Category: Music This Week

• Good times: One of the region’s musical treasures, Charlie Chronopoulos is a triple threat. He writes lyrically complex and compelling songs, renders them in a soothing honey and woodsmoke voice, and plays guitar like a beast. Good to have him back on the circuit, with shows booked throughout July. Check out his original “Chief and a Warrior,” recorded at Manchester’s Studio 2, for a taste of his brilliance. Thursday, July 9, 6 p.m., Village Trestle, 25 Main St., Goffstown. See facebook.com/charlie.chronopoulos.

• Wooden music: Like Jethro Tull, no member of The Clavis Brudon Band answers to that name, which is an amalgamation of the first three letters of the quartet’s surnames. They play a tasty brand of folk rock, this time at a new-ish venue; the restaurant’s been around for a while, but the rustic deck in back was just completed (one of the few bright spots of the pandemic is more outdoor performance spaces). Friday, July 10, 5 p.m., Tooky Mills Pub, 9 Depot St., Hillsborough. See facebook.com/The-Clavis-Brudon-Band.

• Happy man: Another among the plethora of entries into the live music scene is Paul Lussier, a singer, guitarist, actor and veteran of the regional scene. Lussier promises songs about peace, love and understanding to remedy current contentiousness, with a set that includes classic rock covers, and he may sprinkle in a few originals from his rock musical in progress, You Are My Song. Saturday, July 11, 4:30 p.m., The Hill Bar & Grille, 50 Chalet Way, Manchester. See paul-lussier.wixsite.com.

• Local hero: The Concord music community got sad news recently that True Brew Barista is closing, as the owners are retiring. Thanks for the many years of memories. The scene continues apace led by dedicated folks like Lucas Gallo, a musician and show promoter, who plays at a brewery that’s also keeping the flame burning. Enjoy an all original set along with stellar craft beer. Thursday, July 16, 7 p.m., Lithermans Limited Brewery, 26B Hall St., Concord. See facebook.com/lucasgallomusic.

Soulful Concord band plays in Bow

FieldHouse Sports, a Bow facility better known for year-round indoor soccer, is the latest entry into the live music scene. Fiddler Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki led off the drive-in lot series on July 3, performing with his trio. A week later Trade, a rhythmic, horn-seasoned combo featuring some of New Hampshire’s finest players, will host the parking lot party.

Trade began with singing drummer George Laliotis and guitarist Scott Solsky, and a batch of Solsky’s songs that departed from his then band The Hats.

“I was at the point where I wanted to start a project and write the kind of music that has always spoken to me,” Solsky said in a recent phone interview. “The one thing I always came back to is that soul Motown thing … and no one sings that like George does.”

Early on, Trade played as a trio with keyboard player Matt Hogan, later adding horns.

“Over the years there were people coming in and out,” Solsky said, “But it’s always been George and I.”

In mid-2018, Trade released a CD, Puzzle. The album’s nine tracks were cowrites.

“I’ll come up with the idea, and George writes a lot of the lyrics — being a singer, it’s more in his wheelhouse — but the band does the arrangements,” Solsky said. “We’ve worked really well together as a group; everyone has ideas, and everyone contributes.”

The current lineup is Laliotis, Solsky, bassist Chris Noyes, a horn section of tenor sax player Zack Jones and Jamie Boccia on trumpet, and newest member Chris Sink on keys. The band recently released a new single on their SoundCloud page. “Real Deal” was an outtake from Puzzle.

“We were on the fence about whether or not we were going to do that one, then we were like, nah,’ Solsky said. “We kind of regretted not recording it, so it’s like we’ll just do it now.”

Working in isolation during quarantine was a daunting exercise.

“It was interesting; everyone having their own part, one person recording and sending it to the next and so on down the line,” Solsky said. “There was a learning curve for all of us, and I feel especially me, because I’m not super digitally inclined. To be able to get ourselves set up so that we can each individually record was the biggest challenge.”

Another track, called “Attachments,” is in progress, with hopes to complete it in the coming weeks. Solsky is also at work on a solo record at The Noise Floor in Dover. The backing band for half of the instrumental effort was Trade, and most of its songs are now part of their stage repertoire. Solsky calls his music “Jazztronica,” noting that “it came about because for my solo stuff I do the looping thing … it kind of has a flow to it.”

