George is a native of the western Pennsylvania area, being born and raised in the small community of Avella, PA. He currently resides in West Alexander, PA close to the PA/WV border.
George is a veteran of the local music industry. He has entertained for audiences since he was 9 years old, playing in local clubs and weddings with his father. George's father, a guitar and banjo player, encouraged him at a very young age. The accordion became his first instrument and since George's father was an avid polka music fan, George grew up playing polka music.
There were always instruments in the house and as he progressed musically, George began to play the guitar and banjo as well. He learned to play the accordion, guitar and banjo without taking any lessons, learning completely by ear. At the age of 12 he began taking accordion and music theory lessons.
By the 1970's George had come into his own and was proficient at many instruments including piano accordion, button accordion, piano/organ, guitar, banjo, bass guitar and drums. He formed his own band in the 70's called Silver Sky. It was a 4 piece band playing everything from pop music to oldies to polkas at local night clubs and weddings.
Silver Sky continued through the 70's, 80's, 90's and even into 2000. In 2002 George began entertaining full time as a solo entertainer/vocalist/musician. He now offers a musical solution for every budget with the option of solo, duo or 3 or 4 piece band.
Silver Sky Duo (George is joined by his long time friend and Silver Sky member, David Stirk) is a high energy dance act that is highly acclaimed in the western, PA, West Virginia and Ohio area. Both George and David are guitarist/keyboardists/vocalists. The variety of music is astounding, playing oldies, big band, waltz, cha cha, Sinatra era, old time standards, country two step, country & western, country rock, swing, doo wop, 50's, 60's and 70's rock and roll, disco, funk and polka. Click here to view the complete song list. Currently, the song repertoire consists of over 500 songs and growing.
George also is accompanied by other musicians throughout the year at various times. These musicians are noted in the on-line schedule.
A Word About Backing Tracks
Silver Sky Duo consists of David Stirk and George Suhon. They play their instruments and sing along with a backing track that George produces exclusively for use with the Silver Sky Duo. This is a very unique concept.
Most solo and duo acts use a backing track. However, most acts use typical store bought Karaoke tracks and/or MIDI files. This is sort of "cookie cutter" method of providing background instrumentation tends to make all other acts sound the same. But there is an even more important reason that George does not use Karaoke tracks. If Karaoke tracks sounded good and were acceptable for use for live entertainment, there would not be as much of an issue. But sadly they are not.
The reason that George refuses to use store bought Karaoke tracks is that they are processed in the studio using typical dynamic compression to get the song to "fit" on the CD or in the song file. Data compression, when used on a audio file, reduces the dynamic range of the audio. What this means in laymen's terms is that a song sounds less "live". The song doesn't jump out at you. It sounds like you're playing along with a CD. Conversely, when you listen to a live band there is a distinct difference from listening to a CD made by the same band. A good live band's sound is lively and exciting. The reason for that is a live band has more dynamic range.
George records all of his own backing tracks. This means that he plays all of the instruments himself, sings all of the backing vocals and mixes all of this in his studio. He adds very little compression to the recording so that the instruments retain their original, innate quality, along with a wide dynamic range. As much as it is within his power, he produces the recorded backing track to sound as little like a "recorded track" as possible. The objective is to sound as much like a live band as possible.