Ode to Cherie Berry redefines elevator music

Sometime last year, Dan Bryk found himself in an elevator, humming a tune.

The Raleigh singer-songwriter had a good hook, but he needed a subject. There, on the elevator's state license was his muse: State Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry.

Her photograph and signature grace every license in the state's 20,000 or so public elevators. So Bryk decided to write a love song for the "gal in the elevator."

"She'll pick you up now, she'll put you down later," he wrote.

At three minutes and three seconds, "Cherry Berry" is a piece of bubblegum pop reminiscent of The Archies and other '60s groups crossed with the ironic sensibilities of The Talking Heads.

It's also something of a local hit, having made its way into heavy rotation at the N.C. State radio station, WKNC. A related MySpace page has gotten hundreds of hits.

Berry, whose first name is actually pronounced "sha-REE," downloaded a copy last week and has done her aerobics routine to it a few times. When asked about the song, she sounded like a teen-ager on "American Bandstand."

"I just think it rocks," she said. "It's got a good beat."

The guy who wrote the song about one of the state's few Republican officials couldn't vote for her and might not have anyway. Bryk said he doesn't follow state politics closely and was barely able to name the governor.

At first, Bryk tried to keep his role in the song under wraps.

After recording it earlier this year, the 37-year-old songwriter decided to release it pseudonymously, as "Tha Commissioners." He gave a copy to a WKNC disc jockey, telling him he'd received it in the mail.

When contacted by a reporter Friday morning, he told an elaborate story.

"We got that CD in an envelope wrapped in lead with plastic and a little foil," he said. "They actually baked some cookies and had them in foil on top of the package. It was quite nice."

At the same time, he answered an inquiry on the MySpace page using the name "Alan Smithee" -- a moniker long used by filmmakers who refused to take credit for their work because of contractual disputes. When a reporter showed that the Smithee e-mail was sent from Bryk's home computer, he confessed.

Bryk left other clues about his identity.

Under musical influences on Tha Commissioners' MySpace page, Bryk listed The Beefeaters, Larry Lurex and Dukes of Stratosphear, alter egos for The Byrds, Freddie Mercury of Queen and XTC, respectively.

Steve Salevan, local music director for WKNC, said that after he listened to it a few times, he couldn't get it out of his head. He began playing it on the radio show he hosts as D.J. Stevo.

"Every time I play it, I get a phone call from a listener who wants to know who that is," he said.

Many WKNC listeners would likely be familiar with Bryk.

A Toronto native, he first moved to the Triangle in 2002 to be with his partner, Erin K. McGinn. He's worked with Robert Sledge of the Ben Folds Five and runs his own label, Urban Myth Recording Collective.

He recorded at his studio, Flabby Road, in the basement of his Brier Creek townhouse. He sang lead and backup, played the guitar parts on his keyboard and mixed the tracks on his computer.

Bryk said the hoax would have been exposed anyway, since the song is included as a hidden track on his upcoming EP, "Discount Store." Until then, it can be heard on the band's MySpace page, on WKNC or in the heads of anyone who's heard it, the next time they ride an elevator.

(Interactive news producer Karen Mann contributed to this report.)