Category: Nightlife

On stage and screen, Stacy Kendro finds the funny

Though she didn’t start performing until her thirties, Stacy Kendro’s journey to the standup spotlight started much earlier.

Before starting college, she waitressed at a restaurant in Framingham, Mass., when it became a suburban outpost of Nick’s Comedy Stop. For someone who would eventually major in art and minor in theater, whose dad loved comedy and had a record collection that included Rodney Dangerfield and Spike Jones, it was timely.

Since then, “it’s kind of been my whole adult life,” she said by phone recently. Urged by coworkers, she did characters for the Nick’s crowd a few years in. “It was awkward, but I got laughs,” she said, “There were like 15 waitresses, and none of them did standup, but I did. So it was already in me, I think.”

Later, she sporadically duoed with her now ex-husband, an experienced comic. When the two weren’t working, she crafted a solo set and tried out her nascent act at one of her friend’s shows.

“I didn’t tell my husband at the time,” she recalled. “I wanted to not have anybody looking at what I was writing, just go do it, fail a bunch of times and see how it went.”

When Kendro got serious, she headed to L.A., doing shows at the Comedy Store’s female-centric Belly Room, along with the Ice House, which had an annex for young comics. All the while, she’d hit every open mic she could find. Then she headed home. “I kind of cut my teeth in Boston,” she said.

Later, she performed on cruise ships. “That was interesting…. I met singers, but mostly it was piano players and magicians that I became really good friends with. Then I went to New York in 2000…. I came back at the tail end of the pandemic.”

Kendro’s comedy is street-smart and world-weary, with sharp wordplay leavened in. She’s written a series of film shorts called Albanian Assassin set in Las Vegas. She’s won accolades, including placing second in a national Ladies of Laughter competition in 2019. Kendro’s writing is also getting noticed. She wrote a couple of pilots, one of which was picked up by Women in Film Video New England for a table read and more. “We’re also going to block, which is great, because you can see everybody act it out, but also network with filmmakers.”

Since returning home, Kendro has become a regular on Rob Steen’s Headliners circuit, which includes a show in Gilford on July 12 with Jody Sloane and Amy Tee at Beans & Greens’ Notch Biergarten called Ladies of Boston Comedy. She’s not crazy about the name, even while understanding the marketing of showcases like Mothers of Comedy and others.

“It’s like we’re a novelty,” she said. “You know, there’s never an all-male show, there’s just a show…. Interestingly, bookers are still in the boys’ club in their heads. They kind of base a lot of who they book on what their tastes are, not realizing that half the audience is women. In that sense, it’s harder to be a woman.”

Kendro once opened for Joan Rivers at a New Hampshire women’s expo and recalls watching her perform as revelatory.

Her set mixed humor and reflection. “She managed to talk about her personal life and some triumphs. She even said to the audience, ‘You think just because I’m famous that my life is easy? I got fired off the Tonight show. My husband committed suicide. I’ve been through some trials.’ But she made it funny, she was very skillful in that.”

Later, the two talked about Rivers’ early years in a comedy world even more dominated by male comics than today’s. “I asked her what it was like,” Kendro said, and the answer exemplified the legend’s no-BS worldview. “She said, ‘Oh, it was easy, because I was friends with Richard Pryor, and Carlin, and we drove around the Village, and I did stuff with them.”

Ladies of Boston Comedy w/ Jody Sloane, Stacy Kendro, Amy Tee
When: Saturday, July 12, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Notch Biergarten by Beans & Greens, 245 Intervale Road, Gilford
Tickets: $27.50 at beansandgreensfarm.com

Featured photo: Stacy Kendro. Courtesy photo.

The Range hosts Pure Prairie League & The Weight Band

Two bands performing at an upcoming show in Mason have never been on stage together but have a shared history. Mike Reilly of Pure Prairie League met The Weight Band’s Jim Weider in 1970, when both lived in Woodstock, New York, a haven for musicians.

“Jimmy played a lot of gigs with the band I was in,” Reilly recalled recently.

