Author: Michael Witthaus

Original songwriters at BNH Stage

By Michael Witthaus
[email protected]

An eight-week competition at Patrick’s Pub in Gilford sponsored by NH Music Collective culminates with performances from the winners and semi-finalists at the BNH Stage in downtown Concord on Dec. 1.

Singer-songwriter Ian Archibold took top honors in the final round on Nov. 18 and will headline the show. Second-place winner Ian Galipeau will perform ahead of Archibold, and Temple Mountain — the nom de tune of singer, guitarist and songwriter Eric Impallomeni — rounds out the bill-topping trio.

The rest of the performers are an eclectic bunch. Adrienne Mack-Davis offers hip-hop and R&B, Arthur Terembula has a rustic sound that’s somewhere between Tom Waits and a Smithsonian field recording, while Brendan Cleary, Willy Chase and Jason Oberstein sit comfortably in the folk, singer-songwriter genre.

The show is an excellent way for fans of original music to broaden their horizons. Take, for example, Ian Galipeau’s song “The Little Things.” A worthy counterpart to Jason Isbell’s “If We Were Vampires,” it distills a lifetime of love, marriage, parenthood and death with breathtaking precision. He’ll likely play that along with material from his 2022 album Like We Were Never Here At All and his most recent single, “Floorboard,” another storytelling gem.

Archibold released an EP, Parallel, in 2016, and cites influences ranging from The Beatles to Bruno Mars and Coldplay. His song “Valley of Uncertainty” is a good example of how he joins those disparate threads to craft a singular sound. He hails from Panama but has performed around the New England region for a while.

A well-traveled Long Island native, Temple Mountain blends deft finger-picking guitar with atmospheric vocalizing that recalls Elliot Smith, a singer-songwriter he cites as an influence. Lyrically idiosyncratic, with a bio stating that he has “a psychology background,” his songs charmingly probe the human experience.

NHMC is riding a successful wave of late. The idea for its monthly Sunday Sessions is to book a local performer in the BNH Stage’s intimate Cantin Room, then move into the main theater when ticket sales hit a certain level. This month, Charlie Chronopoulos sold out the big space, and a few months earlier, singer/songwriter Taylor Hughes came within a few dozen seats of doing the same.

“So far, we’ve had three shows go to the big stage,” NHMC principal John McArthur said by phone recently. “We book a lot of bar gigs … breweries and wineries, stuff like that, where they’re doing mostly cover songs. But this opportunity to perform original music in front of a listening audience, this is what I live for.”

The third annual singer/songwriter contest at Patrick’s attracted entries from as far away as Rhode Island. “This is how starved indie artists are,” McArthur said. “People that in past years would have gotten in didn’t. We’re trying to build a community of songwriters and indie singing, and it’s starting to work.”
Brad Myrick, who founded the musician-friendly organization, agreed with his partner McArthur.

“I love that we can tie one thing that we’re doing to support songwriters and original music and segue that into a proper theater show promoted well and in a city like Concord that has some movement,” he said. “These are the kinds of things that I didn’t have the ability to do five or 10 years ago … that we’ve grown to where we can do that feels really good.”

It’s a two-way street for artists and NHMC, which books a wide range of area venues, Myrick continued.

“John set up the open mic as a way to have a forum to hear some new people and invite some folks,” he said. “It’s opened up some new performers for us, and it works great for them. They come up here and get new fans. It’s building something. I want people to say there’s a scene in New Hampshire. I want that to be felt and be real.”

NHMC Sunday Sessions: Songwriter Showcase
When: Sunday, Dec. 1, 6 p.m.
Where: BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $18.75 at ccanh.com

Featured photo: First, second and third place winners of the Patrick’s Pub Songwriter Competition. Pictured L to R: Ian Archibold, Ian Galipeau, Temple Mountain. Courtesy photos..

British Invasion Years revisits ’60s

When The Beatles debuted on American television in February 1964, it was a shot heard ’round the world, and the ensuing onslaught of artists from across the pond forever revolutionized music. At the same time, something else happened, as musicians on this side of the Atlantic traded their Martin acoustic guitars for Rickenbackers and responded in kind.

Roger McGuinn, for example, ditched folk music and formed The Byrds, redefining Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” as a jangly, electric rocker. All across the nation bands came together, and the landscape changed. This call and response social moment is captured by British Invasion Years, performing Nov. 23 at Tupelo Music Hall.

“We use the American Revolution as a metaphor … but instead of hurling ammunition back and forth, these bands were throwing hits,” Lee Howard, who plays guitar and sings, said during a recent phone interview that included bass player and vocalist Bob Murdock. “Their battle was for the top spot in the charts.”

Howard and Murdock, along with drummer Dave Hall and Jon Wolf, who plays keyboards and guitar, begin their show as an all-British affair, churning out hits by the Fab Four, Herman’s Hermits, The Who, Moody Blues, Rolling Stones, Kinks and others. Act 2 is the American musical response.

One element separating them from other tribute acts is the precision brought to their task. They’re focused on replicating the studio sound of the songs they play down to the tiniest element. For example, “Time of the Season” by the Zombies opens with a percussive sound that’s either a hand clap or a wood block; the band was equally divided on which.

To settle it, they messaged Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone on Facebook, who confirmed it was a single hand clap. “It was a very fun but testy debate,” Murdock recalled. “We never really argue in the band, but in the end, it’s always the song that wins.”

Howard agreed. “It’s an example of how far we go to try and replicate as closely as possible the music that we’re doing,” he said. The group is equally exacting in its presentation, donning Beatles suits and other garb worn by bands during the transition from three-minute singles to concept albums like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

They also employ multimedia, like a photo of The Monkees’ Davy Jones alongside Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia on the sitcom The Brady Bunch. It always sparks a raucous audience reaction. Other nostalgia triggers include trolls, Twister boards and Peter Fonda on his Easy Rider Harley.

