Author: Michael Witthaus

The Music Roundup 23/12/14

Local music news & events

• Holiday green: Celebrating its 18th year, Irish Christmas in America is a multimedia show with music, song and dance, and a cast that changes from year to year led by Sligo fiddler Oisín Mac Diarmada. Past members include Niamh Farrell, Séamus and Méabh Begley, Karan Casey and Michael Londra. It features fiddle, flute, uilleann pipes, harp and bouzouki, along with energetic Irish dancing. Thursday, Dec. 14, 7:30 p.m., Dana Center, 100 Saint Anselm Drive, Manchester, $45 and up at anselm.edu.

• Family band: Cape Breton musical ambassadors Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy return for a Celtic-themed Christmas show that includes seven of their children taking turns entertaining. McMaster’s fiddling has earned her an Order of Canada award along with a pair of Junos (husband Leahy has garnered three). Their performance is aimed at “the young and the young at heart.” Friday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m., Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord, $43.75 and up at ccanh.com.

• Retro foolery: It’s always a good time when Mike Girard’s Big Swingin’ Thing steps on stage, but the side project of the Fools front man offers even more at an upcoming Nashua concert. Along with reinterpreting rock ’n’ roll hits, the 20-piece big band will serve up a bevy of holiday selections. Saturday, Dec. 16, 8 pm., Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua, $39 at etix.com.

• Christmas magnetism: Inspired by the success of her analog album Memphis Magnetic, Morgan James recorded a live Christmas disc with curated nuggets like William Bell’s “Every Day Will Be Like a Holiday” and “Backdoor Santa” (from the 1968 Atco Records sampler Soul Christmas), along with standards and originals. She will perform from it and sing a few other seasonal selections at an upcoming show. Sunday, Dec. 17, 8 p.m., Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, $25 at palacetheatre.org.

• Helping out: Enjoy dinner and a holiday-themed performance from singer Sharon Jones, backed by an all-star band that includes pianist John Hyde, Mark Michaels playing guitar, Marty Ballou and Les Harris Jr. on bass and drums and sax player Marc Laforce. Monday, Dec. 18, 6 p.m., Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club, 135 Congress St., Portsmouth, $125 (includes dinner) at jimmysoncongress.com.

Make music merry

A fan’s gift guide

It’s the holiday season and once again time to make a music fan’s eyes and ears light up like a Christmas tree. From modest to mammoth, and across a range of ways to access their passion, here are suggestions for your special someone.

If your giftee’s passion extends to creating music, check out Teenage Engineering, a Swedish company that makes the Pocket Operator, a line of mini synthesizers that resemble a calculator and sell for under a hundred bucks. If you’re feeling extravagant, the company has introduced the EP-133 KO II, a larger device with exponentially more groove and sequencing power; it’s $299 at teenage.engineering.

For the audiophile on your list, there’s the AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt, a device that bypasses the crummy audio delivered on cell phones and laptop computers to truly leverage the enhanced sound offered by streaming services like Qobuz and Tidal, $199 at amazon.com, and for phones it’s a good idea to include an adapter in the gift box.

Or you can keep it simple while still turning it up to 11 with the Marshall Kilburn II Bluetooth Portable Speaker. Befitting its brand, the “stout-hearted hero” weighs in at five and half pounds and boasts the loudest output of anything in its class, while providing more than 20 hours of portable power with a single charge, $199.99 at marshallheadphones.com

Maybe your music maven is a purist with a throwback bent who loves only vinyl. Help them keep their prized albums clean with a Boundless Audio Record Cleaner Brush, perfect as a stocking stuffer at $15. But don’t give the leash without a puppy — there are many music box sets on offer this year.

