Jeff Larson & Gerry Beckley
Biographie Jeff Larson & Gerry Beckley
Jeff Larson
is a veteran singer-songwriter from the San Francisco Bay area. Musically, Jeff got his start under the wing of producer Elliot Mazer (Neil Young, The Band) playing in clubs and venues throughout the Bay area. As a native Californian, the influences are obviously present and reach from the golden era of L.A.’s Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter scene to the Bay area’s musical heritage and the tension between the two. While remaining a solo artist, he’s collaborated with Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell of America, Chicago’s Robert Lamm, John Blakeley of The Sandals, and Eagles songwriter Jack Tempchin, among others. His prolific body of work created over the years has been released by various means and labels with licensing opportunities with JVC Victor Japan, Universal / Rhino, BMG and others from The Netherlands to Japan.
In 2014, Jeff expanded his musical activity to include audio production. This turned out to be a natural step; he’d been a recording artist in various studios since the age of 15 and later worked in technology in the Silicon Valley. These worlds would collide in the modern recording process. Since then, he worked on several archival albums and some new recordings by America. He engineered and edited archival projects for legacy acts such as The Beach Boys with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (UMG), Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, and currently, new solo efforts by Jack Tempchin and Gerry Beckley. Jeff is the Producer of the upcoming (2023) America release Live from the Hollywood Bowl 1975 on Sun Records.
In 2021, longtime friend Gerry Beckley approached Jeff to record a cover of the Tim Hardin song "It'll Never Happen Again.” This initial effort spawned an additional five Hardin covers and resulted in a six-song EP, IT'LL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN, due in early 2023. A new solo album is also in the works, his first since 2014, out in the fall of 2023 on new Nashville-based label Melody Place.
IT'LL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN was produced, arranged and mixed by Gerry Beckley and features first single “Reason to Believe,” It'll Never Happen Again,” “If I Were A Carpenter,” Don't Make Promises,” “Misty Roses,” and How Can We Hang On To A Dream.” Larson (on lead vocals and acoustic guitar) is musically joined by Beckley (piano, acoustic and electric guitars, organ, accordion, strings bass, drums) and an array of fine musicians including Joachim Cooder (electric mbira, drums, percussion) and Matt Combs (mandola, fiddle). The EP was recorded at studios in Sydney, Australia and Southern California and was critically acclaimed.
American Songwriter hailed the EP as “striking,” with …stellar selections…Larson does an admirable job of carrying…[Hardin’s] credentials forward.” Goldmine raved about how LARSON “interprets Hardin’s pain by cradling Hardin’s originals lovingly while adding his own Laurel Canyon spin…These songs need to breathe in 2023, especially when in the hands of someone like Larson who can transcend Hardin’s pain to make it palatable. Here’s hoping for a second volume. There’s so much more ground to cover.” Music Connectionsummed it all up by noting that “Singer-songwriter Jeff Larson does an exceptional job shedding new light on classic material from legendary troubadour Tim Hardin. Everyone from Rod Stewart and Bob Seger to Johnny Cash have covered Hardin’s catalog. And Larson is right up there with the best of them. He stridently captures the honest and conflicting sentiment of ‘Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep,’ and his take on ‘Misty Roses’ is dreamy and wistful. ‘How Can We Hang On To a Dream’ has an engaging baroque feel.”
Gerry Beckley
says there was a pragmatic reason for putting his own name as the title for his 10th solo album. "There wasn't an obvious title that was leaning in its favor, and I've never done a self-titled album, so it felt like, OK, this might be it," he says with a small chuckle.
True enough. But GERRY BECKLEY, the America co-founder's 5th release for Blue Elan Records, more than merits the boldness of being named for its creator.
Beckley is, of course, an upper-echelon singer, songwriter, composing artist and producer. That just comes from his many years of uninterrupted music-making, starting during the late 60s when he, Dewey Bunnell and the late Dan Peek formed America, riding into the pop charts during 1972 on "A Horse With No Name" as well as “I Need You” and registering 11 Top 40 singles, and a four-times platinum greatest hits set. Outside of the band, meanwhile, the Texas-born Beckley, who started playing piano at the age of three, launched his solo career with 1995's VAN GO GAN, was part of Baldwin and the Whiffles (with Andrew Gold and Eagles' Timothy B. Schmit) for John Waters' film CRY BABY, and recorded an album LIKE A BROTHER with Chicago's Robert Lamm and the late Beach Boys principal Carl Wilson.
With America currently on an open-ended hiatus from touring, Beckley is also preparing to direct a documentary this year that's an outgrowth of a podcast he was doing in conjunction with the BBC, as well as maintaining a burgeoning interest in photography that included the publication of a book, Gerry Beckley’s America, last year in Japan.
