December 2020 – Page 8

Giving thanks in a tough year

2020 is not going silently into the night. It’s going out kicking and screaming. And let’s not be nice about this: 2020 has been a brutal year for everyone. More than 500 Granite Staters have passed away from Covid, people have lost their livelihoods, whole industries have been torn apart, families have been separated, kids have been unschooled, and to top it all off we went through one of the most divisive elections in modern times with federal agencies actually warning about possible election-related civil unrest. I mean, come on. It’s no wonder people are drinking a bit more. Yes, beer, wine and liquor sales are up in New Hampshire.

But even in these challenging times there are things to be thankful for.

As fraught as the election was (and could still be, I guess) there wasn’t any violence. The day after most signs were down and people here were back to their daily lives. Is everyone happy? No. But most have moved on to their lives.

As bad as Covid has been, it could have been worse. New Hampshire has largely been successful in tamping down outbreaks, keeping the number of hospitalizations low and balancing the needs of people to move about with the needs of our medical system to combat the virus. Any loss of life is horrific.

While many local businesses (including us) and nonprofits have seen revenues plunge, many other businesses have seen surging demand. Everything from ATVs to swimming pools to builders to takeout pizza has seen strong revenue in 2020.

Unemployment rates have continued to fall. New Hampshire’s rate is now under 5 percent from a high of almost 17 percent in April. That does reflect some people leaving the workforce but it also reflects other jobs in other industries picking up the slack.

New Hampshire showed the country it was truly bipartisan by splitting results with Republicans dominating statewide races and Democrats dominating federal races. More than that, 75 percent of eligible voters voted — a modern record level of voting. And yes, folks, we do live in a democracy. We should also be thankful for that.

There is less traffic — just saying.

Folks in New Hampshire continue to be generous with their time and money in assisting and donating to local nonprofits. While many nonprofits that rely on in-person services have seen revenues decline others have seen people be more generous. It made the news recently that MacKenzie Scott (author, philanthropist and former wife of Jeff Bezos) gave more than $6 million to New Hampshire nonprofits.

Hundreds of Hippo readers have sent in financial contributions this year to support Hippo. We can’t say thank you enough.

As much as we want 2021 to be better than 2020, and I’m hopeful it will be, the road back to normal will be slower than we want. But there is a road back and for that I’m very thankful.

New Year’s eatings

Delicious ways to ring in 2021

Let’s face it — 2020 wasn’t the year any of us hoped for. So if you’re looking forward to ringing in 2021, check out this list of local restaurants offering special dine-in or takeout menus to help you celebrate.

• Amphora (55 Crystal Ave., No. 3, Derry, 537-0111, amphoranh.com) will serve a special prix fixe menu for New Year’s Eve on Thursday, Dec. 31, from 3 to 9 p.m., featuring one of two appetizers of your choice (double cream goat cheese in a pool of lamb sauce with chiffonade basil and pita chips, or shrimp cocktail with a spicy sauce); antipasto salad; an entree of your choice (deconstructed Beef Wellington or seafood risotto with a creamy Parmesan mushroom sauce); and a dessert (chocolate mousse or Champagne and berries). The cost is $46 per person (optional wine pairings are available) and reservations are encouraged. Amphora’s full menu will also be available for takeout and dine-in until 3 p.m.

• Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop (815 Chestnut St., Manchester, 625-9544, angelaspastaandcheese.com) will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 31.

• Ashworth by the Sea (295 Ocean Blvd., Hampton, 926-6762, ashworthhotel.com) will host a socially distanced New Year’s Eve dinner on Thursday, Dec. 31, at 5 p.m. featuring party favors, a Champagne toast, rock ’n’ roll bingo and more. Overnight packages with a Champagne and mimosa breakfast on New Year’s Day are also available.

• Bad Lab Beer Co. (460 High St., Somersworth, 842-5822, badlabbeer.com) will serve its third annual New Year’s Day brunch on Friday, Jan. 1, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Reservations are currently being accepted with an hour-and-a-half time slot for each.

