Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, Jeff, do we hear dew we been now from America?
How are you brother?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
All right, Jeff? What are you doing out there?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, we're doing pretty good.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
First of all, Dewey, it is so cool to talk
to you, and my goodness. I mean, when you're thinking
about fifty three years of the band America and the
new documentary I Need You is out, I mean, I'm
sure in some ways it seems like a long time,
and I'm probably in a lot of ways it seems
like a blur.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, I think it's funny. I think you hear this
from other old people and I'm old either way, that
life beats up to kind of where did that last
twenty five thirty years ago? You know? Obviously we live
through each year and we toured a lot, and we're
playing and theyking doing little projects. But yeah, it's actually
fifty five years. The documentary is called I Need You
fifty three Years of America, but of course we were
(00:47):
making that in the last two years. Right as we
speak today, it's our fifty to fifty year as America,
and we're going out in two days, three days to
start this tour through November. So I'm looking forward to it.
I'm excited. It's I love to sing and strum my guitar,
and I have a great band behind me, so we're
looking forward to it. Come on out. Anybody who's interested.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Well, Dewey, when you think about it, I mean, it's
you know, I'm sure when you guys got started, when
you and Dan and Jerry got started, you're thinking, well,
you know, I hope we have some success. We want
to hit record, we want to be able to tour
and all that fun stuff. But to still be so
incredibly relevant, not just oh they had a hit or two.
You guys are still so relevant fifty five years later,
(01:31):
and your catalog is just amazing. When you talk about
Vingera Highway and tin Man and you can Do Magic,
which that was the first song I was. I was
introduced to you, but then went back and you know,
caught some of your songs before that. Just such a
catalog of hits, it is incredible.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
You know, you can't plan on something like that. I
remember in those days and even some of the bands
we hung out with, everybody thought, if we can last
five years, it'll be great.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
There is just a way to determine longevity. We've just
been lucky that it's transferred from generation to generation, radio
format to radio format, and of course all the different
CDs and tapes and cassettes, and my gosh, we've seen
it all since the vinyl days and the analog days.
So we're still here. Yeah, thank you. I'll take that.
(02:21):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
One of the other ones that is kind of a
I consider it sort of an America Lost classic is
right before Your Eyes, which came out a little bit
after You Can Do Magic, and I always thought that
was such a beautiful song and maybe even a little underappreciated.
I always loved that one.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah. There's lots of songs that
you kind of were in the shadow of some of
the bigger hits. It's like we did make albums in
those days, and it wasn't just and we never even
picked a single. Generally, it was the record label said
this is the one, because we'd deferred to them to
what they thought they could promote and what was radio friendly. Right,
(02:56):
some songs that we might not have or for whatever reason.
So I appreciate that because we do here and about
the major hits, you know, the ten Mans of Intra
Highway and Sister Golden Hares. Yeah, and of course that's
the core of our live show is those most familiar hits.
We stretch out a little on stage, play a few
(03:18):
more obscure album cuts as we call them, yeah, and
try to give everybody what they want. You just can
never determine how many people have seen you a dozen
times and how many it's the first time. Yeah, so
you have to be pretty careful what you put in
the set. We play about an hour and a half
and it's all great stuff. I'm real happy with everything.
(03:40):
Kind of itching to get out there again. It's that time.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, yeah, I bet. And you're just days away from
starting the tour, like you said, and thinking about over
five thousand performances. That's I mean, that is almost inconceivable.
Is there anything? I mean, gosh, I can't imagine what
that many performances, but I would imagine. I guess there's
a few in there that may stick out as like, wow,
(04:03):
we played this show back in eighty three at you know, whatever,
is there something that really jumps out as something a
little extra special? With all those live shows.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Gosh, you know, there isn't a single one. I mean,
we played a Hollywood Bowl several times, and we played
big venues in New York and festivals. I'd have to
go down through the list. I love sharing the stage
with with different artists that I look up to too.
