GRAFTON – On a warm and breezy Saturday, Aug. 3, three musicians from Grafton came to Mill Villages Park to entertain and reminisce.
Bob Jordan, Rob Ledoux and Joe Kuras perform at nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and senior centers. For this outdoors concert underneath the park’s pavilion, they blended music with a bit of local history.
“It’s a reunion of sorts,” said “Banjo Joe” Kuras.
The trio called this event the first annual “Hometown Heroes and Local Legends” concert. Kuras dedicated two songs to singer-songwriters with local connections – Jamie Bockett and Gary Usher.
Usher was living in California in the early 1960s when he became friends with the family next door. The family, named Wilson, had three sons. Along with a cousin and friend, they formed the Beach Boys.
Usher ended up co-writing several songs with Brian Wilson, including “In My Room.”
Kuras also dedicated one song to the 25th anniversary of the burning of a mill not far from where he sat.
“It happened on this very day,” he said.
He rattled off the names of several mills in town that no longer exist, but in memory.
Plenty of friends and families crowded into the pavilion and just beyond. When not singing along, they chatted about this class or that building with others.
Ledoux, aka “The Rob Show,” performed after Kuras, followed by Jordan.
The concert was made possible, in part, through the support of the Grafton Cultural Council with funds administered by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. Homefield Credit Union and the Town of Grafton provided additional support.
