Author: Michael Witthaus

Light up the season

LaBelle Winery’s lights display glows with holiday cheer

Created during the pandemic as a way to provide socially distanced family fun, LaBelle Lights enters its fourth year bigger and better. Newly added is The Treehouse, a big glowing box that looks like twisted birch branches made of spun sugar. It’s a beacon for the Derry location of LaBelle Winery and a great Instagram photo spot that’s located right at the holiday trail’s start.

Along with other new display pieces like the caterpillar-shaped Blizzard Bend and more glowing evergreens dotting the Forest of Trees are new events and attractions to carry the holiday spirit into the new year. Perennial favorites like the twinkling giant teddy bear and ornament-shaped Proposal Ball still remain.

There are expanded food options.

“People like to eat along the way,” Michelle Thornton, the winery’s Marketing Director, said recently. “We have Santa’s Snack Shack, which is grab and go, and LaBelle Market, which looks like a French market all decorated for Christmas. They have cookies that are the size of a human head, I mean, they’re huge.”

Themes change weekly, and as Christmas passes the soundtrack moves from “Here Comes Santa Claus” to “Sleigh Ride” and “Winter Wonderland.” Upcoming is Crazy Holiday Hats week, where guests are encouraged to show off wild, wacky and holiday-appropriate headgear.

Frozen Costume Week happens Dec. 26 through Dec. 29 and includes a ticketed event on the first day. Ice Princess Party is a dress-up affair for youngsters that offers a dance party with cocoa and characters such as Snow Sister and Ice Boy, live story time and a puppet show. A meet and greet at the end provides ample photo opportunities.

A stroll through the glowing displays after is included with the $44 ticket ($34 for ages 2 through 10). “What’s so fun about this,” Thornton said, “is after kids are done engaging with characters, they can go right over to LaBelle Lights and walk through it in their costumes.”

Grown-ups will enjoy Flannel Week, which starts on New Year’s Eve, followed by ’80s Ski Week with retro winter gear encouraged. The final week of the attraction has WinterFest, celebrating all things related to the season, before LaBelle staff takes down everything and begins planning for next time.

Winery founder Amy LaBelle came up with the idea of transforming their golf course for winter, and nurtures it like it’s her own Disney World. “That’s Amy … anything that brings joy and makes memories, those things are part of her personal mantra,” Thornton said. “When she presented it to our leadership team, we all went, sure, we can do that, and then we had to figure out how, [but] we’re really good at taking a concept and bringing it to life.”

Thornton mentioned that families on a budget should be aware of Twinkle Tuesday. “That’s half price for everyone,” she said. “That was also Amy’s idea; she wanted it to be affordable for everyone. If someone was concerned about pricing for any reason, we created a whole night for them that’s the same exact experience — but it’s half price.”

Anyone looking to extend the experience can reserve an age-specific swag bag while booking tickets, but they’re quite popular. “They sell out,” Thornton said. “We’re making them constantly.” For the kiddos, the canvas tote bag has a light-up bulb necklace and holiday wand along with light-enhancing 3D glasses. Adults get a logoed winter beanie and a set of hand warmers, a glowing holiday ornament and a $5 market voucher.

For a few more days, attendees can also book a Santa Photo Experience. “Instead of getting your photo at the mall, you can get it in this environment, which is probably a lot less crazy,” Thornton said. “It’s very festive … you’re seeing Santa and then the kids get to let loose and go through the lights.”

The Music Roundup 24/12/19

Local music news & events

• Celebration time: Time again for the annual Buzz Ball, with the one constant being Greg & the Morning Buzz offering laughs and pickup band The Velvet Elves providing the soundtrack. From that point on anything can happen, with special guest musicians, comedians and actors teaming up for holiday-themed entertainment benefiting the Lend a Helping Can charity. Thursday, Dec. 19, 7 p.m., Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord, $58.75 at ccanh.com.

• Country holiday: There are many seasonal events on tap this week, including Sara Evans; her 21 Days of Christmas is in town. The show includes reverent renditions of standards like a “Silent Night” that one critic recently enthused “could rattle the stained glass in just about any church.” ” Friday, Dec. 20, 7:30 p.m., Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua, $59 and up at etix.com.

• Brassy bash: Continuing the holiday mood is dinner and dancing with music from the NH Jazz Orchestra. Cocktails will be served at six, with dinner starting a half hour later. Then the Skip Poole-led big band takes over for an evening of Swingin’ Yuletide sounds played by musicians who’ve worked with stars like Mel Tormé, Rosemary Clooney and Johnny Mathis. Saturday, Dec. 21, 6 p.m., Murphy’s Taproom & Carriage House, 393 Route 101, Bedford, $30 at eventbrite.com.

