Ansonia releases its own theme song

ANSONIA — Strawberry Field was an orphanage near his home in Liverpool that inspired John Lennon to write the song “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Billy Joel came up with the lyrics to “New York State of Mind” while riding a bus near the Hudson River.

And local songwriter Richard Demko was struck by the flowers blooming near Ansonia’s downtown to write “Ansonia Recharged.”

The city premiered its own theme song — named after the city’s economic development slogan — on

Wednesday. The soft rock song boasts guitar riffs, soulful vocals from Ansonia native Heather Joseph and even a music video featuring Mayor David Cassetti walking around town.

It has gotten the attention of locals as the city continues to push for increased commercial development in its downtown.

Demko, a local songwriter, was approached by John Marini, the city’s corporation counsel, who knew him for years, to write a song celebrating the city’s sights. Demko, who got his start in the music industry at 18, had recorded songs for various local artists over the years. But because the client this time around was a city, he had to find a different source of inspiration.

So he took a stroll downtown to get his creative juices flowing when he saw flowers in bloom during late June.

“Wow this city is looking pretty. I'm like ‘Oh that’s a cool lyric,’ throw that in there,” Demko said he thought.

The song and video cost the city around $3,000 to record.

Part of the appeal to the song, Demko said, was that it also highlighted the mayor’s fun side. Marini asked Demko to record a song in the soft rock vein with elements of yacht rock, which Marini and Sheila O’Malley, economic development director, said Cassetti is enormously fond of.

Demko was open to recording the song in a different genre, but his musical tastes also aligned well with Cassetti, ensuring a smooth songwriting process.

The mayor is known to play his music in City Hall, gracing all with his musical tastes.

“He's got a CD collection ‘Time Life Soft Rock Hits of the 70’s’ that plays on the city speakers just about all day every day,” Marini said.

The song’s basic structure took a day to finish, according to Demko, but it took around a week to record the song and additional time was needed to shoot the video. Overall, the project took a month and a half.

The guitar is played by a former state senator,

George Logan, who also lives in Ansonia.

When O’Malley finally heard the completed song, she was floored.

“We loved it; it sounded like Ansonia,” O’Malley said.

The upbeat song’s lyrics urge the listener to take a walk downtown, fitting into the city’s overall strategy to boost local businesses. The city has made efforts at attracting businesses, from renovating old industrial sites to building a new police station downtown. O’Malley also said that the city has been through a lot of upheaval over the decades, so this also acts as a morale booster for residents.

But there’s another objective, according to Marini.

“We want to show that Ansonia is a city that not only has a lot to offer, but it's welcoming to creative talent,” he said.

Marini, a guitar player, said that the city is considering releasing the song on CD and while he along with O’Malley, who plays the banjo, aren’t leaving their positions anytime soon, they hinted at putting their hidden talents to use recording their own song.