America's Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley perform at Brown County Music Center

Dewey Bunnell's Clydesdale-sized hit "Horse with No Name" trotted into his brain one rain-lathered day in London.

"There was no desert there!" he said over the phone, contrary to what the lyrics say. The rumors are true. Today, Bunnell's family owns a horse named "No Name," pronounced No Nahmay. She was "out back" at Bunnell's residence during this interview.

The Grammy Award-winning band America exists because three high schoolers, Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek (1950-2011) refused to stop playing music and singing. Bunnell and Beckley will perform June 17 at the Brown County Music Center and won't stop till they've done some of their most beloved hits.

Bunnell, a singer and songwriter who also plays guitar, formed America with Beckley and Peek in 1969. Their inaugural album blew through the airwaves in 1971.

Bunnell excelled at taking things he knew and turning them into rock songs perfect for FM radio. “A Horse with No Name,” “Tin Man” and “Ventura Highway” sent his name to the folk-rock history books.

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Bunnell and Beckley continue to tour as America. Since the pandemic, their usual 90 gigs per year have become 39 concerts last year and, so far,  25 this year. (In 1995 Beckley started making solo albums as well.)

Their studio album "Lost & Found" came out in 2015, and coming soon is the 1975 updated "Holiday" album. It was produced in London by George Martin, The Beatles' record producer and was the first of seven albums Martin produced with America.

"George Martin conducted the symphony orchestra on the recording," Bunnell said, delighted intensity in his voice.

Lost & Found (2015) is America's 18th album made in a studio and is the first one including original material since Here & Now, eight years earlier.

Peek left America in late 1977 to play a different genre, and the band slowed down for awhile. By 1982 “You Can Do Magic” flew to number 8. The next year “The Border” received some notice, and then in 1984 “Love Comes Without Warning” grabbed and shook listeners. It's on the soundtrack to “The Lonely Guy," a Steve Martin flick.

One reason Bunnell's songs seem to speak to listeners is his reflections on nature and ecology. And he enjoys telling stories.

"I like to fish and do nature photography. I just like Mother Earth."

Bunnell said America, and now just he and Beckley, have always coexisted well. They tend to write their material separately, then combine it to make the whole.

Few arguments ensued. If they disagreed, one of them would say something like, "Oh, no, I'd rather hear a flute solo or accordion here, not a guitar solo," and all would be well. Bunnell admitted, "a lot of songs were thrown out right away."

America did quite a few half-hour openings in front of bands such as Pink Floyd, The Who, Elton John and Traffic. (Although they were Americans — their dads were all stationed in England — they were surrounded by English hits.)

"We spent a lot of time picking apart other albums."

Bunnell offered this advice to new musicians: write music. "We (were) a high school band that played covers, making them as original as we could. But we always wanted to write our own. We wanted to be songwriters."

He admits that all singers start out doing covers, often in the shower, but stressed the way to the charts is in originality.

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This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: America's Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley at Brown County Music Center