Hometown fans get a triple play.

Byline: Serena Markstrom The Register-Guard

Three artists with little in common musically except having grown up in the Eugene School District will have special shows this week.

Both Lisa Forkish and Silas Meredith graduated from South Eugene High School and have relocated to the East Coast. Forkish has a Thursday show at Cozmic Pizza, and Meredith will play an outdoor concert Monday at University Park.

Garrick Bushek is a Sheldon High School alumnus. After years of getting all he could from the local music scene, he is moving to Portland to pursue a record producing project and start his own company.

Bushek has a farewell show of sorts tonight at Latitude 21. It features a few other locals, including Churchill grad and rapper Lafa Taylor and South alum Jenny Badalich doing `performance painting.'

Meredith brings his roots home

After graduating from Yale, Meredith got a teaching job in New Haven, Conn. One of his top priorities is traveling the world to infuse as many sounds into his own as possible.

Meredith's Monday show won't be the first time he's played a venue not normally used for concerts. He once performed with a full band on a city bus, and during a phone interview he hesitated a little before discussing another show he played with his high school band, Soul Function.

"They can't take my diploma away now, can they?" he said, joking about the April Fool's Day concert in 1997, when he and several band members climbed a tree outside the band room at South and performed there.

Meredith had to skip precalculus to set up for the gig.

Missing that math class did not affect Meredith's academic future. Since graduating from South in 2000, Meredith earned a history degree from Yale; he's been a high school and middle school math teacher since 2004.

On his CD, "Roots," Mere- dith's jazz background appears to be his deepest root. But all of the other places where he's plugged in his amp are present, too.

Meredith has performed in Brazil, Nicaragua, Ghana, India, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. He maintains in his news bio that Australia and Antarctica are the only continents he hasn't played.

How then, on a teacher's salary, does this young musician gallivant around the world? Rich parents?

No, he said during a recent phone interview. He simply lives frugally, rides a bike instead of driving, avoids eating out too much and saves money to "go where the music is."

Meredith is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish. But he said it's his fluency in jazz that has opened doors in foreign lands.

In Eugene, it will just be Meredith and his guitar; to hear all of the world music sounds on "Roots," you will have to buy the CD. Meredith's brother Peter, who is an accomplished salsa drummer, won't be making the trip home to back him up.

Of his venue for the hometown show, Meredith said he chose University Park because it's near where he grew up.

"That park's got a lot of memories for me," he said. "I'm playing the new stuff in the old place."

The free show starts at 6:30 p.m. at the University Park Amphitheater, at the corner of Potter Street and 23rd Avenue.

Check out Meredith's music at www.registerguard.com/ticketfiles.

Forkish got start in choirs

Forkish is studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston. She graduated from South in 2003 after having participated in several choirs.

Forkish said in an e-mail she was a three-year member of the Oregon Bach Festival's Youth Choral Academy. In 2005, she became the first youth choir graduate to make the leap to the Bach Festival's professional chorus.

As a University of Oregon student, she sang with Divisi, the school's award-winning a cappella group. She served as the vocal group's music director for three of her four years before leaving Eugene to study voice performance and songwriting at Berklee.

Forkish's show starts at 8 p.m. Thursday at Cozmic Pizza, 199 W. Eighth Ave. The cover is $5.

Bushek starts down new path

Tonight, Bushek and his alter-ego, Marv Ellis, will say goodbye to Eugene for a while during a show at Latitude 21.

Bushek is starting his own business, Head Peace Media, so the show also will serve to launch that endeavor.

Marv Ellis and His Imaginary Friends are the main attraction, with their big band sound and "epic thump." But prior to the headline set, Bushek will perform songs from a new collaboration with Taylor.

That act, ME.LT (Marv Ellis and Lafa Taylor, get it?), will do songs from a new project, "Who Are You?"

Copacrescent, a hip-hop band from Portland, opens the show at 9 p.m. It will be followed by the Raw Action Break Squad, supported by DJ Dv8 and DJ Billy.

Marlis (Badalich) will do live performance painting throughout the event.

The cover is $10 for men or $7 for women. An extra $5 will get you a live CD of the performance.

Bushek also performs Saturday at the WOW Hall as part of Unkle Nancy's CD release party.

You can call Serena Markstrom at 338-2371 or e-mail her at [e-mail].