John Ford Coley teams with local voice Paul Davie for heavenly harmonies at a Caz concert
It’s not surprising that a guy who helped create some of the most memorable and mellow pop recordings of the 1970s is supremely comfortable in his own skin. But John Ford Coley (born John Edward Colley), says that hasn’t always been the case. While he and longtime musical partner “England” Dan Seals wrapped their intricate, Everly Brothers-inspired harmonies around songs of romantic wistfulness, Coley says the tunes didn’t reflect his own outlook as a young man. Seals would often tease the serious, intensely thoughtful Coley that he should lighten up.
“Dan was more the optimistic one,” Coley recalls with a laugh, reminiscing during a recent call from his Nashville home. Coley’s professional partnership with Seals ended in 1980, after six Top-40 singles and several gold and platinum albums. And his life today revolves around family, spiritual growth, and a rabid interest in world events and history. But songs like “Nights are Forever Without You,” “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” and “We’ll Never Have to Say Goodbye Again” still resonate with people all over the world. Coley is happy to give audiences what they want.
“I think people go back to those songs because of the way life is,” Coley says. “The way we looked at it, there is always hope. There is always a new day and things can turn around. It’s human nature to look for the uplifting.”
Coley has been touring regularly as a solo act since 1996, and local fans can catch him on Friday, March 18, when he and local singer-bassist Paul Davie perform at the Catherine Cummings Theater at Cazenovia College, 16 Lincklaen St., Cazenovia. The show is part of the SongStage Live Music Series, a string of concerts featuring collaborations between national acts and local artists.
Dallas-born Coley says he was exposed to a wide range of different music as a child, and developed a love for the piano. “Somehow I got raised up in Bach and Beethoven,” Coley says. “To this day, I play it all the time.”
Coley and Seals met as teenagers, and one of their first bands, The Southwest F.O.B., scored a minor 1968 hit, “Smell of Incense.” The heavy, psychedelic track featured a piercing organ, crunching guitars and frenzied drums—worlds away from the highly polished sound that would become their trademark. But the song’s Byrds-influenced harmonies did offer a clue… When Seals (the younger brother of Jim Seals, from Seals & Crofts fame) and Coley set out on their own as a duo, they built their legacy with those harmonies. But by 1979, record companies wanted a different kind of sound. “By that point we were looking for the things that stirred our souls,” Coley recalls. “For Dan, it was a country style. For me, it was more of a classic pop-rock approach.”
Coley started acting and scoring after the split, but he missed the thrill of performing live. “The greatest experience is to take what you’ve got and give it to people,” he says. “There is nothing quite like the sound of 5,000 people singing the words to your songs back to you.”
Singing the hits without “England” Dan— who died of cancer in 2009 at age 61— was a challenge. To do it, Coley says he had to reinterpret the material and confidently present the songs in a new way. “I’m at the point where I’ve performed those songs so many times that I barely recognize them when I hear them on the radio. They sound so different.”
Coley says the gratification he gets from living on his terms is worth more to him than gold or platinum discs on a wall. He continues to produce other artists, and recently recorded an acoustic set in the Philippines. Living in Nashville offers ample opportunity to play with other skilled musicians, and Coley is clearly at peace with his contribution to the adult contemporary canon.
“I don’t even concern myself with the legacy {with Dan Seals},” Coley says. “No one can erase that history, but what I am doing now is important. I’m not out to prove that I’ve still got it—or that I ever had it. The fact is I’m a much better musician today.”
Davie, a former member of the Beatles tribute band, The Fab Five, which has since morphed into the Fab 570, says the opportunity to team with Coley felt synergistic. “I’m going to play a few of John’s hits. Those recordings with Dan—there’s a lot of nice harmonies in those songs. And Dan was a Beatles fan, so I think it will be a great fit. The rest of my set will be Beatles-influenced songs and maybe some Beatles tunes. There are some connections there.”
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General admission is $25 and tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets, (800) 838- 3006 or online at www.brownpapertickets. com. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the music starts at 8 p.m. SongStage Live has partnered with Caz Cares, a local food pantry. Canned goods and packaged non-perishable foods will be collected at all the shows in the series. For information about the SongStage Live Music Series, visit www.livespaceentertainment.com.