Weider was friends with The Band at the time, and he would eventually assume Robbie Robertson’s role after The Last Waltz, while Reilly was a couple of years away from joining PPL. Fifty-plus years and myriad personnel changes later, the band carries on, with Reilly, steel guitar player and founding member John David Call still aboard, along with drummer Scott Thompson, keyboard player Randy Harper, Jeffrey Zona on guitar and bassist Jared Camic.

In December 2024, Back on Track, their first new Pure Prairie league album in nearly two decades, was released. It’s a solid effort that stands up to music the band made with front men like co-founder Craig Fuller and Vince Gill. Standouts include the high-energy rocker “A Love Like Yours,” the Jimmy Buffett pastiche “Price of Love” and some great covers.

New members Zona and Camic initially pitched a four-song EP, but when Reilly learned they’d written a few more songs, he said, “‘the hell with the EP; let’s do a record, man!’” He suggested a pair of songs by Gary Burr, a PPL member in the ’80s and ’90s who also sings on the new album, along with a favorite Little Feat tune and Elton John’s “Love Song.”

With layered harmonies, stomping fiddle and deft finger-picking, Feat’s “Six Feet of Snow” is a perfect choice for a band that helped define the idiosyncratic hybrid of rock, bluegrass and country that ultimately came to be called Americana. In their early days, though, they confused the music business, including their record label.

It was a good problem.

“In the early ’70s, [it was] us, Poco, the Byrds and the Burritos, and stuff was just a mash,” Reilly said. “We were too country for L.A. [and] not country enough for Nashville. They couldn’t figure out where to put us. As far as I’m concerned, it was to our benefit. We got to do what we wanted to do, and stuck to our guns and made it happen.”

Take their biggest hit, which sank without a trace as a part of Bustin’ Out, the first album Reilly worked on with the band. A few years later it was reborn as a result of relentless touring.

“Probably 250 to 275 colleges a year,” he said, “cramming ‘Amie’ down all these students’ throats. Every Stephen Bishop wannabe with an acoustic guitar could play the chords.”

They’d lost their record contract when Fuller went to jail for draft evasion, but a ready-made hit made them a safer bet. So they were re-signed, though the label never could decide where they fit in. At one point the company president decided to design a high-tech cover for Can’t Hold Back, their first record with new member Vince Gill and their last with RCA.

It was a botched undertaking, beginning with relegating Luke, the band’s Norman Rockwell-drawn mascot cowboy, to the top left corner of the album cover — and it got worse. “He spelled the band’s name Pure P-I-R-A-R-I League,” Reilly said. “I flew to New York from L.A., jumped on the desk, and was promptly escorted out.”

At their next label, Casablanca, they would enjoy what Reilly called “another 15 minutes of fame.” A string of hits began with “Let Me Love You Tonight,” followed by “I’m Almost Ready” and “Still Right Here In My Heart.” Gill left after for a solo career, and these days, he’s playing with The Eagles.

Asked why his band continues to tour and record, Reilly offered a simple answer.

“It’s all about the music,” he said. “When I heard Pure Prairie League the first time, I went, ‘Wow, I really like what these guys are doing.’ … Craig’s voice and John Call’s pedal steel just knocked me for a loop. I said, ‘I want to be in that band,’ and two years later, they called me. That’s it. I’ve stuck with it ever since because I love what we do. I believed the music needed to continue [and] that’s the reason it turned into my life’s work. I never imagined it would be 55 years later.”

Pure Prairie League and The Weight Band
When: Saturday, July 5, 6 p.m.
Where: The Range, 96 Old Turnpike Road, Mason
Tickets: $60 and up at etix.com

Featured photo: Miss Alli. Courtesy photo.

Love’s in the air as Market Days returns to Concord

From its humble beginning as a sidewalk clearance sale for local merchants, Concord’s annual Market Days Festival has grown considerably. Music is a big reason; while plenty of merchandise is on offer at the stores along South Main Street, the big stage in front of BNH Stage offers an array of area performers from morning until well past sunset.