We've been able to play with a lot of I
remember we did a tour with Joe Cocker, an entire
(04:36):
summer with Joe Cocker. I thought, how'd we get teamed
up with Joe? I didn't even know him. That tour
was really incredible and Joe was superad We stand in
the wings and watch every night. We toured with a
lot of you know bands, the Beach Boys and Chicago
and they were huge shows. And yeah, Brian Wilson, you know,
(04:58):
went on tour to Australia with Iron and I think,
you know, I'd have to look at a list and
be reminded of certain shows that were big. I remember
the Mississippi River Festival sometime in seventy five. That was
kind of a real sweaty three day thing. Flew in
the hole killy with stock clips of its right by
(05:19):
and large. Right now, we've sort of evolved into nice
theaters we play and performing arts centers and the sound
is really nice. And we stayed up with technology. I'm
not a real tech head, but our bass player Rich
Campbell and our sound man Jeff Worrel are very very
up to speed out everything tech. So we've got great
(05:42):
monitor in your monitors and things that we didn't have
in the old days. You'd be singing over the top
of the sprout or over the top top of the pieces.
With wedge monitors and things now, right, it really saves
your voice those in.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Ears, well in your ears too, right.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, Yeah, it's a help, especially when you're doing a
lot of one nighters, which is what we do. We
don't do residencies per se, although sometimes we'll do a
five night stand somewhere. Mostly it's one nighters and off
to the next city.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Well. Talking to Dewey Banell of America Encore Tour twenty
twenty five, Dewey, how would you say that the crowd
has changed over the years. I mean, you've been touring
for fifty five years. Obviously, obviously folks have gotten older.
But then along the way you pull along a younger
crowd too from maybe you know that maybe the kids
of some of the parents that used to like you
(06:32):
back in the seventies or eighties or whatever have you
noticed a difference with crowds.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, well exactly just what you said, parents bring their
kids and things. I say kids, young adults, teenagers, whatever,
and and it transfers that way. And I think the
fact that our music I've used, I can't figure it
the right word us, but palatable. You want to say that. Yeah,
it's approachable music. It's easy to understand. It's song craftsmanship,
(06:59):
if you will. We really worked hard on the arrangements
and the vocal harmonies again and the lyrics so that
these songs could stand alone. And I think the audience
that comes is a broad spectrum of older people, younger people.
You can see, you know, couples out there, some family members.
It's a it's a great thing to see. And I
(07:21):
do look at the audience and see it. I mean
some stages the lights are so is bright you can't
see them right. I do a VIP beat saying where
I can meet some of them personally and take pictures
and hear what they think about the music. And everybody's
got a story. When you've been around this long, some
of them tell stories about their parents seeing us at
(07:42):
a certain time and about that great audiences. We love
our audience.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That's pretty cool. I remember, you know how a song
you can sometimes songs put you in a spot and
being you know, a family from Ohio, My dad took
us out to see me and my brothers out to
San Francisco for this really memory. I was in high
school and you Can Do Magic was like in power
Rotation and we were in San Francisco and then we
went kind of down the coast and ended up in
(08:09):
La over the course of like a week. It was
such a memorable trip, you know, as a high schooler
and you Could Do Magic was in power Rotation all
up and down the California coast. And so to this day,
I mean, every time I hear that song, it immediately
puts me back there. And I think that's what your
songs do, because you have so many of them, obviously
way beyond just you could do Magic with a Horse
(08:31):
with No Name and Ventura Highway, Sister Golden Hair, Tin Man,
on and on and on, and I think that's what's
so great about your music. It's timeless and it puts
us all back to such a happy place.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, you just described exactly what most all of us feel,
you know. That's I think what makes music a central
part of life is that it does that very thing.
It freezes time for you and I do the same thing.
If I'm listening to radio and a song comes up,
it does the same thing, takes me right back to
the first time I've I heard a dire Straits or something.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, money for.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Nothing, I could go bingo right back to the rex
Fult drug store I was in when I first heard
that up on the radio.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
That's awesome Encore Tour twenty twenty five and also I
Need You fifty three years of the Band America available
now in prime video. I look forward to watching that. Dewey,
it was so great talking to you man. We'll see
you on tour this summer.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Thank you, Jeff, appreciate it By
Hi, Jeff, do we hear dew we been now from America?
