Author: Michael Witthaus

Music first

Riley’s Place rocks Milford

Riley’s Place opened in early 2022 as a comfort food restaurant that featured live music. As its fourth anniversary neared, co-owner Kimberley King began to realize that entertainment has become the main course. There’s something happening on stage every day it’s open, along with multiple shows on many weekend days.

Located on the first floor of a house built in 1757 by early Milford settler John Shepard, Riley’s Place has naturally good acoustics, but when Doug Danskin walked in for the first time, shortly after opening day, there was a home stereo behind the musicians. The veteran sound man saw a chance to help.

The timing couldn’t have been better, as Danskin had recently packed up a studio’s worth of equipment when the building he’d been working in changed hands. Might Riley’s Place be interested in using it? “Yes,” King replied enthusiastically. He’s been behind the mixing board ever since, as its popularity among musicians has grown.

Enough performers praised Riley’s superlative sound that it gave King an epiphany.

“We’re a music venue that has great comfort food, not a comfort food place with music,” she said as local blues rockers Blūz Chile got ready to perform on a recent Friday night, adding that she’s decided to rebrand it as such.

In 2026 she’ll make a leap of faith similar to the one that made her decide to enter the restaurant business. Riley’s Place will begin to host ticketed events in the coming year. The lineup is mostly booked through next fall and includes tributes to David Bowie, Steve Miller, Fleetwood Mac, The Allman Brothers and The Rolling Stones.

The menu too will look like a classic rock playlist, with a country touch. Their maple bourbon burger will be newly named after Chris Stapleton, with a writeup that reads like a record review. Led Zeppelin’s Bourbon Thunder steak tips “that hit like a guitar solo” will be introduced. Yes, both Stapleton and Zep are among next year’s tribute acts.

The American BLT, “full of heartland, bacon crunch,” will honor Tom Petty, and their signature prime rib sandwich with horseradish sauce “stinging like a Jersey wind” will be dubbed The Boss, a tasty salute to Bruce Springsteen, served with a side of onion rings. It’s all part of a full-circle moment for King.

“Music gets you through life; it’s just always been that way with me.” she said. “When I opened here, I wanted it to be a place where musicians love to come and play, where everyday blue-collar people would come for comfort food and just feel safe, happy and secure.”

In front of a wall hanging designed by King showing her favorite instrument, a saxophone, the music continues. There are two open mic nights, on Wednesdays and Thursdays; a drum kit was added not too long ago. Live bands appear on Fridays and Saturdays. Sundays, afternoon blues happen, hosted by a rotating lineup of four musicians.

There are also special events, like a Christmas show hosted by Jordan Quinn at 5 p.m. on Dec. 20, ahead of an evening set from the Straight A’s. An In The Round song swap with Eric LaMarche, Carol Townsend, Lily Soleil and Jimbo Labelle is set for the day after Christmas, and on New Year’s Eve, it’s a rare show from area favorites Aces & Eights.

King named Riley’s Place after her granddaughter, now 4 years old.

“She takes over when she comes in,” King said. “She loves to dance when the music’s playing.” She calls the outdoor patio Oakley’s Place, for her other granddaughter, who’s 2.

Asked to name a high point for the business she co-founded with her ex-husband — “weird, I know, but it’s working,” it says on their web page — she can’t pick a moment. Rather, it’s a before-and-after picture in her mind of the place she once managed in her younger days, when it was a tavern called the Colonel Shepard House.

“I remember what it looked like when it was so empty, and I think of everything we’ve done in just three and a half years. I think that’s my high point. Not everybody lives their dream. I can tell my daughter that if I die tomorrow, at least I can say that I lived my dream.”

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 25/12/18

• Holiday bash: Concord’s cellar full of noise celebrates early as Lucas Gallo & the Guise return for a jam-filled party that’s becoming an annual tradition. The group includes Gallo, his JamAntics mates Eric Reingold and Freeland Hubbard, and Curtis Marden. They draw from Gallo’s solo material, stuff from his old band and more, and surprise guests often stop by. Thursday, Dec. 18, at 9 p.m., Penuche’s Ale House, 16 Bicentennial Square, Concord, facebook.com/lucasgallomusic.