The Homegrown Stage in Bicentennial Square is dedicated to local music, and doesn’t stop when the last outdoor note is played. The festivities simply move into Penuche’s Ale House, a nearby cellar full of noise that will host an Official After Party each of the festival’s three nights at 10 p.m. ($5 cover, 21+).

Performances in Eagle Square are returning, including the Tandy’s Idol competition, but this year with a new name. The Playground Stage has performers like Mister Aaron, Miss Alli, and Jonny Clock Works of The Bee Skep Puppetry. The change was the idea of Jessica Martin, Executive Director of Intown Concord.

“It’s going to be more for children and families; we felt we had enough to fill a stage for that,” she said by phone recently. “I think a lot of people coming to Market Days are definitely going to enjoy that, in addition to the other two great stages. I have two kids, so I’m excited about that one too.”

The theme for this year’s Market Days is “Love Where You Live,” and a press release for the event promises “the biggest love bomb of all: the first-ever Wedding at Market Days.” (see page 14). Here’s another way Market Days spreads local love: All performers are paid, with a big chunk of money coming from a state grant. However, that policy is in peril.

“Unfortunately, the New Hampshire Arts Council looks like it’s going to be no more, functionally, with the current budget that is being passed by the legislature,” Martin said. “That’s something we’re sad about, and hoping to come back in the future, but we’re going to have to be looking for additional support next year.”

The news stunned the organization.

“We applied a year early, so we already submitted our grant application for next year,” she said. “They sent me an email and said, effectively, unless something changes, there’s not going to be an arts council for at least until the next budget is passed.”

“I don’t think people understand how many nonprofits benefit from the funding from the New Hampshire Arts Council. Intown Concord might not be one that people think of because we’re not necessarily an arts organization, but we work with so many artists and we do get funding through there,” she said.

For now, folks should plan on coming out for a long weekend of local creativity, from music by dozens of local musicians to kids’ activities to beer gardens.

Ultimately, it’s about an event that’s grown well beyond its beginnings over a half century ago, Martin said. “Three days, three stages, 200 vendors … it’s a long way from a shoe sale on Main Street.”

PhanArt Manchester
51st Annual Market Days Festival
When: Friday, June 26, through Saturday, June 28, 10 a.m-9 p.m.
Where: Downtown Concord, Pleasant and South Main streets
More: marketdaysfestival.com

Music lineup
Thursday, June 26
Main Stage – South Main Street
10:15 a.m. – Girlspit
11:30 a.m. – Berto
12:45 p.m. – King Polo and The WAV
2 p.m. – Okay(K)
3:15 p.m. – R&B Dignity
4:30 p.m. – Mary Fagan & The Honey Bees
6 p.m. – Freese Brothers Big Band presented by Sulloway & Holils
8 p.m. – Club Soda & Back 2 Back

Homegrown Stage – Bicentennial Square
1 p.m. – Cam Martin & The Lost Hearts
2 p.m. – Ashborne
3 p.m. – Rosewood Park
4 p.m. – Crowing for Lunch
5 p.m. – Hometown Eulogy
6 p.m. – Tree of Funk
7 p.m. – Supernothing
8:15 p.m. – Slim Volume

Playground Stage – Eagle Square
11 a.m. – Mr. Aaron
noon – Bee Skep Puppet Theatre Performance
1:00 p.m. – JLM Creative
3:00 p.m. – Music & Movement with Miss Heather
4:00 p.m. – Wildlife Encounters “Tiny Creatures” presented by Microdaq LLC
6:00 p.m. – Tandy’s Idol Opener
7:00 p.m. – Tandy’s Idol

Friday, June 27
Main Stage – South Main Street
1 p.m. – Martin & Kelly
2:30 p.m. – Chad LaMarsh
4 p.m. – ALXIA
5:30 p.m. – The Party Band
7 p.m. – Reality Bites: The ’90s Rule Band!

