songs from the “Back Pages” album, “Woodstock” and the Gin Blossoms song, “Until I Hear from You” and then a medley of songs and all the hits, “Sister Golden Hair” “Ventura Highway”  and “Don’t Cross the River” has a little video behind it which is kind of fun and we like that imagery,” Bunnell recalled. “After years of doing it we have a sense as how to pace the show so it has a ‘flow’ to it. The experience of the whole show is what you’re hoping to project.”

America’s entire career has been playing live in both smaller and larger venues.

“We can fit into virtually any environment, you name it! We played big rock festivals, casinos, small theaters we enjoy playing with other artists we just returned from New Zealand performing with Pat Benatar and Bachman-Turner; that was a great experience with the three different contrasting bands so at our age promoters know that we can fit into any environment very well and feel comfortable with the turn out and you’re not going to scare many people away!

His favorite hit to perform on stage is “Ventura Highway” which is also a fan favorite.

“I think it’s maintained a feel that’s always there and it’s a kind of ‘youthful’ vibrant idealistic song,” he said.

Dewey doesn’t recall performing at Tarrytown Music Hall before but there’s a chance they’ve played there at some point in their career.

“With the amount of shows we’ve done over the years and with a lot of the places, I may show up and go, “Oh, I remember this venue!” It’s nothing disrespectful; it’s just that sometimes you go to so many towns, cities, hotels, venues, theaters that it’s hard to really pin them down until you’re there but it rings a bell.”

America is still going strong and plans to “keep the dream alive” for many years to come.

“Everybody’s pretty healthy and happy and we’re going into the spring-summer season; we always look forward to that and we’re gearing up for another good year. “We’re going to Italy again this year, which we always look forward to, he stated. "Last year seemed to be a lot of foreign work and this year is more domestic which I personally like; I enjoy travelling but it’s nice to be in the old U.S. and we love coming to New York so we’re ready!” He added, “We tend to work all the time but a lot of the shows are weekenders and five or six shows over the course of 10 days it’s not like gear up and pack your bags for three months anymore we don’t do that. In this case when we come out to Tarrytown, we’ll be out there on April 10th, Tarrytown is the 11th; we got a show on April 13th, 14th, 17th, 19th and 20th so that will be our shows for 10 days with seven in there. And then back home for a few days and back out the next weekend.”

For more information on America’s concert and other shows, visit Tarrytown Music Hall’s website.

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