• Holy bow: A musician born to play her instrument, Eileen Ivers recalls using a pink toy guitar as an air fiddle at age 3. She’s been called the Jimi Hendrix of the violin, winning multiple All-Ireland fiddle championships, and she has toured with Riverdance. That said, Ivers is an American, born in New York City. Her “Joyful Christmas” show mixes Wren Day faves and roots music. Friday, Dec. 19, at 7:30 p.m., Colonial Theatre, 609 Main St., Laconia, $54 and up at etix.com.

• Charlie time: Many suburban American kids, including pianist Eric Mintel, got their first taste of jazz from A Charlie Brown Christmas and its Vince Guaraldi soundtrack. Mintel didn’t know it was jazz, but he knew he liked it. The special spawned a lifetime love of it that’s seen him play the White House twice. Mintel is back to perform the holiday favorite with his quartet. Friday, Dec. 19, at 7:30 p.m., Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, $34 and up at palacetheatre.org.

• Bass power: The regional EDM scene welcomes Denver-based dubstep trio Hostage Situation for a multi-act evening of floor-shaking sonic fury called Hachi Holiday. Fellow Denverite Noetika, who blends funk and hip-hop into his sound, is also on the bill, rounded out by New England DJs Wubson, who offers a punk edge, Mary AK, and the genre-shifting Hachi cofounder Kr3wl. Saturday, Dec. 20, 8 p.m., Jewel Music Venue, 61 Canal St., Manchester, $28 and up at posh.vip.

• Caroling trio: Winners of CW’s Christmas Caroler Challenge a few years back, The Sugarplums are a holiday favorite throughout the country. The classic modern trio offers solid choreography, humorous banter and scintillating harmonies on favorites like “White Christmas” done in the doo-wop style of The Drifters, and “Jingle Bells” given a Puppini Sisters and Michael Bublé treatment. Sunday, Dec. 21, at 12:30 p.m., LaBelle Winery, 14 Route 111, Derry, $35 at labellewinery.com.

Southern Irish

Nashville’s Celts bring Christmas show to New Hampshire

Unlike many purveyors of his genre, Ric Blair, who leads The Celts, wasn’t born in Ireland, though he has family roots there and in Scotland. Rather, the music found him, while he was studying jazz and classical at Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and it took hold.

A friend persuaded Blair to take a day off from the rigors of studying and check out a traditional Irish band playing a show downtown.

“We walked in the door, and people were literally dancing on the tables,” he recalled by phone recently. “And immediately every cell in my body was like, ‘This is what I’m supposed to do.’”

Celtic music would weave its way into the Christian music albums Blair released starting in the mid-1990s. Around 20 years ago he launched an early iteration of Christmas With The Celts in churches around the country. The shows were a unique blend of ancient carols, traditional holiday songs, and modern tunes given an Irish twist.

In 2011 PBS broadcast a Celts performance filmed at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, and their holiday show became a national phenomenon. Since then the group’s name has changed a few times. First it was the Ric Blair Band, then The Celts, then the Nashville Celts. A few years ago they finally switched back to The Celts.

“We don’t know who we are; we like to keep the customers on their toes,” Blair said with a laugh. “Upon the advice of our booking agency, we made it official. They were like, ‘People are easily confused — is it country or is it Irish music with the Nashville Celts?’ We said, ‘Well, it’s a little bit of both. Just tell them the Celts.’”

These days the show offers a bit of everything, like traditional Irish dancers, some of whom are recruited locally. An area youth choir is usually at every tour stop, and there are plenty of jokes. “The quick Irish wit is a big thing in Irish culture,” Blair said, along with “the ability to laugh and not be so overly sensitive that we can’t laugh at ourselves.”

The music, of course, remains front and center, and it’s the most eclectic element of a Celts performance. For the holiday show there are songs not normally associated with the traditional Irish canon, like John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)” done with a reel.