Homegrown Stage – Bicentennial Square
10 a.m. – Jackie Crow
10:30 a.m. – Lucas Gallo
11 a.m. – Kevin Horan
11:30 a.m. – Mike Morris
noon – Matt Poirier
1 p.m. – Down to the Wire
2 p.m. – Junk Drawer
3 p.m. – Stand Up Audio
4 p.m. – Miles to Memphis
5 p.m. – Dusty Gray
6 p.m. – J3ST
7 p.m. – UP – The Band
8 p.m. – Caylin Costello Band

Playground Stage – Eagle Square
11 a.m. – Mr. Aaron
noon – Bee Skep Puppet Theatre Performance
3 p.m. – Atlantic Abandon
4 p.m. – Miss Alli
6 p.m. – Tandy’s Idol Opener
7 p.m. – Tandy’s Idol

Saturday, June 28
Main Stage – South Main Street
10:30 a.m. – Kate West
11:45 a.m. – Rebel Collective
1 p.m. – Decatur Creek
2:15 p.m. – Just Us
3:30 p.m. – Jed Crook
4:45 p.m. – Fun City Fan Club
6 p.m. – Faith Ann Band
7:15 p.m. – Donaher
8:30 p.m. – Heist

Homegrown Stage – Bicentennial Square
10 a.m. – Hank Osborne
10:30 a.m. – Colin Nevins
11 a.m. – Katie Dobbins
11:30 a.m. – Ben Harris
noon – Lee & Dr. G
1 p.m. – RGB Trio
2 p.m. – The Band I’m In
3 p.m. – Holy Fool
4 p.m. – Past our Prime
5 p.m. – Kilroy
6 p.m. – Safety Meeting
7 p.m. – Andrew North & the Rangers
8:15 p.m. Peter Prince & Moon Boot Lover

Playground Stage – Eagle Square
11:00 a.m. – LaLoopna Hoops
noon – Drum Circle
1 p.m. – RB Productions
2 p.m. – In the Field Irish Dancers
3 p.m. – Project S.T.O.R.Y. Dance Troop
3:15 p.m. – Barranquilla Flavor
4 p.m. – Mr. Aaron
6 p.m. – Tandy’s Idol Opener
7 p.m. – Tandy’s Idol

Featured photo: Miss Alli. Courtesy photo.

Things to do before and after the shows

The first time Phish appeared in downtown Manchester, in October 2010, it was a big deal, but nothing like the Vermont band’s upcoming run through the city. To begin, it’s the first time that any act has performed for three consecutive nights at SNHU Arena, though holiday season regulars Trans-Siberian Orchestra have done four shows in two days before.

It’s a moment that spawned a slew of activities around the shows, including an event where Phish Phans can purchase a wide array of gear devoted to the band. PhanArt founder Pete Mason, a special education teacher from upstate New York, was inspired by Coventry, a run of shows in 2004 that, at the time, were promised to be Phish’s last.

Mason’s first effort was a book of concert posters done by fans during the band’s early years, which took several years to complete. It was fortuitously published just as Phish launched a reunion tour in 2010.

“I became interested in preserving the art aspect,” Mason said by phone recently. “Because it was more than a fan base; it was a community.”

He launched his first PhanArt show in 2015. Merchandise follows an understood set of rules, Mason explained. “Don’t use the logo or their name and, unless you’re doing some really artistic creation, don’t use band member names or likenesses,” he said. “The unspoken thing was, you’re clear on the rest.”

One example is a shirt based on “Glide,” a song from the album A Picture of Nectar. “It’s the Tide logo, but it says Glide,” he said. “It’s good, easy, fun art. If you’re out bowling or at the mall or at your kid’s recital and you see somebody wearing that shirt, you’re like, cool. It’s that little bit of connectedness, knowing there’s a Phish fan everywhere.”

Among the artists participating in the PhanArt show at Manchester’s DoubleTree hotel will be Ryan Kerrigan, a native of Manchester who now lives in Portland, Oregon and was featured in Mason’s book, PhanArt: The Art of the Fans of Phish. Kerrigan makes a Happy Fish poster for every Phish show on a given tour. His 603 print, a limited edition of 55, will be sold at the show.