• Bedford Village Inn (2 Olde Bedford Way, Bedford, 472-2001, bedfordvillageinn.com) will serve a four-course prix fixe dinner for New Year’s Eve on Thursday, Dec. 31, with seatings from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m., in its dining room. The menu will feature appetizers (lobster bisque, yellowfin tuna poke, braised beef cheek, New England oysters, capon terrine, and warm Maplebrook Farm burrata); salads (baby kale and watercress salad, or Boston bibb and radicchio salad); entrees (grilled filet mignon, smoked New Bedford sea scallops, grass-fed lamb rack, pan-seared salmon, Northern lobster risotto, pork chop, or pierogi and fall vegetables); and desserts (Earl Grey cheesecake, lemon verbena creme brulee, strawberry Champagne sorbet, ginger pear torte or mudslide cake). The cost is $75 per person and reservations are required.

• Bistro 603 (345 Amherst St., Nashua, 722-6362, bistro603nashua.com) will open at 11 a.m. on both Thursday, Dec. 31, and Friday, Jan. 1, serving its full menu with family-style options also available.

• Buba Noodle Bar (36 Lowell St., Manchester, 935-7864, bubanoodle.com) will be open from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 31, and from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 1.

• Buckley’s Great Steaks (438 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 424-0995, buckleysgreatsteaks.com) is taking reservations now for New Year’s Eve, serving its regular menu with specials on Thursday, Dec. 31, from 4 to 9 p.m.

• Cafe El Camino (134 Newton Road, Plaistow, 974-1652, cafeelcamino.com) is taking orders for a variety of specialty “crowd pleaser platters,” including empanada platters, rice platters, chicken or pork platters and more. Orders must be picked up by Thursday, Dec. 31, at 3 p.m.

• Cask & Vine (1½ E. Broadway, Derry, 965-3454, caskandvine.com) is taking reservations now for New Year’s Eve, Thursday, Dec. 31. Deposits of $25 per party are being accepted, which will be applied to your bill for the evening and will include a Champagne toast at midnight.

• Cava Tapas & Wine Bar (10 Commercial Alley, Portsmouth, 319-1575, cavatapasandwinebar.com) will serve a special four-course menu for New Year’s Eve on Thursday, Dec. 31, with multiple options to choose from, like yellowfin tuna poke, butternut squash soup, farro and golden raisin salad, crisp pork belly, foie gras, beef short rib, Parisian herb gnocchi, crisp Brussels sprouts, pistachio cake, dulce de leche, dark chocolate pot de creme and more. Reservations are required.

• Colby Hill Inn (33 The Oaks, Henniker, 428-3281, colbyhillinn.com) will hold a special New Year’s Eve wine dinner on Thursday, Dec. 31, from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., featuring a six-course meal with wine pairings, live music and more. Items to be served will include foie gras torchon, New Hampshire oysters, Moroccon-spiced rack of lamb, seared sea scallops, and petite rabbit and mushroom cassoulet. The cost is $180 per person. Overnight packages with a complimentary Champagne brunch are also available.

• Copper Door Restaurant (15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677; 41 S. Broadway, Salem, 458-2033; copperdoor.com) will serve a special prix fixe dinner for New Year’s Eve on Thursday, Dec. 31, beginning at 4 p.m., with live music from 6 to 9 p.m. Costs vary depending on the courses you choose ($69 for a two-course meal, $79 for a three-course meal and $89 for a four-course meal). Featured options include herb-crusted scallops, truffled mushroom risotto, fish chowder, wild mushroom bisque, braised lamb shank, sesame-crusted tuna, crispy honey chicken, seafood casserole, roasted vegetable ravioli, caramel apple pie and chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Reservations are highly recommended and will be accepted through 8 p.m.

• Copper Kettle To Go (39 Main St., Wilton, 654-2631, copperkettletogo.com) is taking orders for heat-and-serve eggroll party platters for New Year’s Eve, featuring flavors like steak and cheese, chicken Parm and eggplant Parm, as well as various dipping sauces. Order by Dec. 27.

• Cotton (75 Arms St., Manchester, 622-5488, cottonfood.com) will be serving its regular menu on Thursday, Dec. 31, from 4 to 9 p.m., with special additions that will include an appetizer, a salad, two entrees and two desserts, all priced a la carte.

• CR’s The Restaurant (287 Exeter Road, Hampton, 929-7972, crstherestaurant.com) will serve its regular dinner menu, with holiday specials, on Thursday, Dec. 31, from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Reservations are required.

• Flannel Tavern (345 Suncook Valley Road, Chichester, 406-1196, flanneltavern.com) will ring in the new year in style with classic cocktails from the Rat Pack era. Join them on Thursday, Dec. 31, from 5 p.m. to midnight for a special menu, a charcuterie board, live music and a Champagne toast. The cost is $10 per person. Formal dress is encouraged but not required.

