Web: facebook.com/p/george-usher
Contact: gjusher@aol.com
Players: George Usher, acoustic guitar, keyboards, vocals; Mark Sidgwick, electric guitar; Laurie Webber, artwork
Visual arts and music come together in this 30-year journey finally getting its due.
Stevensonville, based on a cast of fictional characters in a small town, this song cycle consists of 12 original folk-rock compositions each relating to a separate character and illustration displayed throughout the venue.
Set in a town bearing the same name as the project’s title, the characters could easily serve as prototypes for any small-town USA. What links them together is their rootedness in this insular environment, dealing with issues that are sometimes dark but sometimes optimistic. Their destiny depends on whether they remain there or break free, leaving behind the familiarity they’ve come to rely on. Drawing from real life people he knew growing up as well as figures in literature, Usher presents a mélange of colorful but conflicted individuals.
One of the characters, Marjorie Hayes, the nasty church lady, has a fixation with another character named James Strothard. The song associated with her is entitled “James Stothard,” and depicts her penchant for preying on children which Strothard remembers from his youth. Like any small town, everyone is connected to everyone for good or for bad. The cycle culminates with two songs, “Town Elders” and “Benny Weed.” The first warns of the dangers of staying in Stevensonville while the latter sings the praises of those who opt out and look for a different future.
The show’s focus is more about effective storytelling than any individual musical element. Usher’s job is to make each character and illustration come to life through song and narrative which he does with empathy, sincerity, and humor. “My plan was to eventually guide my audience into accepting a full-blown song cycle that would bridge rock ‘n’ roll, theater, and poetry as a large conceptual project. I wanted to zero in on a small town, where I could address a lot of my lyrical ideas and this small town became Stevensonville.”
No stranger to the New York City music scene, Usher fronted and/or played in numerous N.Y.C./Hoboken, NJ bands since the ‘70s and co-wrote the title tracks to Bongos’ frontman Richard Barone’s Cloud Over Eden. The Village Voice once described him as “One of New York’s best pop craftsmen.”
A limited series of two hundred vinyl albums will be released complete with a booklet containing visuals that correspond to each song.
Usher closed the set with “Not the Tremblin’ Kind,” which he wrote for Laura Cantrell and was the title track from her debut album.
Photo by Mark Shiwolich