The Phish pop-up industry has also produced a packed calendar of supporting music events. Jewel Music Venue, for example, has after party music all three nights, with jam supergroup Deep Banana Blackbelt on June 20. The all-star vibe continues the next two nights with J. Wail leading an electro-funk band that includes members of Cool Cool Cool, STS9, Giant Country Horns, The Motet and Hive Mind. DJ Airwolf also performs.

“When the main event ends, the real adventure begins,” promoter Jonah Lipsky, who also plays in J. Wail’s band, said of the afterparty. Tickets for the shows are available at manchesterafterparties.com, starting at $29.50 for a single night, with a three-day pass costing $75.

Up the street, The Goat hosts a free UnoPHISHal Post-Party with Strange Machines beginning at 10:30 p.m. The Boston-based quartet offers a “melting pot of musical fusion” according to their Bandcamp page, and recently performed at the Northlands Music Festival. Nearby, Republic Brewing has Pay the Piper performing post-Phish.

Many more venues have pre-concert plans. Andrew North & the Rangers are a great choice at Stark Brewing Co. (500 Commercial St., Manchester), as North cites Phish as a primary influence for many of his band’s songs. It’s a nice bonus that he’s a former Vermonter. The show happens Sunday, June 22, at 3 p.m.

Other pre-parties include Rabbit’s Foot on June 20 and psychedelic funk rockers Jabbawaukee with support from DJ SP1 June 21 at the Shaskeen (909 Elm St., Manchester), both at 4 p.m. Shopper’s World (18 Lake Ave., Manchester) has two nights of the Unofficial Official Phish Pre-Party on June 20 and June 21, 4 p.m., with KR3WL, Serious Black, and Rome.

To Share Brewing (720 Union St., Manchester) welcomes the Kevin Madden Band on June 20 at 4 p.m. Diz’s Food & Drinks (860 Elm St., Manchester) welcomes Phishheads from 11 a.m. to minutes before showtime all three days, though no entertainment, and Murphy’s Taproom (494 Elm St., Manchester) has Birch Swart Trio on June 21 at 4 p.m.

PhanArt Manchester
When: Saturday, June 21, 1-6 p.m.
Where: DoubleTree Hotel, 700 Elm St., Manchester
More: phanart.net

Featured photo: Limited Edition Art done by Ryan Kerrigan, available at Phan Art Show, June 21 at DoubleTree Hotel in Manchester. Courtesy photo.

Pop icon appearing in Concord

Last year, Dionne Warwick was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It may seem an odd choice for a singer best-known for pop hits. However, her music guided more than a few rockers. The Beach Boys released a version of her “Walk on By” and Brian Wilson pointed to “Are You There (With Another Girl)” as one of the influences for Pet Sounds.

Beyond that, she was a trailblazer in other areas. Warwick was the first Black woman to win a Grammy for a pop song, and the first artist to garner Pop and R&B Grammys in the same year. In 1985, the recording she did with Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight of “That’s What Friends are For” raised awareness and millions of dollars for AIDS research.

Warwick spoke with the Hippo ahead of her Saturday, June 21, 7:30 p.m. show at the Chubb Theatre in Concord (edited for space). See ccanh.com for ticket information.

So many great American pop stories began at the Brill Building. Yours and Burt Bacharach’s did too. What are your memories of the two of you getting to know each other in those early days?

Well, I met Burt first on a recording session that my background group was doing with the Drifters…. He approached me after the session and asked if I’d be able to do more backgrounds and demonstration records with his new songwriting partner … Hal David. That was my good fortune meeting those two men. They became my producers, my songwriters, and became basically family.

You have gospel roots. I’ve heard that there was often a tension with gospel performers moving into pop music. Did you experience that?

