Gerry Beckley, the illustrious singer, songwriter, performer and co-founder of legendary band America, releases his new single, the album’s title track - “Aurora” - today! The song is culled from his fourth solo album for Blue Élan Records set for release on July 1, 2022. Pre-orders are available now.
“Aurora” is available today on all streaming services.
Beckley says the recently penned title track, an unabashed love song, uses the natural phenomenon of light in the sky at dawn, which befits an album-opener, as a metaphor for the life-changing event of meeting his wife and moving to Australia. “When you hold a mirror up to your life, it’s hard to control how much of your life is in that reflection,” he says. “I don’t want to say it’s about one thing in particular, I’d rather leave it more open-ended.”
The effect is that while our feet may be planted on the ground, our gaze is set on the firmament, a theme Beckley comes back to on album tracks like “Never Know Why” (“Stars fall out of the sky”), “Way to Go” (“You left without a sound/Feet never touched the ground”) and “Aerial” (“I hear a distant bell”).
Recorded during the pandemic at Beckley’s two home studios in his dual bases of Sydney, Australia, and Venice, California, Aurora is an introspective album that takes stock of his life – past, present and future. “This is a time of great reflection whether we like it or not,” he says. “If we treat this pandemic as the lesson it could and should be, this could be a moment for great growth, because even with the immense challenges we face, there is still hope.”
Sequenced like a traditional vinyl album, with a Side 1 and 2, Aurora is the work of a lifelong performer who hasn’t stopped growing, personally and creatively, with a beginning, middle and end.
“When you hold a mirror up to your life, it’s hard to control how much of your life is in that reflection,” he says. “I don’t want to say it’s about one thing in particular, I’d rather leave it more open-ended.”