Jason Isbell marked a decade since his breakthrough solo release Southeastern with a quadruple-vinyl, triple-CD edition that has the remastered studio LP along with a live version and demos of every song, with special packaging, $79.99 at amazon.com. The seemingly endless flow of Beatles music and the final drop of so-called new songs from the Fab Four continues with a repackaging of their Red 1962-1966 and Blue 1967-1970 albums, with a total of 21 previously unreleased tracks, $69.99 at amazon.com.

Wanna feel old? Green Day’s Dookie is turning 30 and the Berkeley punk stalwarts’ first big release has the deluxe treatment, with a six-LP (brown vinyl, natch) box set that includes a bevy of tchotchkes to go with outtakes, demos and live takes, including four songs from their notoriously mud-splattered Woodstock ’94 set, $121.32 at amazon.com.

Dolly Parton answered her induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by inviting a big chunk of its membership (and Kid Rock) to work on Rockstar, her first rock ’n’ roll record. She even reunited the remaining living Beatles, along with Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood, for a version of “Let It Be.” It’s available as a four-vinyl album box set for $59.98 at amazon.com.

There is no shortage of books for the music fan. For superfans of the aforementioned Ms. Parton, give Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, a fashion-focused autobiography that peeks into the singer’s closet and is packed with more than 450 color photos, $25 at amazon.com.

To (extravagantly) mark the 60th anniversary of Beatlemania for your favorite fan, give 1964: Eyes of the Storm, a collection of photos taken by Paul McCartney with his 35mm camera from the end of 1963 through early 1964, the years when The Beatles blew up into an international phenomenon and altered the course of music history. It’s $77.79 at popmarket.com.

For those growing misty-eyed for the early days of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and other flannel-shirted rockers, Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner’s Mud Ride: A Messy Trip Through the Grunge Explosion covers the evolution and growth of Seattle’s music scene, from DIY club shows to its Big Bang, which removed most hair metal bands from the earth. $28.79 at popmarket.com.

One of the latest classic rock memoirs is My Effin’ Life, from Rush bassist, keyboard player and singer Geddy Lee. It’s filled with anecdotes of his time with the prog rock power trio, along with personal stories of growing during World War II, with a grandfather who was murdered during the Holocaust. Novelist Michael Chabon praised the “warmth, care, artfulness, hard-earned wisdom and … gently skewed humor” in his book. $24.99 at amazon.com.

It’s always a good idea to keep things local. Here’s a thought: The next time you attend a show at The Shaskeen, Penuche’s, the Press Room or Strange Brew, pick up a CD and pay it forward by giving it to a loved one who’s unfamiliar with the performer’s music. That’s the most effective way to put cash in an artist’s pocket.

Of course, there’s always merch. Roots of Creation, one of the busiest bands around, offers a huge selection of T-shirts, caps, pins and posters at their shoprootsofcreation.com website. Sepsiss, the female-fronted heavy metal band that just won another NEMA, has a line of T-shirts calling attention to the insidious practice of pay to play, where clubs force acts to buy tickets to their own shows and re-sell them for payment, along with other forms of financial exploitation. Available at sepsiss.com.

A few musicians have side hustles as artists making very cool stuff. Singer-songwriter Dan Blakeslee, who played his first main stage set at the Newport Folk Festival this year, sells line drawings (also available as T-shirts) at etsy.com/shop/DanBlakeslee. Nick Lavallee, front man for Manchester power pop band Donaher, runs Wicked Joyful, making bespoke action figures and apparel like the Devil Church Explorer Club hoodie or a Taco Tour at Tender Town T-shirt, at shop.wickedjoyful.com.

Featured photo: Behind the Seams: My Life in Rinestones by Dolly Parton

’Tis the season

Holiday pops in Nashua, Concord

This year, Symphony NH will perform its Holiday Pops concert twice, at its home venue, Keefe Center for the Arts in Nashua, and at Concord City Auditorium. The evenings will include festive selections like “You’re a Mean One, Mister Grinch,” Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s “Christmas Overture,” music from “The Nutcracker,” a Hanukkah song and a sing-along to close things out.