• Funny guy: Enjoy standup comedy in a venue designed for it as Kyle Crawford holds forth. A fixture on the regional scene for over 15 years, Crawford has performed with national stars Jim Florentine, Jim Norton and Gary Gulman. He was a first runner-up in New Hampshire’s Last Comic Standing, and was also twice featured on Comcast’s Comedy Spotlight. Saturday, Dec. 21, 8 p.m., Headliners at The Doubletree, 700 Elm St., Manchester, $20 at headlinersnh.com.

• So good, so good: A Neil Diamond tribute act led by singer Michael Anthony, Tru Diamond performs an afternoon holiday concert at an area winery. The show will also include hits like “Cracklin’ Rosie,” “Song Sung Blue” and the Red Sox mid-inning anthem “Sweet Caroline.” The five-piece band is considered one of New England’s best at channeling the Diamond sound. Sunday, Dec. 22, 2 p.m., LaBelle Winery, 345 Route 101, Amherst, $15 and up at labellewinery.com.

December Project

A wintry afternoon with Mary Fahl in Concord

Most musicians find their way to making a Christmas album, but for singer Mary Fahl, holiday tunes triggered thoughts of shopping mall sound systems assaulting her senses. When Fahl finally released Winter Songs and Carols in 2019, it was because she’d found a collection of songs that suited her idea of the season.

The are nods to tradition like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “What Child is This,” along with the haunting medley of “O Holy Night/Silent Night.” The rest of the record is best listened to while sipping cocoa and staring pensively out the window at a snowy horizon.

As an interpreter, Fahl is in a class by herself, breathing new meaning into Joni Mitchell’s “Urge For Going.” She reshapes Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time is Here” into an evocative blend of hope and wistfulness, commands the operatic “Ave Maria,” as she does songs from Sandy Denny, Leonard Cohen, and the 19th-century chestnut “In the Bleak Midwinter.”

Fahl explained by phone the day after Thanksgiving that the album came about for selfish reasons. Recently reading Rick Rubin’s book On Creativity validated her decision, she added. “He said, you have to do things for yourself, not anybody else, just you. That’s why I made that Christmas record … and it ended up being my favorite that I’ve ever done.”

In the spirit of the season, a Dec. 15 show at Concord’s BNH Stage will feature the disc while also drawing from a catalog reaching back to her days with October Project. The early ’90s band hit with songs like “Bury My Lovely” and “Return to Me,” but when their label dropped them in 1996, she left.

“I knew I had another destiny,” she said. “I had to make my own mistakes and grow … try different things. They went their way, and did what they wanted. It all worked out in the end.” Fahl then spent the rest of the decade developing her skills as a songwriter — new and unfamiliar territory for the singer.

“It was terrifying … and I was determined,” she said. “You have to have the courage to be bad at something, and my first few songs weren’t good. But it’s a muscle, and you learn to use it. I got some great tips. I started writing with other very good writers, like Ramsey McLean, who wrote all the lyrics for the early Harry Connick records.”

McLean told Fahl to keep notebooks, because any scrap of thought might be a building block. “He also taught me that even if a song is bad, save it, keep it, because you can harvest it for parts later.” She began weekly writing sessions with another songwriter, Bob Riley. In five years, she produced a long list of songs.

In 2001 she was signed by Sony Records to make her first solo album, The Other Side of Time. Her audition happened a few days after 9/11 in midtown New York City. It was a magical experience that included an impromptu performance of an aria, a request by one of the suits sitting in the boardroom.

She’d learned it years earlier, while trying to not think about her poverty and a brutally hot city summer. “I was just out of college, teaching myself some Pavarotti,” she said. “There was no air conditioner, and it’s sad, I had two broken television sets, one with sound and one with a picture. If you turned them on at the same time, you could watch.”

The youngest in a family of music-loving siblings, Fahl taught herself to sing, inspired by her sister’s Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark records, one brother’s Bob Dylan and another’s prog rock — the Moody Blues and Pink Floyd. She’d later record her own version of the classic album Dark Side of the Moon.

The lack of formal training did not keep Fahl from finding her place as a singular vocalist who puts a unique stamp on everything she performs, even classics like “Both Sides Now” that have been done to death. “Especially with Joni, you’d better make it your own, you’d better find a way in,” Fahl said. “If I can’t, then I don’t do the song.”

Mary Fahl
When: Sunday, Dec. 15, 3 p.m.
Where: BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $43.74 and up at ccanh.com

Gifts for music fans

Cool stuff to light up the season

From vinyl to attire, books and trinkets, there are many ways to make a music fan happy with the perfect holiday gift. Here are some ideas crossing genres and eras, including a few for local music aficionados.

musical note shaped gadget with cat face painted on
Otamatone

Making music is fun, especially when it’s easy. One option is the Otamatone, which is shaped like an eighth note and sounds like the spawn of a synthesizer and a slide guitar. The emotively adorned Aggretsuko Rage version is $44.99 at hamee.com.

