Biography
Formed in 1992, the Billy Nayer Show brought together singer, songwriter, and electric autoharpist Cory McAbee with drummer Bobby Lurie, guitarist Yuri Gragonovitch, and bassist Lee Vilensky. The group, which originated in San Francisco yet later operated from New York, played its debut show supporting the Circle Jerks and ended the night drenched in foreign phlegm after the sound system burst into flames. A self-titled debut appeared in 1994, followed the same year by The Ketchup & Mustard Man, a stream-of-consciousness radio broadcast. By 1998 an expanded roster of guitarists that included Marc Ribot and Adam Levy had taken Gragonovitch’s place, resulting in the release of The Villain That Love Built, an album the band characterized as its “most sinister and mean-spirited.”
Relocation to the East Coast prompted Return to Brigadoon in 1999, now featuring Michael Silverman on bass in place of Vilensky and adding James Beaudreau on guitar. The band’s feature-length space Western musical The American Astronaut premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001; written, directed, and produced by the Billy Nayer Show, the film starred the group itself and incorporated its original score. Since then the picture has collected multiple awards while screening at every major international festival, with a DVD edition slated for early 2005.
Goodbye Straplight Sarentino, I Will Miss You arrived in 2003, the band’s lineup now including bassist Frank Swart. Although Crugie and Alessandro Ricciarelli handled guitar duties on the 2004 album Rabbit, live performances continued as a trio of McAbee, Lurie, and Swart.
Relocation to the East Coast prompted Return to Brigadoon in 1999, now featuring Michael Silverman on bass in place of Vilensky and adding James Beaudreau on guitar. The band’s feature-length space Western musical The American Astronaut premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001; written, directed, and produced by the Billy Nayer Show, the film starred the group itself and incorporated its original score. Since then the picture has collected multiple awards while screening at every major international festival, with a DVD edition slated for early 2005.
Goodbye Straplight Sarentino, I Will Miss You arrived in 2003, the band’s lineup now including bassist Frank Swart. Although Crugie and Alessandro Ricciarelli handled guitar duties on the 2004 album Rabbit, live performances continued as a trio of McAbee, Lurie, and Swart.