Sparks, Nevada Concerts

May 28 - June 10, 1998

'70s folk music on tap at the Nugget

America, with original members Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell, will perform May 28 - June 10 at John Ascuaga's Nugget.

Beckley, Bunnell and Dan Peek, all sons of U.S. servicemen stationed in England, formed the band in 1969. Then high school students at London's Central High, they got an audition for Warner Brothers in London.

"We went to the studio all red-faced and embarassed with our guitars and these songs we'd written," Beckley said. "When it was all over, we figured that was it, we were awful. But then they invited us back."

America had its first No. 1 hit, "A Horse With No Name" in March 1972. A string of gold and platinum singles followed: "I Need You" and "Ventura Highway" in 1972, "Tin Man" in 1974, "Lonely People" and "Sister Golden Hair" in 1975. During that time period, America picked up several awards, including the 1972 Grammy Award for the Best New Artist and Billboard Magazines' Best Single Award in 1975.

"It was definitely a strange experience to become involved with the whole star-making machinery of pop music at such an early age," Dewey said. "All of a sudden we had business managers, publicists, booking agents, and groups of people with whom we didn't know how to deal.

Peek left the band in 1977 to pursue a career as a gospel singer. Bunnell and Beckley continued to collaborate and in 1982 returned to the Top Ten with "You Can Do Magic."

Dewey and Gerry on guitar.

Brad, Dewey (hidden), Gerry, Michael, and Willie taking final bow.

Dewey and Gerry pointing at each other in their white, satin shirts.

Note: Special thanks go to Maggie Costa for making the photos available. More photos were taken by Jim Nakao and Steve Lowry.

America returns to the Nugget

For more than 25 years, America has treated audiences to a host of vocal harmonies.

The duo, Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell, will perform May 28 - June 10 in the Celebrity Showroom at John Ascuaga's Nugget.

Since the band's first hit, "Horse With No Name," reached No. 1 on the charts, America has sailed atop a wave of unending popularity. Their debut album sold 2 million copies, and in 1972, America received a Grammy for Best New Artist. A string of chart-topping singles followed, including "Sister Golden Hair," "Ventura Highway," "I Need You," "Tin Man," "Daisy Jane" and "You Can Do Magic."

Their newest album is "Hourglass," which highlights the duo's vocal harmonies and song writing skills.

Beckley and Bunnell have tried to maintain a consistent style over the years. The only thing that's changed since the three friends formed America is that Dan Peek left the band in 1977 to pursue a career as a gospel recording artist.

Beckly writes emotional love songs which chronicle the ups and downs of his personal relationships and Bunnell focuses on the earth.

Openers by Vic Williams

Pop music has a fickle soul. What's in one minute can be erased from the record-buying and concert-attending population's memory the next. It's a war zone out there. But one kind of soldier has survived every battle that's come along over the past 40 years, from radio format changes to shifts in teen tastes: the six string-toting singer-songwriter.

Why? That's an easy one. Strip down every tune produced in the rock 'n' roll area. Whittle it to its original kernel of inspiration, and there, at the heart of its lyric and four-chord melody, you'll find a guy or gal sitting on a stoop or on the living room couch, guitar in hand (or maybe at the piano), struggling to get the tune out there, give it life. The best songs, the lasting ones, are often the simplest--unadorned nuggets of genius. All the orchestration and electronic flapdoodle comes later.

The two guys who started the group America will nigh 30 years ago, Gerry Buckley [sic] and Dewey Bunnell, are singer-songwriters. One guy writes mostly love songs; the other prefers to pen philosophical treatises on the environment and nature. But both know their way around a catchy tune, instantly memorable stuff like "Sister Golden Hair," "I Need You," and, of course, "A Horse With No Name," all of which they're performing nightly through June 10 at John Ascuaga's Nugget. They come around to the Celebrity Showroom at least once a year, finding its fairly intimate confines friendly to their brand of folk-rock.

I discovered America as most people my age did--by picking up their History: America's Greatest Hits album, which hit the charts in the mid-'70s after Buckley [sic], Bunnell and cohort Dan Peek (who eventually left to pursue a higher calling) had put out a steady stream of Top 20 songs beginning in about 1970. My favorites? The addictive "Sister Golden Hair," the sunny "Ventura Highways [sic]" and the jaunty "Hold Me Tight," all of which sounded great on every kind of speaker, from the cheesy five-inch car radio model in my '59 Ford Galazy 500 to the 100-watt stereo a buddy used to keep his parents at bay. America's music isn't like Springsteen's, Patti Smith's or the Taling Heads'. It doesn't pretend to make some grand statement about the human condition. But it is good, simple, sold stuff. Stable stuff--stable enough, of course, to boast a half-life of nearly 30 years. The Nugget's the place to relive that good '70s feeling.