It’s the sort of program pops orchestras have done for years, but in a recent interview, conductor Roger Kalia, now in his fifth year, spoke of his vision for widening Symphony NH’s reach. This includes taking it to places like Bollywood, inside a game console, and to a galaxy far, far away.

“Keeping things fresh and bringing a fresh view to this art form,” he said, indicating that his eyes are set firmly on shifting the demographic. “Some young people … may call [it] a little stuffy, but there’s really so much great music out there.”

Along with Symphony NH, Kalia conducts the Evansville Philharmonic, near his home in Bloomington, Indiana, and Orchestra Santa Monica in Southern California. He co-founded the Lake George Music Festival and is its Music Director. An existence filled with frequent flier miles “comes with the territory,” he said. “You kind of sign up for it when you’re a conductor.”

Coming to the Granite State was challenging beyond that. “I got the job at a difficult time, right when Covid started; my first season, three concerts in, we had to shut down everything,” he said, adding admiration for Symphony NH’s resilience during the pandemic. “We were one of the few orchestras in the country to actually give concerts, and we did a virtual livestream concert format for the majority of the 2020-21 season.”

2023 marked the 100th anniversary of Symphony NH and offered a landmark season. The Indian American Kalia was especially pleased with Symphony Masala last October. The Bollywood-themed show was “the first collaboration of its kind in history, as far as I know,” he said, noting similar efforts were done with Indian instruments. “This was purely 100 percent Western instruments, with a singer … we made history.”

Another innovative concert offered this season was Wynton Marsalis’s A Fiddler’s Tale at the Rex, which combined jazz and symphonic elements. Upcoming in 2024 is Penelope, a song cycle from Sarah Kirkland Snider inspired by The Odyssey first presented as a livestream during the pandemic. “It involves a lot of pop music influences,” Kalia said. “Think Radiohead meets Bjork meets classical. … That’s what you’re going to get with Penelope.”

Brass to the Max will be the first show of the new year and will feature the Nashua-based Spartans Drum Corps in an all-brass percussion music concert. Kalia considers the answer to the question “What is pops?” to be “music for films,” which makes the final concert of the season in June a natural — The Music of John Williams, with selections from Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park on tap.

Kalia is especially looking forward to another first-of-its-kind effort called Game Over(ture), set for March 23 at the Capitol Center’s Chubb Theatre in Concord. Led by guest conductor Austin Wintory, the first video game composer to be nominated for a Grammy, the program will feature music from Wintory’s Journey, Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Brothers, Final Fantasy, Prince of Persia, Halo and others.

“It’s a great opportunity to bring in new audiences,” enthused Kalia.

While in Los Angeles, Kalia worked with famous performers, including Jack Black and Randy Newman, and organized From Classical to Rock, with Johnny Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls and Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson. He hopes to do something similar in New Hampshire, like a Beatles evening that happened here before he arrived.

“We’ve been looking at the possibility of either bringing [that] show back for a future season, or even doing concerts with blues artists,” he said. “There’s a great singer I know who specializes in the blues and New Orleans Dixieland jazz, that sort of thing.”

Kalia feels like he’s hitting his target.

“The past couple of seasons, I’ve been introducing newer work to our audiences, and they’ve really latched on to them; they expect it, I think,” he said. “The programming we’re doing … is truly innovative and unique compared to a lot of other cities in this country that have small regional orchestras, and I’m proud of that.”

Symphony NH Holiday Pops
When: Saturday, Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Keefe Center for the Arts, 117 Elm St., Nashua
Tickets: $10 to $63 at symphonynh.org
Also Sunday, Dec. 10, 3 p.m., Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord

Featured photo: Holiday Pops. Photo by David Weiss.

