Homecoming

Performer: America
Engineer: Mike Stone; Mike "Clay" Stone; Bill Halverson
Producer: America
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: America: Dewey Bunnell (vocals, guitar, percussion); Dan Peek (vocals, guitar); Gerry Beckley (vocals, bass). Additional personnel: Henry Diltz (banjo); Joe Osbourne (bass); Hal Blaine, Gary Mallaber (drums, percussion). Digitally remastered by Lee Herschberg. Personnel: America (guitar, piano); Dewey Bunnell (vocals, guitar, piano, drums, percussion); Dan Peek, Gerry Beckley (vocals, guitar, piano); Henry Diltz (banjo); Gary Mallaber, Hal Blaine (drums, percussion). Liner Note Author: Yoshiro Nagato. Photographer: Henry Diltz. Arguably the best album they ever made, America's sophomore effort is certainly the most varied. Though the overall sound is still dominated by folk-style strummed guitars, there's quite a bit of extra instrumentation--electric and acoustic pianos, banjos, and, in the almost rocked-out "Cornwall Blank," actual electric guitars for a change. The band's musical palate is also expanded, as seen by "Don't Cross the River," an overt foray into country-rock territory that wouldn't have sounded out of place on the Eagles' contemporaneous debut album. Throughout, the boyish Crosby, Stills and Nash-style harmonies are exceptionally inventive, and the group's songwriting finally moves beyond their influences. The big hit here, "Ventura Highway," is far more musically and lyrically sophisticated than anything on their debut.

The first half of the 1970s was the heyday of introspective songwriting and close-harmony singing. The band America was at the forefront of the commercial end of this movement, releasing a string of singles that dominated the radio for years. Following their debut smash, "Horse With No Name," a Neil Young-derived, hallucinatory song-story, America scored again and again with singles and a series of records whose titles for some reason all began with the letter "H." Despite the group's indelible association with soft rock, America's understated pop found an unlikely new legion of fans in the '00s indie world.

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