When I first heard that The Ghost of Paul Revere had disbanded, sadness followed. I have always been a big fan of their signature sound, closer vocal harmonies and affable members, especially Griffin William Sherry whom I had chatted with many times over the group’s incredible run. Then I saw that he was coming to present a free show as part of the Waterville Rocks! Outdoor Concert Series making a repeat conversation with him a must for me. Late last month, Sherry called from his Litchfield home and I began by observing …

Q: You and I have talked quite a few times over the years regarding The Ghost of Paul Revere so I’m very curious to hear about what’s happened with you now?
Sherry: Ah, well, now I’m continuing to write and tour music, I’ve got a bunch of really exciting tours coming up and I’m currently working on the first solo record. It took me a little longer to get into the studio than I was hoping. But, yeah, I’m writing music and playing music still, which is great. Pretty soon I’ll be touring with the band full-time, and that’s Spencer Albee and Chuck Gagne and McCrae Hathaway.

Q: Will some of the Ghost material find its way into this performance up in Waterville?
Sherry: For sure, yeah, we’re already playing a couple of songs from Ghost with the new outfit, I think that there’s a little bit of reimagining of them, but at the same time, it’s cool because I’m still very proud of all the songs I wrote for The Ghost of Paul Revere, and I’m most excited to play them. I’ve been doing a little mix of playing some with the full band and playing some just solo acoustic, toying with the speed of them and the delivery and that kind of stuff; and changing them a little bit just for fun.

Q: Well, that makes it fresh and new for you as well as the audience.
Sherry: Exactly, oh, yeah! This is 12 years since The Ghost started so it’s always good to try to find new ways to keep it interesting and fun, but I still love doing it so that makes it easy at the end of the day.

Q: Now, the solo stuff, is that what you’ll be doing as a part of the Waterville Rocks! concert series on the 4th of August?
Sherry: Yeah, I’ll have the band there with me and I’ll also do some solo acoustic stuff, yeah, I’ll do both.

Q: One aspect of your former band was the close vocal harmony element, is that something happening now with the new configuration?
Sherry: It is, yeah, oh, for sure because I love harmonized music and, luckily, it turns out that Spencer Albee and Chuck Gagne can sing very well, and so can McCrae so it’s great (chuckle), different voices, for sure, but I love having them jump on harmonies, so we’re all singing on stage still.

Q: And something I’ve said to you quite a few times, I’m sure, and that’s that we have an amazing amount of talent right here in Maine.
Sherry: It’s incredible, it’s inspiring and it’s cool to have such a community and it’s awesome to call most of them friends, too, at this point in time.

Q: Any idea when you’ll be able to release something?
Sherry: Well, I have a live EP out now that we did at a secret pop-up show in Portland with some new songs, and all of those guys played on it, that was the first live show the band ever played together which was awesome. So that’s out right now on Spotify, but I actually just got back from Parsonsfield this morning where I spent two days working on the new record, my hope is that it’ll come out sometime this year at some point.

Q: How far afield will you be going once you hit the road? I’m sure you’ve made many connections over the years with The Ghost, right?
Sherry: Oh, yeah! And I was on the road for most of the month of May opening for Andrew McMahon. We were up and down the East Coast and the Midwest, and went to Canada; and in September I’ll be flying out to Colorado and Arizona to do some shows with Band of Horses. Come October, the band and I are hitting the road for a couple of weeks and doing the East Coast, always keep playing, always gotta do it (laughter)!

Q: Yeah, but the thing of it is you really sound like this is something that really excites you.
Sherry: It is! You know, I think it’s nice to have something new that is also very familiar, and I just love playing music, so I knew, even when The Ghost decided to end, I always knew that I was going to play music no matter what. Whether it was with The Ghost or under my own name or with another outfit, I knew that was kind of always in my future. So it is exciting to have a lot of new songs and a new set and see people get excited about it, and to play shows again ‘cause I just love doing it.

Q: Does the new material have a Ghost vibe to it?
Sherry: (Laughter) Well, there’s certainly a lack of banjo and harmonica these days, but when push comes to shove I’ve always been writing this music anyway, and I did a lot of writing for The Ghost of Paul Revere, so my voice carries over. Even if I tried my hardest to do something totally different I think you could always find parallels between the old music and the new music, so I think that voice is still very present and I’m not reinventing the wheel so it’ll be not similar but still very much related.

Q: That’s really good to hear, for sure! Now, for my traditional last question: Is there anything, Griffin that you’d like me to pass on to the folks reading this article?
Sherry: Just that I hopefully look forward to seeing them out at the show. I think people can expect lots of new songs that will sound familiar and then some old songs that might not sound familiar but you’ll definitely know what they are; and I would just encourage them to go out and see live music and support local bands, that’s always the No. 1 prerogative because there’s a lot of us out here doing some really cool stuff. And, finally, I’m excited to just be able to share all of this new stuff with people, especially here in Maine!

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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