How are you brother?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
All right, Jeff? What are you doing out there?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, we're doing pretty good.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
First of all, Dewey, it is so cool to talk
to you, and my goodness. I mean, when you're thinking
about fifty three years of the band America and the
new documentary I Need You is out, I mean, I'm
sure in some ways it seems like a long time,
and I'm probably in a lot of ways it seems
like a blur.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, I think it's funny. I think you hear this
from other old people and I'm old either way, that
life beats up to kind of where did that last
twenty five thirty years ago? You know? Obviously we live
through each year and we toured a lot, and we're
playing and theyking doing little projects. But yeah, it's actually
fifty five years. The documentary is called I Need You
fifty three Years of America, but of course we were
(00:47):
making that in the last two years. Right as we
speak today, it's our fifty to fifty year as America,
and we're going out in two days, three days to
start this tour through November. So I'm looking forward to it.
I'm excited. It's I love to sing and strum my guitar,
and I have a great band behind me, so we're
looking forward to it. Come on out. Anybody who's interested.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Well, Dewey, when you think about it, I mean, it's
you know, I'm sure when you guys got started, when
you and Dan and Jerry got started, you're thinking, well,
you know, I hope we have some success. We want
to hit record, we want to be able to tour
and all that fun stuff. But to still be so
incredibly relevant, not just oh they had a hit or two.
You guys are still so relevant fifty five years later,
(01:31):
and your catalog is just amazing. When you talk about
Vingera Highway and tin Man and you can Do Magic,
which that was the first song I was. I was
introduced to you, but then went back and you know,
caught some of your songs before that. Just such a
catalog of hits, it is incredible.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
You know, you can't plan on something like that. I
remember in those days and even some of the bands
we hung out with, everybody thought, if we can last
five years, it'll be great.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
There is just a way to determine longevity. We've just
been lucky that it's transferred from generation to generation, radio
format to radio format, and of course all the different
CDs and tapes and cassettes, and my gosh, we've seen
it all since the vinyl days and the analog days.
So we're still here. Yeah, thank you. I'll take that.
(02:21):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
One of the other ones that is kind of a
I consider it sort of an America Lost classic is
right before Your Eyes, which came out a little bit
after You Can Do Magic, and I always thought that
was such a beautiful song and maybe even a little underappreciated.
I always loved that one.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah. There's lots of songs that
you kind of were in the shadow of some of
the bigger hits. It's like we did make albums in
those days, and it wasn't just and we never even
picked a single. Generally, it was the record label said
this is the one, because we'd deferred to them to
what they thought they could promote and what was radio friendly. Right,
(02:56):
some songs that we might not have or for whatever reason.
So I appreciate that because we do here and about
the major hits, you know, the ten Mans of Intra
Highway and Sister Golden Hares. Yeah, and of course that's
the core of our live show is those most familiar hits.
We stretch out a little on stage, play a few
(03:18):
more obscure album cuts as we call them, yeah, and
try to give everybody what they want. You just can
never determine how many people have seen you a dozen
times and how many it's the first time. Yeah, so
you have to be pretty careful what you put in
the set. We play about an hour and a half
and it's all great stuff. I'm real happy with everything.
(03:40):
Kind of itching to get out there again. It's that time.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, yeah, I bet. And you're just days away from
starting the tour, like you said, and thinking about over
five thousand performances. That's I mean, that is almost inconceivable.
Is there anything? I mean, gosh, I can't imagine what
that many performances, but I would imagine. I guess there's
a few in there that may stick out as like, wow,
(04:03):
we played this show back in eighty three at you know, whatever,
is there something that really jumps out as something a
little extra special? With all those live shows.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Gosh, you know, there isn't a single one. I mean,
we played a Hollywood Bowl several times, and we played
big venues in New York and festivals. I'd have to
go down through the list. I love sharing the stage
with with different artists that I look up to too.