“I’ve always been a Beatles fan, like millions and billions around the world, and it just seemed to me to be a good song to kind of unify everybody,” he said. “The people that were around when The Beatles first started, and the children that don’t know who they are.”

Every year, Blair and his band strive to add new touches and fresh numbers to a show that for many fans is now a holiday tradition. He hinted at a new addition that doesn’t come from anyone’s Christmas carol book but seemed to him to be ripe for the Irish touch and a seasonal role. It’s a well-known hit from an English rocker popularized in a late 1980s movie and an accompanying music video.

“There was just a moment that hit me, where I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is a perfect Christmas song,’” Blair said. “Just because of the lyrics, as far as getting to the message of Christ’s birth. It’s so fun to perform.”

Some of the best moments come when The Celts perform carols that are hundreds of years old. Even those are done in a decidedly untraditional manner.

“We have a song called ‘Wexford Carol’ that goes back to the 1600s, or 1500, even earlier than that. We’ve composed almost an EDM version of that.”

The band coming to New Hampshire for two shows, the first Dec. 19 at Derry’s Stockbridge Theatre and the second Dec. 23 at the Colonial in Laconia, consists of Blair, bassist Jimmy Sullivan, David Rollins on drums, and two fiddlers, each doing double duty. Grace Broadhead also sings, and Kira Doppel is a dancer.

Finally, multi-instrumentalist Patrick D’Arcy was a founding member of Flogging Molly and is a longtime collaborator of Blair’s, who called him “one of the best pipers in the world.” D’Arcy was lurking during the interview, and Blair deferred to the native Dubliner when asked why Irish music is so popular with American audiences.

“Because it’s so brilliant,” D’Arcy exclaimed, and continued. “They love it, and it’s not anything to do with their culture or family history. It’s way more an international thing now [even if] it will always be from Ireland. And it represents a return to simpler things as well. I think people like that at Christmas.”

Christmas With The Celts
When: Friday, Dec. 19, at 7 p.m.
Where: Stockbridge Theatre, 5 Pinkerton St., Derry
Tickets: $33 and up at pinkertonacademy.org
Also appearing Tuesday, Dec. 23, at 7:30 p.m., Colonial Theatre, 609 Main St., Laconia, $43 and up at etix.com

Featured photo: Celts Christmas. Courtesy photo.

Make a music fan’s holiday

Some fun gift buying ideas for this year

Sometimes the best present for the music fan is one that lets them choose, so this year’s holiday guide starts with gift cards. Pitchfork Records (2 S. Main St., Concord) has everything from CDs and LPs and gear to play them, along with fun things like a vinyl album frame — call 224-6700 or stop by the store to purchase.

Most of the region’s concert venues offer gift cards for their shows. For example, Tupelo Music Hall gift cards in increments of $25 are available by calling their box office (437-5100). Many live music-friendly clubs offer this option, like Shaskeen Pub in Manchester, Newmarket’s Stone Church, or Riley’s Place in Milford.

Among online stores offering vinyl, CDs and rarities, Rough Trade Records began as an independent label in 1976 and offers a huge selection, along with e-gift cards (roughtrade.com). Magnolia Record Store curates a selection that includes many exclusive releases (magnoliarecord.store).

For followers of the regional scene, some truly fine records were released by area musicians in 2025. Rocking Horse Music Club’s The Last Pink Glow is a musical interpretation of an unfinished Jack Kerouac novella that includes a guest performance by Tony Banks of Genesis (rockinghorsemusicclub.com).

Fans of Bruce Springsteen will love Ward Hayden & The Outliers’ two albums of countrified Boss covers, Little By Little and Piece By Piece. Both are out on pink splatter vinyl at wardhaydenandtheoutliers.com, along with the alt-country stalwart’s latest original LP, South Shore.

Underground Garage favorite Brad Marino grew up on colored vinyl and picture discs, and frequently delivers fun stuff like an orange vinyl version of his new single “Voodoo” on bandcamp.com. Similarly, down and dirty blues rockers Lee & Dr. G just released their latest LP, Girl For Me, on red wax (leedrg.co).

