It seems Gary Usher’s later work after his early/mid 60s days has only been sporadically touched upon here so I thought I’d start a new thread for discussing his work. Personally, I think his work with the Hondells, Sagittarius, the Byrds etc. from this period blows his earlier stuff out of the water, good as it is.
I’ve been listening to a lot of his stuff these last days after I finished reading the fourth volume of Stephen McParlands Gary Usher biography. Sadly, it’s the only volume I’ve been able to track down since Stephen has sold out the print run. If any member here has volumes 1,2 or 3 that they’d be willing to sell me, please PM me.
With the periodical discussions on Brian’s LA contemporaries on here, I thought I’d once again raise the flag for Gary’s unreleased Beyond a Shadow of Doubt recording project from the early 70s. This is a set of songs that somehow struck a chord with me when I first heard it 5-6 years ago and I’ve found myself going back to it again and again. I just love it! The ‘album’ has been discussed very briefly on here earlier in a ‘blink-or-you’ll-miss-it’ thread. In my opinion it’s a great collection of songs that more people should know about, hence this post. Here’s the earlier thread I’m referring to:
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,9518.0.htmlIn short, Beyond a Shadow of Doubt was an ongoing project undertaken by Gary and his friend, singer/songwriter Dick Campbell who sang on quite a few of the tracks. Curt Boettcher also sang on a few. The overall sound is very enjoyable and warm – like soft sunshine pop mixed with mellow country. The songs are basically demos and not full productions but nevertheless sound quite good. I wish Gary and Dick had finished them, but then again, - perhaps the spark in these rough recordings would have been lost in more polished versions? Bottom line is that these songs never came out – until they were released in Japan in 2001. Read more about the album here:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/beyond-a-shadow-of-doubt-mw0000456600Now, some kind soul has uploaded two of my favourite tracks off the project on to Youtube, so here are two prime examples of the Usher/Campbell magic in fairly good sound quality:
Ships
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlD_ajP2FdQSo Long
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tGULOG0yAEIf you like this, it’s also worth checking out a similar set of songs issued under Dick Campbell’s name, ‘Blue Winds Only Know’. It features demos of a similar nature, many of which has Gary’s involvement. When all is said and done, it’s probably impossible to discern where the Beyond a Shadow of Doubt project stops and Blue Winds Only Know starts…
Here’s Share with Me from the Campbell disc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeCvYH-tG64Happy listening… :-)
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