America’s Gerry Beckley has complied his first solo best of ‘Keeping the Light On – The Best of Gerry Beckley’.
Gerry released his first solo album ‘Van Go Gan’ in 1995. ‘Emma’, ‘Now Sue’ and ‘Goodbye Highway’ come from that first album. He has had nine solo / side-projects since that first solo record. “Yeah, I’m pretty prolific,” Beckley says “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 album includes five previously unreleased songs including America fan-favourite ‘Norman’ and ‘Watching The Time’, a collaboration with Carl Wilson (Beach Boys) and Robert Lamm (Chicago).
Gerry’s solo works are a departure from America. “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.”
Keeping The Light On – The Best of Gerry Beckley Track Listing:
1. 3am
2. Crying
3. Emma
4. Watching The Time
5. Calling You
6. Self Image
7. Now Sue
8. Goodbye Highway
9. Norman
10. Always
11. Hang Your Head High
12. (I’m Your) Heart Slave
13. Life Lessons
14. Once A Distant Heart
15. Tokyo
16. Cup Of Rain
17. How Can I Turn You Away
18. Calling
19. Home Again
20. Keeping The Light On
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