Books are always a great choice. One of this year’s best is Cameron Crowe’s memoir The Uncool, which tells the true stories behind the biopic Almost Famous, and more. The basic facts of his life — a teenager writing for Rolling Stone, interviewing stars like David Bowie and Gregg Allman — are fantastic enough.

Speaking of movies, one of 2025’s best is Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White. Its success has caused many to revisit the book it’s based on, written by Concord native Warren Zanes, so there’s a gift suggestion with both local and national implications.

For coffee table books, Paul McCartney’s Wings: The Story of A Band on the Run is an oral history of the group he formed post-Beatles. For Deadheads, 60 Years of The Grateful Dead Experience, is a 160-page softcover packed with photos and memories of the proto jam band.

wooden block with circle inserted
SOvenomUND Ferrofluid Visualizer.

Music lovers crave gear, and one cool gadget is the SOvenomUND Sound Activated Ferrofluid Visual Display ($179 at miravique.com). It’s a sleek wooden block that sits on a desk that has a round acrylic insert with an inky blob inside. It pulses to music, or whatever it hears. Unlike Alexa, though, this device won’t try to sell you anything.

Headphones are always popular, and Status Audio continues to innovate and separate itself from the pack. At the low end are the in-ear Between Pros at $79, with the new, overperforming Pro X model a cool $299 at status.co. Bose (bose.com) makes a great open audio (over the ear, but no cups) model for $199.

Finally, for the giftee who’s been extra-special this year, there’s Klipsch’s The Three Plus Premium Bluetooth Speaker, with audiophile sound, a phone to unit range of up to 40 feet, and RCA inputs for plugging in things like a turntable or a CD player. It retails for $419, but most places currently have it on sale.

Last, but certainly not least for struggling local bands who make next to nothing from streaming, is the merch table, both physical and virtual. For the latter, hit bandcamp.com for a bevy of swag from regional musicians. There are great T-shirts from Soggy Po’ Boys, Ian Galipeau and Megan From Work, just for starters.

A band’s progress

The evolution of Slim Volume

Some of the most sophisticated and mature music in New England is coming from Slim Volume, a Manchester quartet that in four years has grown into a solid presence on the scene. Fans of lush harmonies, layered guitars and songs that suggest many influences but stand out as unique have a chance to see for themselves at an upcoming Pembroke City Limits show.

“Slim Volume is one of the most cohesive bands around,” Pembroke City Limits owner and regional music authority Rob Azevedo commented recently. “It’s as if the band members were all meshed together, sharing in melody and sound. Just a tight, tight band.”

Two EPs released over the course of 2024, Back To You and Big Plans, were both the result of Trent Larrabee and Jake DeSchuiteneer, who respectively play guitar and bass, coming to guitarist Mike Morgan and drummer Jonny Lawrence with mostly completed songs. Early this year, that began to change.

“We took a deliberate approach … to pull back on Jake and I bringing material into the band that’s already written and fleshed out, and we’re going to go toward just organic creation,” Trent said in a recent joint Zoom interview with Jake.

“It’s easier, especially when you have bandmates who are very eager to contribute something unique.”

Jake agreed. The old way, he said, “can deny the other members of the band a little bit of flexibility, and the ability to kind of put in some of their own creativity. Like if someone suggests in a bridge, ‘Hey, what if we went to this change instead?’ and I say, ‘Well, I’m kind of married to this thing that I’ve had since I wrote it.’”

Trent and Jake have a Lennon and McCartney thing going as a songwriting team — the first song they learned together was a Beatles song — but composing as a band lifted their overall sound to another level. Jake credits a big part of it to Mike’s contributions on guitar and the textured, atmospheric sounds that result.

“He’s a very prolific writer of guitar parts that lend themselves really quickly to becoming songs,” Jake said. “The kinds of things he writes tend to be of a different flavor than something Trent would come up with, or something I would come up with. It allows us to kind of run a little wild on it lyrically and melodically.”