“We conceptualized this [with] a screen that would project images and bring back those feelings of the day … people do respond to it,” Howard said; he designed that part of the show. “It’s great because we get to tug on emotional heartstrings not only sonically, but visually too.”

It’s a big part of the show’s second half, which can include everything from Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” to “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies. The outfits for that section are, Murdock said, “very hippie-ish, headbands and vests,” reflecting a time that was “all about peace and love.”

Asked for a nugget from the era that they personally love playing, both of them demur. That’s like naming a favorite child, Murdock asserts. “You love them all for different reasons.” Howard likes the Moody Blues’ “Tuesday Afternoon” because it surprises most audiences.

There’s good news on that front for New England fans, however. Everyone in the band enjoys rolling out Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” so Red Sox fans can rejoice! “The audience reacts to that song amazingly, they sing along and wave their hands,” Murdock said. “You get a little glimpse into Neil Diamond’s concert life when he used to sing that.”

Howard believes that the band’s note for note fastidiousness has something to do with it. “Most bands don’t like to do it because it’s not a cool sounding song if you don’t do it right,” he said. “We do it like the record and people flip out. There is something psychological behind that … when people hear what they’re accustomed to hearing, they get a warm, fuzzy feeling.”

British Invasion Years
When: Saturday, Nov. 23, 8 p.m.
Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry
Tickets: $39 at tupelohall.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Willie Nile on making the best music of his life

By Michael Witthaus
[email protected]

“The Benjamin Button of rock ’n’ roll” is what VH1 Storytellers creator Bill Flanagan once called Willie Nile. “Because my career has been ass backwards,” Nile said recently. It’s true; the Buffalo-born rocker made two great albums early and waited 10 years for his third. Since then, he’s released over a dozen more, including nine in the last 12 years.

Nile’s energy level is up to 11, and he’s so confident he can inspire a crowd with his high-energy rock that he offers a guarantee. “If you want to see a spark and some light in this darkness, come to a show,” he said. “If you’re not blown away and you don’t feel better walking out the door, you’ll get your money back … and I don’t mean you’ll just like it.”

Every night, Willie Nile leaves everything on the stage, exiting fully soaked in sweat, usually after more than one standing ovation. He’ll play great songs from the early days like “Vagabond Moon” along with rave-ups like “This Is Our Time,” a cut from 2013’s American Ride and “The Day The Earth Stood Still,” the title track from his last studio album.

“Nothing’s changed, except I think I’m singing better,” he said. “My voice has gotten just a little richer. Maybe I wouldn’t go that far; I’m a little Sam Cooke, but I mean, I’m having more fun. The set lists are never better than this, and it’s a ball. I’m still feeling it in every pore of my body, and I’m not the only one.”

If the measure of a person is the company they keep, Nile is a star. He got his first big break when the booker at Kenny’s Castaways convinced Robert Palmer, the New York Times’ premier critic in the 1970s, to arrive early for a show he was covering to catch Nile’s opening set. The rave review led to a record deal and a tour opening for The Who.

Bruce Springsteen invited Nile to open for him in front of 70,000 fans in New Jersey’s Giants Stadium, and in 2009 pulled him from the audience to sing Jackie Wilson’s song “Higher & Higher” at a show that turned out to be Clarence Clemons’ last with the E Street Band.

Nine years ago he stood between Springsteen and Pete Townshend to perform “Won’t Get Fooled Again” in a band that included Billy Idol and Who lead singer Roger Daltrey. Nile also played “Substitute” and “Kids Are Alright” at the show, a Grammy MusiCares tribute.

“I remember thinking, what’s wrong with this picture?” he recalled, and talked about working out how to play the Who classic backstage with the Boss, who also didn’t know the song. “For 15 minutes, like two high school kids … we learn ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again.’ You can’t make this stuff up; I’m living a dream.”

Nile, however, isn’t the least bit starstruck by the music legends who love him.

“I’m just too dumb to know any better, but fame was never what I cared about,” he said. “It was always about the songs … that’s gotten me through some really small keyholes into some unique places.”

The inverse of that is what led him to leave music in the wake of his first two critically lauded albums when the industry harshed his mellow, then return in 1991 with Places I Have Never Been. He just wasn’t feeling it anymore. He and his then-wife — he’s now married to Italian photographer Cristina Arrigoni — moved back to Buffalo and had four kids.

“I stayed there through the eighties,” he said. “I stopped playing, but I was always writing. That’s what I do. I’ll write till I drop. At this rate, I’ll be playing till I drop, but it’s like my dad says … he asks, ‘How you doing?’ and I’ll say, ‘I’m working really hard, I’m pretty beat.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, but you get to do what you love. You’re a lucky guy.’ And he’s right.”

Even in conversation, one can hear the raucous Nile’s rock ’n’ roll heart beat. When he’s up on stage blazing through his massive catalog or covering a gem like the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” — Lou Reed was another New Yorker Nile knew — it’s like attending a revival tent party in 4/4 time.

So don’t go to The Rex on Nov. 15 with any thoughts of getting a refund. Rather, expect many moments when Nile’s spirit lifts the crowd to its feet. “I’m a 76-year-old dude and having the time of my life and doing the best shows in my career,” he said. “I’m having a ball, still writing at the top of my game, and the songs are still coming.”

An Evening With Willie Nile
When: Friday, Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester
Tickets: $35 at palacetheatre.org

Featured photo: Willie Nile. Courtesy photo.