The Music Roundup 23/12/07

Local music news & events

• Old souls: A throwback blend of old-school jazz and contemporary hits, Postmodern Jukebox returns for a New England run that’s already sold out two of three venues, but good seats remain in the Lakes Region. Putting a new twist on the expression “everything old is new again,” the group recasts Radiohead’s “Creep” as a Dinah Washington turn and transforms the Spice Girls “Wannabe” into something else. Thursday, Dec. 7, 9 p.m., Colonial Theatre, 609 Main St., Laconia, $59 and up at etix.com.

• Channeler: The world will never replace Robin Williams, but Roger Kabler brings him to life in an anything but ordinary show. Kabler’s 2022 film Being Robin describes the chain of events that led him to create the tribute, starting with believing that he was possessed by the comic’s spirit. Friday, Dec. 8, 8 p.m., Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, $25 at palacetheatre.org.

• In state: It’s opening night in Rochester, as Joshua Guptel’s movie The Battle for Granite Records premieres. Filmed entirely in New Hampshire, it’s the story of a father and daughter trying to save a business and of the uphill battle faced by hip-hop artists in its early days. Guptel, also known as standup comic Jay Grove, launched Olive Tree Films a few years ago. Saturday, Dec. 9, 7 pm., Rochester Performance & Arts Center, 32 N. Main St., Rochester, $10 and up at eventbrite.com.

• Holiday rock: Born from a Trans-Siberian Orchestra covers show intended as a one-off, Wizards of Winter evolved into the first indie band in a genre that blends Christmas music and grandeur. Fifteen years later they’re a top concert draw. Sunday, Dec. 10, 3 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $40 and up at tupelohall.com.

• Helping out: A weekly blues jam expands to benefit longtime New England performer Arthur James and his wife during a time of health and financial struggle. Hosted by Craig Thomas and Bluestopia, the event brings together the regional blues community and includes a raffle of a John Mayer-designed PRS Silver Sky guitar, donated by John Mann’s Guitar Vault, along with a 50/50 raffle. Sunday, Dec. 10, 6 p.m., Riley’s Place, 29 Mont Vernon St., Milford, $10; see facebook.com/events/560806412890214.

Hometown son

Drew Dunn headlines Nashua Center

While it was being built, Drew Dunn would drive by the Nashua Center for the Arts and think about performing there one day. On Dec. 2, the 2010 Nashua High School South graduate will headline, the latest milestone in a comedy career that was quick out of the gate when it started 10 years ago and continues to rise.

“Nashua is my hometown,” Dunn said by phone recently. “I’ve lived in a lot of places, but it’s cool to be able to do this.”

Dunn’s easy-going demeanor and razor-sharp instincts combine with innate humor for a comedic style loved by both fans and fellow comics. The latest example of the latter is Dane Cook, who saw Dunn open for him in West Hollywood a few months back and was impressed enough to invite him on tour.

Connecting with the Boston comic was, Dunn said, “kind of super random.” Cook streams video games on Twitch, and Dunn’s dad follows him on the popular website. When Drew posted about the show on his social media, Dad messaged Cook. “He told him we’ve been big fans for a long time, we’re both from the New England area…. That got Dane to watch a few minutes of my set.”

The comic’s career has seen a steady checklist of successes. Playing the Johnny Carson Great American Comedy Festival in Carson’s hometown of Norfolk, Nebraska, was an early triumph, “the first time I got on a plane and did standup.” Dunn won the Boston Comedy Festival in 2017; later he went to the Pacific Northwest, where he lived in grade school, and took top honors at the month-long Seattle International Comedy Competition.

The biggest highlight since then has been hitting the road with Cook, which will continue next year. It included a stop at the Wilbur Theatre, which Dunn called “one of the last major venues in Boston on my checklist.” Overall, the tour is “the first taste of the next level of this business that I’ve had, and it’s inspiring. It makes it feel a little bit more attainable.”

Such glamorous highs are the result of an arduous journey.