• Giorgio’s Ristorante & Bar (270 Granite St., Manchester, 232-3323; 707 Milford Road, Merrimack, 883-7333; 524 Nashua St., Milford, 673-3939; giorgios.com) is taking orders for holiday variety boxes for New Year’s, which feature your choice of smoked pork rack chop with apple chutney, garlic roasted prime rib with au jus and horseradish cream, or seafood lasagna, with sides like sweet and Yukon gold whipped potatoes, traditional stuffing and roasted Brussels sprouts. Order by Dec. 28 at noon. Pickups are on Thursday, Dec. 31, from noon to 5 p.m.

• Greenleaf (54 Nashua St., Milford, 213-5447, greenleafmilford.com) is taking reservations now for a special New Year’s Eve dinner on Thursday, Dec. 31, with seatings at 6 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Course options will include charred broccoli and ricotta tortellini, turkey roulade, cast iron roasted rib-eye, pan seared scallops, pink Champagne macarons, chocolate Yule logs and more. The cost is $89 per person, or $120 per person with an optional wine pairing. Reservations with a 50 percent deposit are required.

• LaBelle Winery (345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinerynh.com) is taking orders for New Year’s Eve catering packages available in two sizes, feeding six to eight people, or 12 to 14 people. Each package includes an artisan cheese and charcuterie display, bacon-wrapped scallops, coconut shrimp, pesto Parmesan arancini, curried chicken salad, phyllo cups and beef tenderloin canape. Optional wine add-ons are also available. Pickups are on Thursday, Dec. 31, on the hour from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. LaBelle is also taking reservations for a New Year’s Eve Experience dinner on Thursday, Dec. 31, featuring sparkling wine and smoked salmon salad with seared sea scallop and winter citrus vinaigrette as a specialty first course.

• Mile Away Restaurant (52 Federal Hill Road, Milford, 673-3904, mileawayrestaurant.com) will serve a multi-course meal for New Year’s Eve on Thursday, Dec. 31, featuring your choice of an entree (sliced roasted tenderloin of beef, duck grand marnier, nut-crusted chicken, chicken pesto, pork Dijonnaise, wienerschnitzel, vegetarian acorn squash, baked stuffed Jumbo shrimp, baked stuffed scrod or maple glazed salmon); and a dessert (chocolate mousse cake, flourless chocolate cake, bourbon bread pudding, cheesecake, lemon mascarpone cake, sorbet or tiramisu cake). All dinners come with appetizers like New England clam chowder, Swedish meatballs and a fresh fruit plate with sorbet (or you can substitute for shrimp cocktail, escargots and onion soup gratinee) and a Caesar or garden salad. Entrees also include your choice of a baked potato, Swiss potato or rice pilaf, and your choice of butternut squash, pickled beets or applesauce.

• MT’s Local Kitchen & Wine Bar (212 Main St., Nashua, 595-9334, mtslocal.com) is taking reservations now for New Year’s Eve, serving its regular menu with specials on Thursday, Dec. 31, from 4 to 9 p.m.

• Otis (4 Front St., Exeter, 580-1705, otisrestaurant.com) has limited space available for a special five-course dinner with Champagne for New Year’s Eve on Thursday, Dec. 31, at 5 p.m., 7 p.m. or 9:30 p.m. The cost is $75 per person and reservations are required.

• The Peddler’s Daughter (48 Main St., Nashua, 821-7535, thepeddlersdaughter.com) is taking reservations for New Year’s Eve on Thursday, Dec. 31, beginning at 4 p.m. Various specials will be served, like creamy baked potato soup, crabmeat stuffed mushroom, baked seafood casserole, a roast beef dinner with oven-roasted winter vegetables, and several wines and desserts.

• Raleigh Wine Bar + Eatery (67 State St., Portsmouth, 427-8459, raleighwinebar.com) will serve a socially distanced New Year’s Eve dinner on Thursday, Dec. 31, with seatings at either 6:30 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. The dinner will feature four courses with optional wine pairings and is $85 per person.

• The Red Arrow Diner (112 Loudon Road, Concord, 415-0444; 137 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 552-3091; 61 Lowell St., Manchester, 626-1118; 149 Daniel Webster Hwy., Nashua, 204-5088; redarrowdiner.com) takes orders for its homemade cakes and pies at all of its locations. Flavors include apple, blueberry, pumpkin, chocolate cream, brownie cream and more. Online orders must be placed at least 24 hours in advance of pickups.

