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Bill Usher and the Space Heaters warm up Parksville on Oct. 25

Usher's career includes work with Sesame Street, Sharon, Lois and Bram and Bruce Cockburn
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Bill Usher and the Space Heaters will perform at Knox United Church in Parksville on Oct. 25.

Four-time Juno Award winner Bill Usher is coming to Parksville with his band the Space Heaters for one last tour.

The 'Good-Getting-Older Songs and Stories Tour' will stop at Knox United Church on Oct. 25 for an evening of music for all generations.

“The songs are kind of like a memoir and the stories are kind of reflections," Usher said. "There’s a lot of themes running through the show around stuff I was doing in the 70s and 80s, when I was in my 30s and 40s."

Usher has been described as one of the most accomplished, yet not-so-famous people in the Canadian music and arts scene.

He has produced more than 60 albums, including four by Sharon, Lois and Bram, five with Bob McGrath of Sesame Street fame, as well as an album recorded with Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. 

The self-taught and award-winning percussionist is touring B.C. with his most recent version of The Space Heaters, which includes Steve Briggs (guitar), Holly Hyatt (bass) and Paul Pigat (guitar).

Many of the songs they'll play are from the album Slowdancing in the Ballroom of Life.

“I wrote most of these songs when I was in my forties and fifties," he said. "They were sort of written at times of some sort of clarity about being a man and being a husband and a father."

Before he started writing the show, Usher reached out to some younger musician friends like Pharis Romero and Tom Landa to make sure the music was relevant to younger audiences.

“The reviews that we’re getting from Millennials and Gen Xers, and even a few Gen Zeds along the way, have seen the relevance for them," he said. "Plus it’s a really funny show.”

The show is theatrical and "very informal" and includes different characters from different times in his life, Usher added.

“It’s a show for everybody and that’s what I’ve been doing all my life and my career,” he said “I was on the street — a hippie on the street and then playing at festivals and I played all the major festivals in the 70s with different artists."

Back in the early 1980s, Usher was asked to produce a Sesame Street album with Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, both voiced by Caroll Spinney.

“One day I got a phone call and this guy on the phone says ‘hi, I’m Bob from Sesame Street’," he said. "And I almost said ‘oh, yeah. Sure'.”

Usher was told he would have Spinney in studio for just a day and a half and then Spinney would be on a plane back to New York.

He said he was impressed Spinney's ability to sing parts for both Oscar and Big Bird.

“Big Bird is this sort of little four-year-old innocent kid and Oscar the Grouch is a grouch and he’s kind of mean,” Usher said. “He could go back and forth between Bird and Grouch by just in a moment — like he’s singing this line and then he sings the next line and he’s back in the other character and that was a sight."

Big Bird And Oscar The Grouch - Camping in Canada was released in 1981 and, though it's out of print, Usher still hears from people who enjoy listening to the LP to this day.

Usher loves to listen to and play just about every genre of music. He played clarinet in school, but it was the drums that really got him hooked as an adult.

“I learned a lot from other people and was taught stuff but didn’t go off to take lessons anywhere," Usher said.“I just started playing around, and I just listened, learned.”

His career has seen him perform with the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Ronnie Hawkins, Valdy, Marc Jordan, the Irish Rovers and Stan Rogers.

Usher won his fourth Juno Award in the mid-80s for DRUMS!, an album and solo stage show that he performed hundreds of times in tours. He has also written two musical shows which explore family life and were presented in theatres and fringe festivals across Canada.

For 20 years he was the artistic and executive director for Kicking Horse Culture in Golden before he retired this year at the age of 77.

He recently reformed the Space Heaters and will tour 10 communities in B.C. this fall.

The Knox United Church (345 Pym St.) show starts at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $30 and they are available online through Eventbrite and with cash at local retailers Close to You Boutique, Fireside Books and Edge Outdoors.



Kevin Forsyth

About the Author: Kevin Forsyth

As a lifelong learner, I enjoy experiencing new cultures and traveled around the world before making Vancouver Island my home.
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