Gerry Beckley, co-founding member of iconic band America, releases Keeping The Light On – The Best Of Gerry Beckley, a collection of greatest hits from his solo catalog
Today, Gerry Beckley, the illustrious singer, songwriter, performer and co-founder of legendary band, America, has released a greatest hits package featuring his solo work:Keeping The Light On – The Best of Gerry Beckley. The album is available as adeluxe 2CD, and features a 44-page booklet including photos taken by Beckley during his tour travels over the last 50 years. The album is also offered as a 2LP set in clear vinyl, or in a limited-edition marbleized version.
A bonus CD,available to fans who pre-ordered fromour store, contains nine tracks of Beckley-penned songs recorded by all-female contemporary indie artists, and includes covers of classic America tunes such as “Sister Golden Hair” and “Daisy Jane.”Today at 5 p.m. PT eight of the talented artists included on the bonus recording will discuss Gerry Beckley and the songs they chose to cover. A few artists are expected to perform.Tune-in to the our Instagram account to watch the celebration.
Keeping The Light On – The Best of Gerry Beckley takes stock of Beckley’s writing career so far. The album offers a generous 20-track overview of Beckley's output— and beyond. Songs culled from his first solo outing,Van Go Gan, whose ringing, up-tempo "Emma," smoothly dynamic "Now Sue" and lush, lightly country-flavored "Goodbye Highway" — all of which he co-produced with good pal Hal Linderman — are featured onKeeping The Light On.
The rest of the track listing is pulled from his six subsequent solo albums — 2000'sGo Man Go, 2006'sHorizontal Fall, 2009'sHappy Hour, 2011'sUnfortunate Casino, 2016'sCarousel and 2019'sFive Mile Road – including “Watching the Time,” a collaboration with Carl Wilson (the Beach Boys) and Robert Lamm (Chicago). There are also five previously unreleased tracks, including an unreleased America fan favorite, “Norman,” and second single "(I'm Your) Heart Slave," that offer proof of how prodigious Beckley's output is when he's in songwriting mode. "Yeah, I'm pretty prolific,"Beckley acknowledges, "but I like to preface this with the fact I come from the school of songwriting where you need to write 10 to come up with two that are keepers. That doesn't mean the other eight are crap, either. But you end up with an abundance of material, and you want to have a home for it."
The solo albums gaveBeckley a chance to immerse himself in different kinds of styles and textures. "It's a challenge because if you're going to sing all the songs, you want to try to put variety in there," he explains. "Obviously one of the great things about America is the combined strength; Dewey (Bunnell) is a fantastic partner and a great writer and singer and we really complement each other. So, when I do something on my own it's not as simple as, 'Now here's a Dewey song, here's a Gerry song...' Fortunately there are a lot of different kinds of 'Gerry songs' that I've been able to put on these records."
While Keeping The Light On focuses on a culmination of his solo work,Beckley has never stopped writing and recording, even amidst a global pandemic— and he shows no signs of abating any time soon. "This record is from this point back, and the stuff I've been writing and recording will be from this point forward,"Beckley promises. "This is certainly a summation, I guess, but it's not the end of the story. It's amazing to have 50 years in this job. Now I can't wait to start the second half-century."