• Roundabout Diner & Lounge (580 Route 1 Bypass, Portsmouth, 431-1440, roundaboutdiner.com) will host a “Social Distance Social” New Year’s Eve comedy show on Thursday, Dec. 31, at 8 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.). Tickets start at $119 per couple and include a Champagne toast and dinner for two, with a shared appetizer, two entrees and two homemade desserts. Tickets of $199 per couple also include an overnight stay at the Best Western Hotel next door.

• Stones Social (449 Amherst St., Nashua, 943-7445, stonessocial.com) will serve a special menu for New Year’s Eve on Thursday, Dec. 31, available for takeout, delivery or dine-in. Items include Thai wings, pork dumplings, mushroom ramen, Asian short rib, spicy edamame, tempura shrimp, vegetable fried rice and a few specialty cocktails, like a pomegranate sparkler and a creamsicle martini. Reservations are recommended for dine-in.

• Surf (207 Main St., Nashua, 595-9293, surfseafood.com) is taking reservations now for New Year’s Eve, serving its regular menu with specials on Thursday, Dec. 31, from 4 to 9 p.m.• T-Bones Great American Eatery (25 S. River Road, Bedford, 641-6100; 404 S. Main St., Concord, 715-1999; 39 Crystal Ave., Derry, 434-3200; 77 Lowell Road, Hudson, 882-6677; 1182 Union Ave., Laconia, 528-7800; 311 S. Broadway, Salem, 893-3444; t-bones.com) is taking orders for ready-to-heat and ready-to-make meal packs for New Year’s Eve, which include two Lunetta Prosecco Splits, espinaca and chips, sesame chicken, vegetable stir-fry, Korean barbecue lettuce wraps, brownie bites and chocolate chip cookies, plus a set of two 2021 party hats, beads and horns. Order by Dec. 28. Pickups are on Thursday, Dec. 31, from noon to 3 p.m.

This story was possible with the generous financial support of Hippo readers. Hippo is very grateful to have the support of its readers. If you haven’t contributed yet, please consider a small contribution. Your contributions allow Hippo to write more stories and gets you access to additional stories and columns.

Pots, edgers and manure

Holiday gifts for the gardener

I love the holiday season: the lights, the carols, the cookies and more. It’s a good antidote to the news, and to the gray and chilly weather. Last summer many gardening necessities sold out as so many people were quarantined at home and took to gardening. So I recommend getting presents now, before everything is sold out. Here are some ideas for presents to gardeners.

Nice pots are good presents, for growing plants on the deck or just for their sheer beauty. For my birthday this year my wife gave me an urn made by Brattleboro, Vermont, potter Stephen Procter. It is 20 inches tall, a foot wide in the middle and tapering to a six-inch neck. His website, stephenprocter.com, shows mostly huge pots, some six feet tall, but he makes smaller things like mine, too. And your garden center will offer a wide variety of nice pots for growing things, too.

We all need hand tools, and sometimes we lose them. So you can always give a weeder to your loved one. The best of these, in my opinion, is the CobraHead weeder with its curved single tine that is great for teasing out roots of grasses and invasive weeds, or for use at planting time to loosen the soil. It’s available locally or from CobraHead.com for about $28 including shipping, and made in America.

Last summer was dry, so watering devices and accessories were hard to buy locally much of the time. One item that is a bit of luxury, for me, is a three-way or four-way splitter for the hose. Look for a good, heavy-duty metal one at your local garden center. Why four-way? One for each hose. No more disconnecting and reconnecting hoses. Price? Around $30. Give a five- or six-foot hose to go with it, to attach to the spigot and the splitter. Under $10.

Another watering device is a watering wand. Dramm is the best because their wands deliver a lot of water in a gentle fashion. I like a 30-inch wand with a built in on-off controller. Around $25.

I like adding height to the garden, and an easy way to do this is with Gardener’s Supply’s “Essex Round Trellis.” It comes in five-foot and seven-foot heights, and I selected the taller one to grow my morning glories next year. Metal, easy to assemble, $60 or $80. It will look good in the garden all winter, too.

Also from Gardener’s Supply I got some metal edging. It comes in a variety of lengths and assembles and installs easily; it’s sold as 12- to 24-foot kits in a variety of metals and finishes for $43 to $80. These bend nicely and create a finished look for a flower bed.