Or spring for the $159 Orba 3, Artiphon’s latest iteration of its music-in-the-palm-of-your-hand synthesizer, which starts with a massive library of drum sounds and adds sampling for miniature magic. Artiphon also makes the keyboard-shaped Chorda, both a standalone synthesizer and MIDI controller ($249.99 at artiphon.com).

For listening to music, headphones are a great gift that can range in price from the reasonable and well-regarded Status Audio 3ANC, the first in-ears with a dedicated bass speaker ($179, status.co). Audiophile legends Bang & Olufsen just introduced its high-end Beoplay H100 cans ($1,549, bang-olufsen.com) for the truly nice person on your list.

Affordable tabletop surround sound is available with the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4 portable Bluetooth speaker, a compact yet powerful unit costing $80 at most stores. For heavier listening, the 6-pound Marshall Acton III is a boomer that will evoke the giant amp it’s named after ($227.99 at amazon.com).

rectangular speaker
Marshall Acton III

For something completely different in the portable speaker category, Uncommon Goods has a combination water bottle and Bluetooth unit that’s perfect for pop-up parties. It’s quite popular, though, and as of this writing it was sold out on the store’s website. Check for restocking at uncommongoods.com, a great stop for other gifts.

Speaking of one-stop shopping, it’s axiomatic that the best way to support local music is buying direct from your favorite artists. For those who can’t attend every show, the best alternative is the Bandcamp website (bandcamp.com). There, area bands make most of the money, unlike Spotify, where the CEO is richer than any musician on his site.

If your list includes a dedicated collector of vinyl albums, consider gifting them a Spin-Clean cleaning kit. Its $125 price tag may be too lofty; if so, there are some cheaper options available. The Discwasher D4+ Record Care System is the granddaddy of the bunch, dating back to the ’60s. It’s $25.

Of course, your giftee will need records to clean with their new gear. 2024 doesn’t disappoint. For the Swiftie on your list, Target offers a bunch of exclusives, including a double album of songs from The Tortured Poets Department with a bonus track (“The Manuscript”) on clear vinyl for $32.99. Give it with a copy of the massive Official Taylor Swift The Eras Tour book ($39.99) and you’ll be a hero.

For fans of an earlier era, the debut LP from an influential New Wave band recently received a deluxe treatment. Talking Heads: 77 introduced songs like “Psycho Killer” and “Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town” while hinting at adventurous music to come. The four-CD set has goodies including outtakes, Atmos mixes and a full-length CBGB show from October 1977.

Elvis Costello was another artist who evolved from that period, moving from angry young man to reverent roots-music adherent. The six-CD King Of America & Other Realms Super Deluxe begins with the 1986 album and includes new songs, along with beauties like a Grand Ole Opry performance of “The Scarlet Tide” from the Cold Mountain soundtrack accompanied by Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and duets with Ralph Stanley and Larkin Poe.

Playing cards

While physical tickets have mostly been displaced by cell phone barcodes, dedicated concertgoers usually have a big collection of stubs. For those, consider a Ticket Stub Diary for preserving those memories. It will give them something to share with their children and grandkids one day ($29, uncommongoods.com).

Finally, let’s not forget stocking stuffers. Uncommon Goods is a great source for things like music playing cards with drawings of David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix and other rock stars. Mistaken Lyrics Coasters are fun if you’ve ever misheard this U2 song: “It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright / Shamu, the mysterious whale.” Or get a mahogany thumb piano for your favorite fan.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 24/12/12

Local music news & events

• Movement: When he’s not playing an eclectic mix of acoustic rock covers, Joel Begin is a physical therapist. He finds that music is a good way to help many patients, and he’s lectured on its intersectionality with movement and healing from stress and trauma. His set list draws a lot from the 1990s, . Thursday, Dec. 12, 7 p.m., The Local, 15 E. Main St., Warner; more at facebook.com/joel.begin.music.

• Vocalizing: Before Straight No Chaser, Pentatonix and the Pitch Perfect movies, Rockapella were primary purveyors of a cappella music. The New York vocal group had forebears, but as the house “band” on the PBS series Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? its unique human beat box harmonizing entered the mainstream. Their annual holiday show is a Derry favorite. Friday, Dec. 13, 7 p.m., Stockbridge Theatre, 44 N. Main St., Derry, $20 and up at pinkertonacademy.org.

