“One of my friends was like, come to Providence,” Georgie tells me, explaining how it is he found himself writing and playing music in Providence. “I was like, Providence, are you crazy? You know, New York, Providence… I was like, Providence Rhode Island?”

Georgie balances his guitar on his back , the top of the black case poking up behind his head. After pulling out the guitar and playing a few of his songs for me, he tells me about what made him, as a singer songwriter, leave New York and settle here for a year to take advantage of what he has called the intimate and nurturing environment of Providence’s music scene.

Sitting in my living room in Providence, sirens outside make me momentarily imagine Georgie in New York, but the fire house across the street and the view of the mini mart bring me back.

“This is like one hundred miles an hour, when I’m used to a thousand.”

In New York, where his band had brushes with pre-fame Jeff Buckley and even Dave Mathews, Georgie felt that he was getting numb and overwhelmed by the competitive, disconnected world that surrounded him in New York. What he has found here, in what he describes as a city that feels like a town, is an interesting artistic community that can offer a very nurturing environment to singer songwriters as well as bands of different genres. Whereas so often in big cities you can be surrounded by people when you walk down the street, here in Providence there is more of a connection between people, which seems to lend itself to more possibility for what Georgie described as content driven music, and what to me sounded like poetry by a guy with a guitar.

The intimacy of the atmosphere and the attitude permeates the performance spaces.

After his first gig at Café Zog in November, which was packed, Georgie continued to write and worked on the album in which, he seems surprised to reflect, the songs narrate much of his time here. “There’s a real symbiosis between Providence and New York,” he tells me, commenting that he’s glad he came here after spending several years working as a musician in New York City. “In Providence, it’s easier to get gigs,” he says, because the club owners are much more easy going and seem more willing to give unknowns a shot, perhaps even second and third chances."

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The live music scene in Providence revolves more around specific artists as opposed to venues. Richard Ruggiero, who recently finished a run as local music director for Providence’s 95.5WBRU, described a similar experience to Georgie’s in his experience with seeking out live music in Providence and the surrounding area. According to Ruggiero, it is hard to define a coherent sound or scene coming out of Providence, and the familiar faces he sees at shows, tend to go because of an interest in a particular musician they follow. Ruggiero himself tends to go to shows mostly when he knows or knows of at least one person in the band performing.

Lupo’s is obviously a good place for larger bands and artists passing through, but it is a larger space and local groups don't usually draw a big enough crowd to fill it. Instead, Georgie and Ruggiero speak fondly of smaller venues such as Century Lounge and AS220, which has live jazz every Tuesday.

Finding local bands that interest you requires a concentrated effort. If you can't pay close attention to flyers that are often taped up on electrical posts around town, the best place to go for listings of bands and venues are in places like the Providence Phoenix.

Ruggiero used to program a radio show on 95.5, playing an hour of local music every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at midnight, limited mostly to rock and metal from bands out of smaller towns in Rhode Island since the station is an alternative rock station. “I don’t think there is a Providence sound- at least I haven’t discovered it,” says Ruggiero, referring to localized phenomena like the Seattle grunge scene, “Some people say its more on the punk side, but in general it lacks any way to group it all together, which makes it harder for bands to break out of it.”

Georgie also mentioned that he has found that many become jaded if they feel that their sticking around for too long means that they are trapped. Looking back on his time here just before he returns to New York City to pursue his music career, Georgie is trying hard to reflect on his time in what he calls a very nurturing place. “It’s refreshing when I meet people who are all about Providence and they talk about it in their songs,” but for him he sees it as “a place that’s nice to come for a while.”

For a while, because for the Providence music scene, moving up means moving out to the next step on the music ladder, New York City.

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