Singer/songwriter George Usher has been on the NY scene since the late ’70s, playing with everyone from Bongos leader Richard Barone to roots rockers Beat Rodeo. With all this activity, he didn’t get around to a proper solo recording career until the mid-’90s. Fire Garden, Usher’s third LP for Parasol, is as close as one can get to a textbook definition of “power pop”. It’s all there?Byrdsian guitar riffs, high vocal harmonies, the works. But Usher gives it all a modern cast, adding punch while maintaining the dewy-eyed, sun-dappled sweetness essential to great pop.
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