“I’ve done everything from campground shows talking to people sitting in their golf carts in the middle of the day, to random breweries and stuff like that,” he said. Throughout, “I’ve learned comedy is a marathon…. Hard work adds up over time to be able to create moments like [the Nashua show], which makes it worthwhile. Building something and then sharing it, continuing to go from there, it’s a never-ending road, this whole standup game. I’m just happy to be on it.”

Dunn acknowledged other comics who helped him along the way, including early mentor Corey Rodrigues. “He always seemed a step or two ahead of me, so any time I’d be running into something new, he’d be a guy I’d hit up.”

Manchester comic Paul Landwehr, who’ll open in Nashua, is another. Dunn recalled working the door with him at Dick Doherty’s Comedy Den in Boston when both were starting out.

Amiability is key to Dunn’s success. “My business model when it comes to this whole thing is to just be funny and nice to everybody, because it’s more fun that way. So many comics get in this competitive mindset of trying to one-up each other — ‘Why is he getting an opportunity and not me?’ or ‘Why is she winning and not me?’ For me it’s always been us comics versus the crowd. If more people are seeing standup comedy, that’s a win for all of us.”

Dunn sees a rising tide in the regional scene.

“I think comedy in general, and particularly in Boston, is probably in a better state than it’s ever been,” he said. “I wasn’t alive in the ’80s and that boom, but comedy in general now, there’s more people watching and listening and going to live shows as far as standup goes than ever before in the history of time. To be a part of that … is just infinitely exciting.”

Drew Dunn w/ Paul Landwehr and Will Mars
When: Saturday, Dec. 2, 8 p.m.
Where: Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua
Tickets: $29 at etix.com

Featured photo: Drew Dunn. Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 23/11/23

Local music news & events

• Christmas nuts: The Heather Pierson Trio is again playing Vince Guaraldi’s music from A Charlie Brown Christmas throughout the region, including an intimate show at a Lakes Region winery preceded by a complimentary tasting. Pierson’s performance includes other Guaraldi selections and holiday favorites. Thursday, Nov. 30, 7 p.m., The Loft at Hermit Woods, 72 Main St., Meredith, $25 and up at eventbrite.com, more dates at heatherpierson.com.

• Roots night: Fronted by a self-proclaimed reformed punk, Matt Charette & the Truer Sound rock across a range of genres. A good example is “Swinging,” a can-do love song that Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers fans should love, one of many gems from their latest long-player, Lo-Fi High Hopes. Also appearing are June Star, a Baltimore duo that features pedal steel guitar on many of their songs, and the twangy Girls on Grass. Friday, Dec. 1, 9 p.m., Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., facebook.com/junestarband.

• Rhythm & whoops: Standup comedy is paired with soulful music as Steve Bjork and Sean Sullivan co-headline with support from Ken Murphy and Sean Tracey. The laughs are preceded by a set from Finesse, a Detroit-based singer whose blend of R&B and gospel has been called “uplifting and inspiring.” Saturday, Dec. 2, 6:30 pm., Rockingham Ballroom, 22 Ash Swamp Road, Newmarket, $25 at rockinghamballroom.club.

• Home-grown: The latest NH Music Collective Sunday Sessions show has Ryan Williamson along with the hArt of Sound, two area musicians performing original compositions. Williamson is a wizard at looping his way to a full band sound. Colin Hart cites influences from Radiohead to Muse to Nine Inch Nails, calling has project a “surreal alternative electronic rock brainchild.” Sunday, Dec. 3, 6 p.m., Bank of NH Stage (Cantin Room), 16 S Main St., Concord, $15 at ccanh.com.

• Country kid: Lee Biddle is a singer-songwriter with hardscrabble songs like “Lonesome Whistle Blues.” He inhabits the spirit of a Depression era ex-soldier on “Risky Whisky” but pays respect to his roots with “New England,” calling the region “my home, where I belong.” Wednesday, Dec. 6, 6 p.m., Saddle Up Saloon, 92 Route 125, Kingston, see facebook.com/leebiddlemusic.

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!