I found a CD copy of late Gary Usher's Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt in a record store in Springfield, Illinois, back when I was doing the archival research for my dissertation on unionism in the coal industry. This seems like several lifetimes ago now. Usher has long been one of my heroes, and I'd been looking for the record forever and then found it in some dusty old shop by accident. I used to make it a habit to check out record shops and barbecue joints in every strange city I visited. I still check out the barbecue joints, but record shops have long since become extinct... I'm not gonna tell you that Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt is a great album that you must have, but it appeared in 1971 and is delightfully out of step with it's time, a little ray of sunshine pop momentarily shining through the thick fog of FM radio rock. I'm not even certain as to whether Usher's record was released as anything more than a promotional demo. He had a great career performing in surf bands, writing and producing surf hits, and even collaborating with the Beach Boys, before moving on to produce great records by the likes of Millennium and the Byrds. I remember thinking that I must've been one of not more than a few dozen people at most who owned Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt, and this made me feel like I was a member of an exclusive club. I realize now that it probably just made me a dork, but that's ok... Tonight's song reminds me once again that the sunshine in sunshine pop was tempered a subtle but deep sadness. It's music that stays with you for a good while after you've listened to it. You can't shake it, and you don't know whether or not you want to...
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