I love gardening books. I realize that the web has a lot of information, but nothing beats a book in my hands as I settle in on a cold and snowy day.

Norwich, Vermont, garden designer Bill Noble came out with a beautifully illustrated book this year, Spirit of Place: The Making of a New England Garden (Timber Press, $35). It is a lovely description of his gardens – and the thought processes that went along with doing this over a long period of time.

I have a few cases of my last book, Organic Gardening (not just) in the Northeast: A Hands-On, Month-by-Month Guide (Bunker Hill Publishing, 2015) collecting dust. It came out at $17.50 in paperback, but I am offering it now at $15 including shipping. It’s a collection of my best articles arranged by month. Send me a check at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

Storey Publications (storey.com) is one of my favorite publishers for garden books, not only because their books are practical and well-written, but because many are in paperback and very affordable. Their Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Ed Smith ($24.95 in paper) is a classic and a must-have even for experienced gardeners.

New to me this year are these, all looking interesting. Best of all is a great book on soil by Dianne Miessler, Grow Your Soil: Harness the Power of the Soil Food Web to Create Your Best Garden Ever. It explains very well how soils work, what soil test results mean, and how to correct deficiencies. You don’t need to be a scientist to read this one ($16.95 in paperback).

The Gardener’s Weed Book and The Gardener’s Bug Book, both by Barbara Pleasant ($14.95 each) are very useful No color illustrations, but the drawings are fine. It’s written for organic gardeners.

Saving Container Plants by Alice and Brian McGowan is a useful book for all of us in New England that want to winter over tender perennials that we have grown in pots on the deck all summer, but that can’t survive the winter outdoors. A stocking stuffer at $9.95 in paperback.

Lastly, give your loved one a pile of … manure. Farmers and garden centers sell hot-composted or aged manure that is great for the garden. It will improve the soil and nurture soil organisms. Three yards is a small dump truck load, or you can go get a load in a pickup truck.

All my best to you, my readers, in this holiday season. Don’t be naughty, and Santa may bring you what you want.

You may reach Henry at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

Featured Photo: Alder catkins provide seeds now. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Definitely try this at home

Definitely try this at home

Between Covid, cold and snow, you might be spending a lot of time at home in the coming months. We have a few ideas to keep you from going stir crazy, from growing succulents to creating an indoor obstacle course that’s fun for the whole family.

Also on the cover, if you’re looking for some holiday cheer, there’s a home in Nashua that’s lighting up the night, p. 15. Find new Thai eats in Manchester and new Italian eats in New Boston, p. 22 & 23. And there are lots of holiday brews that can help you get through the rest of 2020, p. 26.

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Holiday cheerful

Dan Blakeslee celebrates Christmas LP with show

It takes real Grinch-iness to resist the ebullient charms of Christmasland Jubilee, the new holiday album from Dan Blakeslee. From the Dixieland-themed opener “Mister Candy Cane” and its story of a “boogie woogie Santa Claus … bouncin’ on the keys, makin’ you believe” to his sincere reading of the disc-closing “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” it’s irresistible, one of the best in the genre to come out of New England.

Blakeslee celebrates the release with an afternoon outdoor show at Stone Church in Newmarket on Dec. 19, backed by his three-piece band and plenty of portable heaters. Senie Hunt will open.

A big reason the new record works so well is the way Blakeslee created it. In mid-December 2019, the Seacoast-born and -raised singer-songwriter decided he’d waited long enough to unleash his inner Bing Crosby — and he wanted to do it during the season. Dover producer Chris Chase offered him five hours of time at his Noise Floor studio in the days before Christmas, and the project was set in motion.

“I came in the studio, and I decorated the place like crazy,” Blakeslee said in a recent phone interview. “I feel it reflects in the audio somehow; I get inspired looking at the stuff, it just makes me happy. Then my band came in and we recorded … throughout the winter, while there was still snow on the ground.”

Backed by his longtime group The Calabash Club they produced an ebullient mix of classics and originals that dated back to when Blakeslee began making Christmas songs as presents for his family. One of the first was “We Three Kings” — his version takes the line about “westward leading” musically to heart, giving the song a gentle twang.

The musicianship is stellar; keyboard player Mike Effenberger is especially good, and the vintage rhythm team of bassist Nick Phaneuf and drummer Jim Rudolf is in the pocket throughout. A guest list including Soggy Po’ Boys horn players Chris and Eric Klaxton, New Hampshire pedal steel legend Bruce Derr and string players Tim Moore and Dave Talmadge — among others — provided stellar support.