Both Solsky and bandmate Sink contributed tracks to Pass the Hat, a benefit LP organized by Chris Chase at Noise Floor. Fifty musicians offered songs, raising over $10,000, which was donated to 25 of the record’s contributors. Solsky played several Facebook Live shows during lockdown and was encouraged by fans’ willingness to drop money into his virtual tip jar.

He and the rest of Trade are anxious to be back in front of an audience, however.

“It’s exciting,” Solsky said. “As much as I’ve appreciated the support while livestreaming, whether it’s by myself or with the band, I always find that there’s a certain energy that you never really can reclaim when you’re just playing in front of the camera. That feeling of having a live crowd in front of you makes the energy of the music very different.”

Trade
When: Friday, July 10, 7 p.m.
Where: FieldHouse Sports, 12 Tallwood Drive, Bow
Tickets: $25 in advance, $30 at the gate per vehicle (up to 2 people), $10 each additional person at fieldhousesports.com

Adam Ezra Group returns to performing

On what turned out to be the worst Friday the 13^th in musical history, Adam Ezra was scheduled to open for Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes in Clearwater, Florida. A pandemic had other plans, however, and the show was canceled — along with the rest of Ezra’s 2020 Get Folked solo house concert tour.

It put Ezra in a funk, and not the fun kind. Never one to stay dejected, though, he hopped onto Facebook Live to air his frustration and sing a few songs.

“It made me feel a little bit better,” he recalled by phone recently. “So I said at the end, ‘How about we do this again tomorrow?’”

Thus began The Gathering, a daily livestream that’s attracted over two million viewers, while picking up major sponsors like lifestyle company Timberland. The webcasts ran unfailingly, even when Ezra contracted Covid-19 himself, and as he and his fiancée drove a packed van from Chelsea, Mass., to their desert cabin in Joshua Tree, California.

Singing and playing on the internet was fun, but Ezra is an inveterate road dog, performing close to 200 gigs most years. So he’s stoked to be coming back to New England to play a few drive-in shows, beginning July 1 in New Bedford, Mass., and peaking on Fourth of July weekend at one of his favorite haunts, now transformed.

“I’m a big fan of Tupelo Music Hall,” Ezra said of the Derry venue, one of the first in the country to convert its parking lot into an outdoor concert facility. “It’s a really special place that obviously understands the power of community.”

Though there were a few virtual Gathering jams, this will mark the first time Ezra, fiddler Corinna Smith, drummer Alex Martin and bass player Poche Ponce have been on stage together since playing last New Year’s Eve at Tupelo, a show that was also released as a live album.

“They are my friends and my partners in crime,” Ezra said. “I missed the hell out of them, and I’m really excited to get to play music with them again. … It’s like breathing, or sharing a milkshake.”

He knows the band will need a little time to find its old form, but Ezra isn’t worried. In fact, it’s one of the things he’s looking forward to most.

“One of the things I love about our following, our fans, is that it doesn’t matter. We’re all going to be figuring it out together,” he said. “I think the mess-ups are going to be better than the parts we nail that night.”

Work on a new studio album was ended by the lockdown, but Adam Ezra Group did release “Find a Way.” The a capella song is just right for the present zeitgeist, with an exhortation to “hold onto each other” and weather crisis. The song isn’t new — Ezra released it on a solo album a while back — but the way it was redone is unprecedented.

“I thought, how can what we’re doing musically help impact the message of the song as powerfully as possible, and four voices depending on each other to create chords and make the music happen felt like the perfect metaphor,” he said, noting that AEG had never worked that way before. “We do not feel comfortable when we don’t have our instruments in front of us, right? That’s just who we are.”

After living in near isolation since early May, Ezra is happy to be returning to music. He’s also amazed at what transpired, including a bout with the virus that wasn’t life-threatening but was very uncomfortable, and time allowed for reflection that he never expected given his lifestyle.

“Can you think of anything that would force us all to analyze life more deeply than having to shut down the engine and stay put for three months no matter where you are? This is part of my life forever … just like touring. The marriage of the two is going to be the sweet spot for me.”