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‘PORTRAITS’ featuring Billy Squier and GE Smith is an exquisite coupling, highlighting conversation and collaboration, featuring Squier’s music, stripped down to the bone.

The Artist: Throughout a career that began after graduation from Wellesley High School in 1968, Billy Squier has written and recorded 11 albums and sold nearly 20 million records. He has become a staple at Rock Radio with songs as “The Stroke”, “Everybody Wants You” and “Lonely is The Night”. “The Big Beat” from his first solo LP is the most sampled song in rap history, featuring prominently in such diverse hits as Jay Z’s “99 Problems” and Alicia Keys “Girl On Fire”, and he has been referenced as the Robert Johnson of Hip-Hop. He worked closely with Queen’s Freddie Mercury, and has done two tours as lead guitarist for Ringo Starr and his All-Star Band. He divides his time between Long Island’s East End and New York.

The Host:  GE Smith is a master guitarist who has played lead guitar, for Hall & Oates, Bob Dylan and bassist for Roger Waters in the WALL LIVE as well as many others. He served ten years as the musical director of Saturday Night Live where he won an Emmy. He was the host for the Smithsonian’s HISTORY OF THE ELECTRIC GUITAR and played many times at the Kennedy Center, and all over the world for dignitaries and Presidents. He’s the ultimate sideman. GE Smith, a supreme musicologist, explores his passion for R & B while highlighting his guests’ musical ideology.

PRODUCER and CURATOR:  Taylor Barton launched PORTRAITS in East Hampton, at Guild Hall and Bay Street Theater 2015. She booked such guests as Roger Waters, Ethan Hawke, Oscar nominee Carter Burwell, and Grammy winners Paula Cole and Sarah Jarosz.  Barton is a smart, multi-talented, singer-songwriter, writer and film producer. Her film, 50 Watt Fuse, documenting GE’s career as a sideman, was an Official Selection of the Mill Valley Film Festival featuring cameos from Lorne Michaels, Jimmy Buffett, to Bob Dylan and Hall & Oates. She has had exposure and been deeply influenced by an array of performers from Dylan to the The National. Rolling Stone calls her beguiling. She has released 9 solo CD’s, a novel, Hotheaded Saints, and just published Pedro ‘n’ Pip, which was licensed by Discovery Education. She is on the Advisory Board of the Hamptons International Film Festival and created the Melissa Mathison Fund for their screenwriter’s Lab.

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