This all happened as Trent switched from acoustic to electric guitar and Slim Volume started to move away from the folk rock sound of its early records.

“Electric is just different, it opens up so much more potential,” he said, especially with a second guitarist. “Mike and I are both very careful about overplaying … I think that comes through.”

One consequence of this new “all for one, one for all” approach is that the band is writing a lot of new music. Ten songs recorded from January to April should have been released but for what Trent termed “a series of setbacks with the mixing” that are now resolved. In the interim, they’ve written another ten.

The band’s name definitely doesn’t refer to the number of musicians that inform their sound. There’s a vast river of music packed into their songs. One of the best, “Talk It Over” came after Trent heard “a random boygenius” track Jake sent him, “and it blended with the Vance Joy that I was listening to at the time.”

Another, “Big Plans,” echoes a Beatles song, though not deliberately. “I didn’t instantly think of ‘Dear Prudence.’ Once we were recording it, I was like, ‘Oh, wait,’” Jake recalled. Heck, George Harrison cribbed “Something” from James Taylor, so it’s all good. “A lot of our primary influences are classic rock guys … it’s a pretty big stew between the four of us.”

The show in Suncook is the band’s last scheduled one for a while. They are booked at Concord’s BNH Stage next April. “That’ll be our first time there as a headlining band,” Trent said. “We opened for Modern Fools in January and Golden Oak from Maine the prior year. So we’re really excited for that.”

They also are looking forward to their third show at Pembroke City Limits. Trent encourages people to come out for it.

“If you haven’t seen Slim Volume in a while, this would be a great place,” he said. “You’ll hear a bunch of new stuff and hear how the songs have evolved.”

Slim Volume
When: Saturday, Dec. 13, at 7 p.m.
Where: Pembroke City Limits, 134 Main St., Suncook
More: slimvolume.band

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 25/12/11

• Holiday Peanuts: Inspired to play piano by watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, David Benoit later was the composer for Peanuts specials in the 1990s and 2000s. His holiday concerts are an annual tradition, with songs like “Linus & Lucy” and “Christmastime Is Here.” He’s joined by singer Courtney Fortune, who does Barbra Streisand’s take of “Jingle Bells” and more standards. Thursday, Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m., Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua, $43 and up, etix.com.

• Horn-driven: Led for decades by guitarist Chris Vachon and anchored by a potent horn section, Roomful of Blues made a big change a few years back when “powerful, soul-stirring” DD Bastos joined as the band’s first female lead vocalist. Their recently released LP Steppin’ Out is a buoyant effort, an “exhilarating mix of jump, swing, proto rock ’n’ roll and tough blues” in the words of one writer. Friday, Dec. 12, 8 p.m., BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord, $49 at ccanh.com.

• Blues power: Casting back across a century for inspiration, Blūz Chiīe is a local band that released their debut album, Hard Road To Sorrow, this summer. Highlights include the harmonica-driven opener, “Badlands” and the title track, a chugging ballad with nice slide guitar. The homage “Led Sled” is also tasty, a growling blues number. Friday, Dec. 12, 8 p.m., Riley’s Place, 29 Mont Vernon St., Milford, bluzchile.com.

• Big Eighties: Still rocking after 45 years, Loverboy hits town to relive the MTV era and hits like “Turn Me Loose” and “Working For the Weekend.” Apart from a switch in bass players, the band’s lineup is unchanged. Lead singer Mike Reno is in top form, even if he’s not wearing red leather pants, and guitarist Paul Dean, who came up with the band’s name in a dream, hasn’t lost a step. Saturday, Dec. 13, 8 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $132 and up at tupelohall.com.

• Family bash: Cape Breton musical ambassadors Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy’s Celtic-themed Christmas show is back, with seven of their children also in the spotlight. The evening features updated holiday classics, and overall good vibes. Tuesday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m., Rochester Opera House, 31 Wakefield St., Rochester, $48 and up at rochesteroperahouse.com.

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