Rock Band "America" Returns

to Sweetwater Municipal Auditorium

August 31, 2003

The rock band that created such classic hits as “Horse with No Name” and “Tin Man” performed together again tonight  in Sweetwater’s historic Municipal Auditorium.  A crowd of hundreds from several states rocked to “Ventura Highway”, “Sister Golden Hair” and other of America’s well-known hits.

Proceeds from the concert will benefit the ongoing restoration of the 1926 performing arts center.  Tickets for the 800-seat auditorium were priced at $50 for premium seats, $35 for the balance of the orchestra section seating, and $25 for the balcony.

America band member David Dickey is now a resident of Sweetwater. 

“I still make time stand still when I play,” Dickey told the Sweetwater Reporter’s J. Kyle Martin.  “That’s why I know the soul and nature of music was always inside me.  It wasn’t on stage unless I was on stage.

America’s concert is “to let people of Sweetwater know this building still brings in what it was built for,” Dickey told the Reporter’s editor.  “Sure everybody wants to see America perform – they’re a great band.  But they’re also really great guys who know that helping out a community restore an auditorium is much more meaningful.”

David can now also be seen – and heard – on the auditorium stage from time to time as the drummer in the Sweetwater Municipal Band.  His wife, Maggie, teaches ballet, and her dancers also regularly grace the auditorium’s stage.