You're never going to find him too far away from music, however, which is how GERRY BECKLEY -- which he co-produced with longtime collaborator Jeff Larson -- came to be.
"I tend to work at a pretty good clip," Beckley notes, "and I don't really want to come up with some theme and steer a dozen tunes towards that. I just work on what sparks my enthusiasm and stuff, and when I'm fortunate enough to be asked if I'd be willing to assemble another project, the answer's always 'Yes,' and then I go into the pile and say, 'OK, which of these are still talking to me? Which ones of these talk to each other? Which make what I think a listening experience that's beyond cherry-picking a song or two here and there?'"
Beckley had, as he indicates, a lot to choose from -- chronologically, stylistically, topically. For instance the first single, "Crazy," dates back more than 10 years, first written between breaks of America's then-grueling tour schedule. "Jeff and I found it on a hard drive, and I thought, 'That's pretty good. Gimme some time,'" remembers Beckley, who maintains studios in his two residences of Venice, Calif., and Sydney, Australia. "So I went in and just did a bunch of extra stuff, layered it up, and it came out great. But it was one of those songs that I'd forgotten about." Beckley also likens it to the America smash "Sister Golden Hair," "in that it's not about anybody in particular. There's not a relationship I'm dancing around. But it's just themes that I've had in my head."
The lushly melodic "Simone" is another that dates back some years, waiting until Beckley composed a chorus he was happy with. Same with the elegiac closing track "One Lit Window," which Beckley wrote with Larson and considered for his last couple of solo albums before honing it to his satisfaction this time. And in terms of the way-back machine, there's a cover of "Everybody's Talkin'," Fred Neil's classic that was a hit single for Harry Nilsson from the film MIDNIGHT COWBOY.
"One of my favorite albums of the 60s was LIKE TO GET TO KNOW YOU by Spanky and Our Gang, and it included a few covers, including what at the time was called 'Echoes' by Fred Neil, which became 'Everybody's Talkin'.' So I knew the song and Harry was a dear friend. Sometimes I like to do a few covers so it's not all 'Here's Ger!,' so that's one that's been around awhile for me, too."
Among the more recent pieces on GERRY BECKLEY is the soulful "Red and Blue," a commentary whose title leaves no mystery about its subject matter. "It's something any of us who are politically aware can’t really avoid, to be honest," says Beckley, who has, with America, played in all 50 states -- appropriate given the band name. "We were in red states as much as we were in blue states, and I like to think it was an opportunity for everyone to come together and put everything else aside and let's let the music be the message this evening. It was a lovely way to stay out of the line of fire, so to speak." Beckley ends the song with a harmonica solo (played by Stan Behrens) that thoughtfully, and optimistically, blends "Dixie" into "Over the Rainbow"
The rest of GERRY BECKLEY showcases one memorable melody after another, from the contemporary sonic cuts in "My Life" to the reflective beauty of "Amnesia" (started at a friend's home in Paris), "Well Worn Shoes" and "Arrow," and the dogged fortitude of the uptempo "Where There's a Will." "I always felt the challenge of being a writer in popular music," Beckley says. "I can put four or each chord together with an uptempo beat, and I've never had a problem with writer's block. I can do that forever. But the challenge is taking those elements of rock music -- and the youth and the angst and the rebellion and all those things that are part of it -- and trying to convey those decades as they come and go and put them in a structure that is pleasant to listen to."
Beckley plays the bulk of the instruments on the album but gets help from a core group of players that includes former Chicago bassist Jason Scheff, guitarist Steve Fekete, drummers Brian Young and Ryland Steen along with backing vocalists Jeff Larson and Brian Eichenberger. Nick Lane and Matt Combs, also longtime musical fellow travelers, arranged horn and string parts, respectively.
"I tend to do things in layers," says Beckley, who mixed the album himself. He cites influences such as Tom Petty's WILDFLOWERS and, more recently, The 1975. "I've been kind of dipping back into the Wall of Sound stuff and using more echoes and just making it bigger. It might not sound like that at first, but if you were to put some headphones on and listen you start to notice little things that make the songs work." And he adds that the chemistry he and Larson share cannot be overstated.
"He's been a conduit that's just allowed me to carry on through the heaviest of live performing schedules," Beckley explains. "I do know that he understands me. He's very patient, 'cause I can tend to have eight or 10 plates spinning at the same time. You really need somebody with their hand on the wheel back at home base, and that's been Jeff."
All told, GERRY BECKLEY continues a musical path that's now in its seventh decade and, in Beckley's mind, a continuing conversation between a songwriter and his audience. "I'm proud of all (the albums)," he says. "But I really like this album a lot. I think the sum of all the parts is really great. And I can't wait to do more."