We've been able to play with a lot of I
remember we did a tour with Joe Cocker, an entire
(04:36):
summer with Joe Cocker. I thought, how'd we get teamed
up with Joe? I didn't even know him. That tour
was really incredible and Joe was superad We stand in
the wings and watch every night. We toured with a
lot of you know bands, the Beach Boys and Chicago
and they were huge shows. And yeah, Brian Wilson, you know,
(04:58):
went on tour to Australia with Iron and I think,
you know, I'd have to look at a list and
be reminded of certain shows that were big. I remember
the Mississippi River Festival sometime in seventy five. That was
kind of a real sweaty three day thing. Flew in
the hole killy with stock clips of its right by
(05:19):
and large. Right now, we've sort of evolved into nice
theaters we play and performing arts centers and the sound
is really nice. And we stayed up with technology. I'm
not a real tech head, but our bass player Rich
Campbell and our sound man Jeff Worrel are very very
up to speed out everything tech. So we've got great
(05:42):
monitor in your monitors and things that we didn't have
in the old days. You'd be singing over the top
of the sprout or over the top top of the pieces.
With wedge monitors and things now, right, it really saves
your voice those in.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Ears, well in your ears too, right.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, Yeah, it's a help, especially when you're doing a
lot of one nighters, which is what we do. We
don't do residencies per se, although sometimes we'll do a
five night stand somewhere. Mostly it's one nighters and off
to the next city.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Well. Talking to Dewey Banell of America Encore Tour twenty
twenty five, Dewey, how would you say that the crowd
has changed over the years. I mean, you've been touring
for fifty five years. Obviously, obviously folks have gotten older.
But then along the way you pull along a younger
crowd too from maybe you know that maybe the kids
of some of the parents that used to like you
(06:32):
back in the seventies or eighties or whatever have you
noticed a difference with crowds.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, well exactly just what you said, parents bring their
kids and things. I say kids, young adults, teenagers, whatever,
and and it transfers that way. And I think the
fact that our music I've used, I can't figure it
the right word us, but palatable. You want to say that. Yeah,
it's approachable music. It's easy to understand. It's song craftsmanship,
(06:59):
if you will. We really worked hard on the arrangements
and the vocal harmonies again and the lyrics so that
these songs could stand alone. And I think the audience
that comes is a broad spectrum of older people, younger people.
You can see, you know, couples out there, some family members.
It's a it's a great thing to see. And I
(07:21):
do look at the audience and see it. I mean
some stages the lights are so is bright you can't
see them right. I do a VIP beat saying where
I can meet some of them personally and take pictures
and hear what they think about the music. And everybody's
got a story. When you've been around this long, some
of them tell stories about their parents seeing us at
(07:42):
a certain time and about that great audiences. We love
our audience.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That's pretty cool. I remember, you know how a song
you can sometimes songs put you in a spot and
being you know, a family from Ohio, My dad took
us out to see me and my brothers out to
San Francisco for this really memory. I was in high
school and you Can Do Magic was like in power
Rotation and we were in San Francisco and then we
went kind of down the coast and ended up in
(08:09):
La over the course of like a week. It was
such a memorable trip, you know, as a high schooler
and you Could Do Magic was in power Rotation all
up and down the California coast. And so to this day,
I mean, every time I hear that song, it immediately
puts me back there. And I think that's what your
songs do, because you have so many of them, obviously
way beyond just you could do Magic with a Horse
(08:31):
with No Name and Ventura Highway, Sister Golden Hair, Tin Man,
on and on and on, and I think that's what's
so great about your music. It's timeless and it puts
us all back to such a happy place.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, you just described exactly what most all of us feel,
you know. That's I think what makes music a central
part of life is that it does that very thing.
It freezes time for you and I do the same thing.
If I'm listening to radio and a song comes up,
it does the same thing, takes me right back to
the first time I've I heard a dire Straits or something.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, money for.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Nothing, I could go bingo right back to the rex
Fult drug store I was in when I first heard
that up on the radio.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
That's awesome Encore Tour twenty twenty five and also I
Need You fifty three years of the Band America available
now in prime video. I look forward to watching that. Dewey,
it was so great talking to you man. We'll see
you on tour this summer.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Thank you, Jeff, appreciate it By
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