Seals brothers come home to Dickson for March 31 concert at Renaissance Center
Release Date: 1/20/2006. Expired: 3/31/2006
Two brothers who gained fame as members of separate pop duos in the 1970s will be returning to their family’s roots when they perform March 31 at The Renaissance Center in Dickson.
Dan Seals and Jim Seals will perform in an 8 p.m. concert to be videotaped by The Renaissance Center’s award-winning Multimedia Department for broadcast on American Public Television (APT). Tickets for the concert are $15.
Dan Seals first hit the charts as half of the pop duo England Dan and John Ford Coley in the 1970s and then went on to a successful solo country music career that includes several number-one songs in the 1980s and '90s.
Jim Seals was half of the pop duo Seals and Crofts that created a string of hits in the 1970s, although both got their start touring as members of The Champs, who scored a 1958 hit with Tequila.
In July 2002, Dan Seals invited his older brother to perform with him on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry and the magic of performing together for the first time since their childhoods inspired a string of joint shows as Seals and Seals.
Coming to Dickson to perform will be a homecoming of sorts for the Seals brothers. Although both were born in Texas, their paternal grandparents had lived in the Yellow Creek area of northwestern Dickson County before relocating to Texas. In fact, the family’s home was in the area of Ruskin Cave, which is now the site of The Renaissance Center’s Adventure Camp.
The Seals brothers still have strong musical ties to Middle Tennessee and country music. Other brother Eddie Seals was part of the comedy duo Eddie and Joe; cousins Troy Seals and Chuck Seals are longtime Nashville songwriters whose credits include Crazy Arms (Chuck) and Seven Spanish Angels and Lost in the Fifties Tonight (Troy); cousin Brady Seals was a member of Little Texas (1991-95) and now tours with new band Hot Apple Pie, co-writing several of Little Texas’ hits, including Amy’s Back in Austin and God Blessed Texas.
Hardly an hour of AM pop radio could go by in the 1970s without hearing a song featuring one of the Seals brothers and they are still mainstays of the oldies airwaves.
After playing together in bands in Texas and California, including The Champs, Jim Seals and Dash Crofts began performing as a duo and scored their first chart hit with Summer Breeze in 1972. They followed with Hummingbird, Diamond Girl (the number 40 song for all of 1973), We May Never Pass This Way Again, I’ll Play for You, Get Closer (#16 for 1976) and You’re in Love.
The pair went their separate ways after 1978, performing together only a few times until a brief reunion tour (1991-92). They got back together in 2003 and recorded Traces, an album featuring re-worked arrangements of their hits as well as new material.
High school friends Dan Seals and John Colley played in a variety of bands in the Dallas area before setting out as a duo called Colley and Wayland (Seals’ middle name). Older brother Jim suggested using Dan’s childhood nickname of England Dan, given to him when he became fascinated with The Beatles and began affecting an English accent. Colley added Ford and changed the spelling of his last name to Coley to complete the duo’s new brand.
England Dan and John Ford Coley’s single I’d Really Love to See You Tonight hit number two on the pop charts in 1976 and launched a string of hits that included Nights Are Forever Without You, It’s Sad to Belong (To Someone Else), Gone Too Far, We’ll Never Have to Say Goodbye Again and Love Is the Answer.
After splitting up in 1980, Dan Seals continued to try his hand at pop music but eventually turned to Nashville and country music. His duet Meet Me in Montana with Marie Osmond hit the top of the charts in 1985 and earned a CMA Award as Vocal Duo of the Year. That kicked off 10 number-one songs for Seals and he picked up a CMA Best Single Award in 1986 for Bop. Other hits include Everything That Glitters, One Friend, Three Time Loser, You Still Love Me, I Will Be There and Let the Good Times Roll.
Dan’s invitation to Jim on that July night in 2002 at the Grand Ole Opry gave birth to a new duo whose music is already a soundtrack to a generation. While each has already created a legacy of music individually, the Seals brothers are now working together, touring, writing and recording an album of new music.
“You’re in competition with yourself and your history,” Dan Seals said in a 2004 interview in The Hendersonville Star News, where the brothers now make their homes. “We’re trying to do better together than we did in the past separately; and do it in a different way that’s exciting for us.”
“The music is the glue that holds everything together,” Jim Seals said in the same interview.
The Seals brothers hope that their new music will not only be popular with their long-time fans, but bring in new audiences as well.
“When we walk on stage and play new songs and they like them as much as what we have done (in the past) it’s encouraging,” said Jim.
The March 31 concert at The Renaissance Center will be taped for broadcast on public television stations across the country. Previous concerts taped by the Multimedia Department that have been aired on public television include Kathy Mattea’s Sounds of the Season holiday special, and Three Dog Night with the Tennessee Symphony. The Multimedia Department also handled all post-production for the Statler Brothers Farewell Concert distributed to PBS stations by APT.
The center has also been the site for concert videos featuring John Kay (founder and lead singer of Steppenwolf), B.J. Thomas, Crystal Gayle, Lynn Anderson, Pam Tillis and others.
For more information on the March 31 concert featuring Seals and Seals, call (615)740-5600. To purchase tickets, call (615)740-5570.
The Renaissance Center is a fine arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.
Visit the Events - Concerts and Recitals page for more about musical performances.
News
| Date Released | Expiration | Headline |
|---|---|---|
| No Press Releases to show... | ||