“I love the guys in my band,” Blakeslee said. “I’ve seen them in so many different musical acts through the years and I’m still blown away whenever I see them play. And whenever I play with them, I feel like I’m in awe the whole time. … I can’t focus sometimes on playing the songs.”

Blakeslee’s timing in making the record was ideal in more ways than his good luck having a winter wonderland to work in.

“We had two things left to record when the pandemic came,” he said. Thus, Derr’s contribution was done in his home studio, and backing vocalists emailed their tracks. “We got most of it, though.”

Other standouts include the whimsical originals “To Be An Elf” and “The Somerville Lights” — the latter provides a nice counterpart to “Silver Bells,” which also appears. The rollicking “Reindeer Boogie” is a nugget Blakeslee unearthed from a Hank Snow Christmas album made in the 1960s.

“Over the past two years I’ve been obsessed with that song,” he said, noting that an alternate take was his template. “It has such grit to it. … I was literally playing it every single day throughout the holiday season.”

A bonus track, “Let’s Start Again” is one of the record’s most endearing. It’s an optimistic ode to better angels, and though it’s over a decade old it fits perfectly with the times.

“Awaken with hope and forgiveness, surprise us with news that is good,” Blakeslee sings. “Together let’s move towards a difference, whether you work in policy or wood.”

The song was born after a painful breakup found him wandering around Somerville on New Year’s Eve in 2009. He ended up at the Lizard Lounge, a Somerville music hub where Tim Gearan was appearing.

“Every time he takes the stage it’s like it’s New Year’s Eve. He just has this delivery on all his songs,” Blakeslee said of Gearan.

Blakeslee taped the New Year’s countdown on a recorder he carried in his pocket.

“It was the most moving thing,” he said. “Sometimes you can listen to a song for two minutes and have your outlook changed; that’s what happened at that show. Then I walked outside and this girl shouts out, ‘2010, let’s start again!’ It just kinda happened. She gave me a hug, and I wrote the song that night.”

Dan Blakeslee & the Calabash Club Christmas Show
When: Saturday, Dec. 19, 1 p.m.
Where: Stone Church, 5 Granite St., Newmarket
Tickets: $60/table of 4, $90/table of 6

Featured photo: Dan Blakeslee and personally bedazzled stockings done for his crowdfunders. Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 20/12/17

Local music news & events

• Food music: Though Covid-19 ate his annual booze cruise, Chad LaMarsh is still performing out at places like a Salem restaurant/bar and its Bedford counterpart. A set list can include everything from Peter Gabriel to the Eagles to Matchbox 20 to Nine Inch Nails. LaMarsh is a diverse guy, and a charitable one as well; his annual Bundles of Books effort has helped a lot of folks over the years. Thursday, Dec. 17, 6 p.m., Copper Door, 41 South Broadway, Salem. See chadlamarsh.com.

• Song circle: While live music continues in some venues, this year’s Holiday Java Jam will be a virtual affair. Beloved Manchester native Alli Beaudry again hosts, inviting local musicians to sign up and play original or traditional holiday songs for the event, which is usually held downtown at Café La Reine. Dress up in seasonal finery and light the home tree for this unique evening. Friday, Dec. 18, 6 p.m., get a Zoom link by signing up at facebook.com/javajamswithallibeaudry.

• Brew-versary: A Queen City craft brewery celebrates two years of business with Paul Nelson playing songs. “Song crafter, blues explorer, mystery muser” Nelson has appeared at Club Passim in Cambridge, opening for folk legend Ellis Paul, and has been featured on many big stages since he broke out as musician in 2018. Last year he released his first album, Over Under Through, to solid praise. Friday, Dec. 18, 4 p.m. at To Share Brewing, 720 Union St., Manchester, tosharebrewing.com.

• Holiday giving: While the Bank of NH Stage is dark until at least mid-January, Seth Glier will perform a free online show with the Concord venue’s imprimatur. The Holiday Spectacular promises music, jokes and dancing offered by Glier and his good friends — he promises, “even Jesus Christ will be there!” While there’s no cost to watch on Facebook Live or YouTube, those with the means can and should donate. Saturday, Dec. 19, 8 p.m., login information at banknhstage.com.

Month: December 2020

Giving thanks in a tough year

New Year’s eatings

Pots, edgers and manure

Definitely try this at home

Holiday cheerful

The Music Roundup 20/12/17

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