LEE PYE
Staff Writer
When it comes to the Fredonia music scene, Ryan Terry is the jack of all trades.
Terry is in his fifth and final year at Fredonia as a music composition major with a concentration in string instruments. He has multiple tricks up his sleeve as a guitarist, singer and songwriter.
He is currently in five different bands and has been in a total of eight bands since he started at Fredonia. The bands he currently resides in are Beach Tower, Violent Graffiti, HitGRL, Ryan Terry Family Band, and Hal & Pals. He also performs as a solo artist.
On Feb. 10, Terry played a release show with his three bands at Creek House for his new album “Brand New Person.” “Brand New Person” was released on streaming platforms such as Apple Music, YouTube and Spotify the day before. Some of the songs that debuted from the album that Ryan Terry Family Band played during the show include “Can’t Feel the Ground,” “I See Myself In You,” “Melt Into You,” “Tear it Down,” “I’m Gone,” and “Your Current.”
The lineup for the show was HitGRL, Ryan Terry Family Band and Beach Tower.
Gordon Hall, HitGRL drummer, is one of the people who book shows at Creek House. The discussion to debut Terry’s album at Creek House arose during a HitGRL meeting. Terry said, “I had the idea in my head where I’m like, ‘well, it’ll be a really fun opportunity to debut these songs properly as a release show.’ HitGRL got together for a meeting at Creek House, and I said to Gordon, ‘What are the chances we could do a Family Band release show?’ and he was like ‘Yeah, that sounds awesome.’”
Sarah Burke, the lead singer of HitGRL, said, “We had gotten asked to do a BJ’s show in November, and at that point we had like two or three songs, which was not enough. So I freaked out and worked on songs until we had a good baseline.”
HitGRL is a new band and was looking for gigs to play, so they jumped at the opportunity to play at the Creek House show. They were debating on the third band, but when they talked to the lead singer of Beach Tower, he mentioned he was free and would be able to travel the distance to do the show.
Cascio Fonseca is a Fredonia graduate who started in the Beach Tower band his freshman year during the 2020 pandemic. During the pandemic, the band released “A Beach Tower EP,” consisting of four songs. They released their full album “If We Make It to May” at the end of 2021. Both of the works are still consistently played during shows.
Fonseca is from Liberty, NY, and travels about five hours to play with Beach Tower. Beach Tower still plays pretty frequently in Fredonia, their last two performances being the Fredonia Radio Systems’ “Rockin’ the Commons” event in September 2023 and Beach Fest in November of the same year.
Fonseca said, “It’s always nice to be able to come back and see people. I enjoy being here for the music as much as I enjoy being able to see everyone again.”
During the show, Fonseca made the announcement that Beach Tower is working on releasing a new EP. “The last song that you heard, along with three others, are going into the final stages of production and are going to be put on an EP which you guys will hopefully be able to listen to soon.” They are in the final mixing stages of the songs, and will eventually be promoting it by the end of the semester.
It wasn’t planned for Terry to play all three slots for bands during the Creek House show. However, after the booking was finalized, the show became more focused on Terry’s release. “It was other people who started building it as the Ryan Terry release show, I had no part in that.”
Terry was worried about turnout at first, since he wasn’t using a booking group such as Last Call Entertainment or Foxhead Record Co. for promotions, and only using his own bands’ and the Creek House’s venue to spread the word about the show. It appears his worries were for nothing though, as the headcount for the show ended up being over 50 people including the band members, which filled the basement of the Creek House venue.
The Beach Tower band ended on a cover of the song “Ain’t it Fun” by Paramore. They brought Michael Tumbaco with his classic “Camp Rock”-themed guitar, and the rest of the band members of the Ryan Terry Family Band and HitGRL, on stage to sing along to the cover. Tumbaco is in Edelwood Creek, but is also the bassist for both HitGRL and Family Band.
Fonseca said, “It was a very nice way of saying ‘Hey, let’s pull this one out again,’ and have a whole bunch of people come in and hop on and sing and play and do whatever else. [We thought] ‘we’re all friends and this is a night for friends.’”
In “Beach Tower,” roles are filled by Cascio Fonseca on vocals, Ryan Terry on guitar, Evan Donnelly on bass, and Joey Porth on drums. “Ryan Terry Family Band” consists of Terry on guitar and as the lead singer, Donnelly on guitar, Michael Tumbaco on bass and Kevin Stevens on drums. “HitGRL” features Sarah Burke on vocals, Terry on guitar, Tumbaco on bass, Katherine Wynn on cello and Gordon Hall on drums.
Terry said, “Thank you so much to everyone that came. It was one of the best nights of my life, [as well as] one of the most exhausting nights of my life, and I think we’re all really happy with how it came out.”