Singer of a band with a Boston-inspired name is now solo. Where is his revolution going

For most of the decade of the 2010s, or more precisely 2011-2022, one of the most exciting rock bands to emerge from New England was The Ghost of Paul Revere. Despite its name, the quartet did not originate in the Boston area but from the wilds of small-town Maine.

With a sound that skillfully merged traditional instruments with rock dynamics, and smart songwriting, TGPR soon had critics comparing them to such Americana luminaries as Mumford & Sons, and The Avett Brothers. If most of their songs dealt with contemporary life and love lost and found, there was also a tantalizing element of that timeless aspect of bringing historical images into the mix, that might have evoked comparisons to The Band.

Civil War anthem an unusual set-closer

Consider: their usual set-closing number was a rousing Civil War anthem, “The Ballad of the 20th Maine,” which saluted the Pine Tree State’s volunteers. Trust me, I’ve seen this song done more than once in Boston clubs, where the crowd was so inspired by lines like “take your rebel yell, straight to hell” we were almost ready to invade Newton. But don’t just take my word for it, that tune was honored in 2019 as Maine’s official state song.

But just as relentless touring and a handful of extraordinary albums had seemingly positioned TGPR for major success beyond the six-state region, they called it quits. The pandemic hadn’t helped, of course, including the cancellation of a 21-date tour through Scandinavia, and the enforced idleness of the lockdowns played a role, but mainly it was just time for some personal reassessment.

Griffin William Sherry was the songwriter behind TGPR’s music, and he’s continued working on a solo career that has been pretty busy since the band ended in 2022. Sherry and his backing quartet will be headlining City Winery in Boston on Sunday night. (City Winery is located at 80 Beverly Street in Boston, near City Hall Plaza and the Haymarket T station, and the Sunday show begins at 7:30 p.m., with tickets $25-$30. Check citywinery.com/boston or call 617-933-8047 for more information.)

After The Ghost of Paul Revere, going solo

As a solo act, performing sometimes alone and sometimes with a backing band, Sherry has already opened tours for The Ballroom Thieves, the folk-rock duo that started at Stonehill College in Easton; the band Dispatch; Andrew McMahon; and Band of Horses. He played a prestigious New Year’s Eve gig at Portland’s House of Music in Maine, and in a project that grew out of the pandemic, he placed a couple songs on “Americana Christmas,” a holiday album that also featured acts like G.Love, and The Infamous Stringdusters.

Sherry has said that moving onto a solo career was a logical step, since he’d been writing songs for 17 years and had no intention of stopping. There are already numerous live videos of Sherry in his solo guise, and he’s hoping to have an album ready by the end of the year. But his songwriting ability is still striking, on new tunes like the detailed, heartfelt ode to small town living, “Our Town,” or on the thoughtful “Reflections,” which may be interpreted as some of the perspective that went into the TGPR split.  We caught up with Sherry last week by phone from his Maine home, as he prepared to perform at last weekend’s Sandy River Music Festival in Northampton.

Band was getting in way of friendship

“It was a combination of a lot of things,” Sherry said of the band’s breakup. “We had toured really hard for a really long time, and while we had been friends since we were about three years old, the band was beginning to get in the way of that. Being home so long during the pandemic, I think we also started to appreciate our homes and families more.  It just seemed like the time to move on.”

“I still play a lot of Ghost songs – I wrote them, and they were always sung in my voice,” Sherry added. “But it is maybe tapping into a different vein, and I steer the ship more. I haven’t had to change a lot of things about the music, and mainly I just play it. We took a lot of lessons from those years on the road, about how to have a career and make it sustainable and yet comfortable for yourself and those around you. I wish I knew what I know now, back in 2012 when we began touring, but there are enough similarities to the Ghost music for their fans, and it’s been going well so far.”

“We’re all still good friends, the old Ghost guys, and we hung out together this past weekend,” said Sherry. “We achieved a lot with that band, but in the final view we needed to become just friends again. It is tough to navigate running a business with your friends, and in today’s music world, being a band or performer really means running your own independent business.”

Sherry has enjoyed getting back to playing solo, but he has also felt the pangs of wanting the power of a band behind him.  The City Winery gig will find him backed by Chuck Gagne on drums, McCrae Hathaway on bass, Spencer Albee on keyboards, and Zack Bence on guitar.

Playing solo is a challenge

“I love playing solo, love the challenge of it,” said Sherry. “It is all on you to deliver whatever the song needs. I was never interested in becoming known as an excellent guitar player, but wanted to be known as an excellent songwriter.  But when it is just you and your guitar and the microphone, it demands that you step up. I usually write with my guitar, or piano, which I also play, but guitar was my first instrument, and is still my primary one.”

Those high-profile opening slots, and that New Year’s Eve show in Portland prove that Sherry has been able to make the transition and keep those legions of TGPR fans.

“I’ve had a lot of great opportunities,” Sherry agreed. “It has also provided me a good kick in the butt, because when you play for 4000 or 5000 people, you have to impress them. I love that challenge, where the goal is to win them over to your side. Band of Horses, for instance, is very different from my music, but there’s a bit of universality we share, and if you can win their fans over by the end of the night you really feel like you’ve accomplished something.”

Expect mostly new material

The Boston show will include a setlist of mostly new material, but also some TGPR favorites.

“I’ve been really excited to start something new, and I’ve been writing new stuff for the past year-and-a-half,” noted Sherry. “I wrote and recorded a lot of new stuff, and I could do two hours of all new songs if I wanted. But, of course, we will do a couple Ghost songs that people want to hear. But I’m also excited to show off my new music.”

The music world is evolving away from albums, into EPs and single song releases, but Sherry is old school, and hopes to have an album out by year’s end.

“I love records, and everybody has a different opinion about albums versus shorter releases,” he said. “We are all battling with vastly different attention spans in the audience today. But I still love the 10-to-15 song format, a statement in time, perhaps around some kind of theme, that an album offers. I will release a bit of singles – you can’t keep your music under an umbrella. But for myself, I love playing albums front-to-back, and I think it is good if we keep doing that.”

Maine's state song designation amazes him

And the response and enduring popularity of ‘The Ballad of the 20^th Maine’ still amazes Sherry.

“That’s so wild that our song became the state’s official song,” Sherry said with a laugh. “It feels very cool. The song got a really good response, even down South. The first time we played it there, in Johnson City, Tennessee, it didn’t go over super well. But eventually I think people appreciate the story behind it, speaking to the Civil War from a Union perspective, which is rare. And there is a lot of rebel spirit there, and they can focus on what those boys did more than the fact that the Confederacy lost.”

Mourning Paul Nelson

The New England music community is mourning the loss of blues guitarist Paul Nelson, who died of a heart attack March 10 while on tour in Florida. Nelson was based in Stamford, Connecticut, for most of his career as musician and producer, but was also well known in these parts as one of the three partners who founded The Music Room in Yarmouth in 2021. That club has quickly established itself as a venue for touring national acts in rock, blues and roots music. Nelson has plenty of local ties, from attending Berklee College of Music to producing albums for New England stars like James Montgomery, Martin Barre, and Tyler Morris. But he was perhaps best known for his long association with the late Johnny Winter. Nelson began as a guitarist with the Texan’s band, and soon was managing them. Winter’s 2015 “Step Back” album produced by Nelson won a Grammy, and he’d go on to produce 14 albums in Winter’s ‘Live Bootleg’ series. Already a member of the New York state Blues Hall of Fame, Nelson this year was elected to the New England Music Hall of Fame.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Griffin William Sherry's solo tour taking him to Boston this weekend