• Traditional: Few New England events approach the venerability of the Boston Pops Holiday Concert, led by maestro Keith Lockhart. What began in 1973 as A Pops Christmas Party evolved over the years into what Lockhart recently called “a balancing act [with] things people want to come back to [while] always adding new musical experiences from across cultures.” Saturday, Dec. 14, 7:30 p.m., SNHU Arena, 555 Elm St., Manchester, $33.50 and up at ticketmaster.com.

• Rockestral: From a Trans-Siberian Orchestra covers show intended as a one-off, Wizards of Winter has grown into a phenomenon all its own. The group melds Christmas music and grandeur while leaving out the smoke bombs, lasers and other gadgetry of arena shows. The effect is equally majestic, as they let musicality move front and center. These days, they’re a top concert draw. Sunday, Dec. 15, 3 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $45 and up at tupelohall.com.

• Evergreen: Celebrate the holiday in an Irish way with Cherish the Ladies performing A Celtic Christmas. The show includes a six-piece band with three vocalists and four step dancers backing the influential female group — flute player Joanie Madden, guitarist Mary Coogan, accordion player Mirella Murray, pianist Kathleen Boyle, fiddle player Nollaig Casey and guitarist Kate Purcell. Wednesday, Dec. 18, 7 p.m., BNH Stage, 16. S. Main St., Concord, $64 at ccanh.com.

Whose Carol is it anyway?

Improv fun with What the Dickens

What would happen if Ebenezer Scrooge were not miserly but instead always looking at his mobile phone? What if rather than sadness that he needed crutches, Tiny Tim’s family mourned his inability to read an instruction manual? Those are some of the audience suggestions received by the cast of What The Dickens, an improv version of A Christmas Carol at Millspace in Newmarket on Dec. 13 and Dec. 14.

Seacoast-based Stranger Than Fiction, an improv group now in its 20th year, uses the Charles Dickens holiday classic as a template for comedy. The show is always different. One night, the Ghost of Christmas Past might have a Mickey Mouse voice; on another he could be Darth Vader. Some touches are written down by patrons as they enter the theatre; others are shouted out during the play.

The show began in 2022, said STF cast member and Marketing Director Dan Schiffmacher in a recent phone interview, with a run at the New Hampshire Theatre Project in Portsmouth’s West End. Last year, STF partnered with Players’ Ring Theatre and did the show there, along with performances in Newmarket and Sanford, Maine.

“We wanted to do something for the holidays, something a little bit different, and one of our members came up with the idea,” he said. “We started to craft [how] to mix what people know about the story and also have elements of improv…. We didn’t want to pre-plan too much, because we still wanted to have that like spontaneity and fun to it.”

Thus the principles of Dickens’ tale remain — a boss, an employee, his family and some ghosts — but the elements change from night to night. For this year’s opener at Portsmouth’s Players’ Ring Theatre, Scrooge’s bad habit was stealing drinks at the pub he owned, where Cratchit tended bar, and one of the ghosts was Ronald Reagan. Other times, the ghosts spoke like Mickey Mouse or Scooby-Doo.

Audience “asks” are often challenging, Schiffmacher noted. When Scrooge & Marley became a Christmas tree company, the ghost character had to come up with a way to transport Scrooge from realm to realm. The solution was to make him climb into the twining machine to be spun ahead.

Sometimes the mundane is quite funny. “When Darth Vader was the Ghost of Christmas Future, he cleared the scenes by force-choking us all off the stage,” Schiffmacher said. “Our director was on the lights, and he turned everything red. It’s a lot of fun when we’re all on the same page and can do that.”

The process of getting audience input is itself entertaining. When last year’s Scrooge character asked for a 1980s movie actor suggestion, response began flying at him immediately, including Bruce Springsteen, as if his videos counted, along with Sean Connery and John Cusack. He ultimately chose Rodney Dangerfield and groused about getting no respect while talking to Marley’s ghost.

Between an animated crowd and the venerable improv group always looking to top itself, each show presents many new opportunities for hilarity. “We’re always trying to find different ways to switch things up, make them a little more fresh,” Schiffmacher said. “Like we’re all different characters — the person who plays Scrooge in the first show won’t play him in the second show. We all shuffle around … everyone has their own approach.”

Schiffmacher joined Stranger Than Fiction in early 2022, after moving to New Hampshire from Chicago. He has more than a decade of improv experience. He noted that anyone with an itch to try improv can take one of the classes the troupe offers.

“There’s a 101 Intro to Improv that starts in January,” he said. “We’re working on the dates; people can find out more on our website.”

What the Dickens
When: Friday, Dec. 13, and Saturday, Dec. 14, 8 p.m.
Where: Millspace, 55 Main St., Newmarket
Tickets: $12 at portsmouthnhtickets.com

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

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