Yes, I did, as a matter of fact. But fortunately, my biggest fan was my grandfather, who kind of set the record straight for me. He said, ‘My baby has a vocal ability that God gave her as a gift. She apparently is using it correctly, otherwise he would have taken it away from her. And I think most of you should not just let her be, let her know that she’s doing an honest living and it’s something that everybody can enjoy.’

One barrier I think you didn’t really expect to break happened when you first toured France. Apparently the album was issued in France using a cover with a picture of a white woman. How did you react?

The record company in France had not one idea of what I looked like. They had no photographs of me, all they heard was my voice. I don’t know why they thought I was a white girl, but they did. The president of Vogue Records was waiting for me to take me to lunch. I tapped him on his shoulder, and I said, ‘Aren’t you waiting for me?’ He said, ‘Oh no, no, no, I’m waiting for Dionne Warwick.’ I said, ‘Well that’s who I am.’ I thought he was going to choke on his own breath. That night when I opened at the Olympia, when I walked out on stage, there was an audible gasp from everybody…. Until I opened my mouth, they didn’t realize that that’s who I am. Then they said … ‘Yes, that’s definitely her.’ From that moment to this, I have become the sweetheart of Paris and of France, which I’m thrilled about.

You pivoted when you were no longer working with Bacharach and David in the 1970s. With Thom Bell, you made one of the best songs of the ’70s, ‘Then Came You.’ How did that working relationship begin?

I was on a summer tour with the Spinners, and I asked if they would like to come to Vegas for the first time and be a part of the show…. Thom happened to be not only a friend for many years prior to us recording, but [was] sitting in the audience on our closing night. He said, ‘I’ve got a gift for you guys.’ We said, ‘Oh, really? What is the gift?’ He said, ‘I’ve got a song for you.’ And that song was ‘Then Came You.’… That was my very first No. 1 recording nationally.

When did you begin collaborating with Stevie Wonder?

Gene Wilder called me [and] said, I’d love for you to be a part of this film that I’m doing [The Woman In Red] … I feel you have the ability to become the music coordinator for this [and] I want you to choose who you feel would be the person to do the writing of the music for it.’ The first choice I had was Lionel Richie. Unfortunately, Lionel let me know he was much too busy, [so] I called my baby, Stevie…. One thing led to another, and as we all know, not only did he write the songs and produce the recording, but he also won the Oscar that year for that song.

I saw in an interview that you discovered ‘That’s What Friends Are For’ while watching the movie Night Shift. Is that how you found that song?

It absolutely was. I was doing a collaboration with Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager Bacharach. I’d just left their home. They had been playing songs for me before. I was watching the film Night Shift, and I said, ‘Oh, I like that song by Rod Stewart, who’s singing it?’ The roll appeared where they give you credits from people, and I said, ‘Oh, Carole wrote this song. Why didn’t they just save that for me?’ The next day I told them, I heard this song and I want to record it. Carol, who was a complete hoot, said ‘Now four people know that song. I said, ‘four people?’ She said, ‘Yeah. Rod Stewart, me, Burt, and now you.’ I said, ‘Well, now we have to let everybody hear that song.’

Was using the song to raise money for AIDS research part of the motivation to do it in the first place?

No. Elizabeth Taylor, being a friend of Burt and Carol’s, was at the session. She pulled me aside [asking], ‘How would you feel about giving me this song to be the anthem for the AIDS issue?’ … Unfortunately, we all had lost people or felt the sting of this AIDS issue before we even knew what it was. … giving it to Elizabeth Taylor, we thought if our voices could make a difference, why not?

You really made a difference. President Ronald Reagan wouldn’t even utter the word AIDS until you prompted him. Did you know you were going to do that when it happened? That’s so incredible.

You know, I did. I remember at a press conference where he announced that he had made me the ambassador of health in the United States, and I’m still the only ambassador of health in the United States. And while he was giving me the honor, I was thanking people and letting them know how grateful I was for him to think I was someone that deserved something like that. I said, ‘Would you let them know, President Reagan, what it is I’m working on?’ He looked at me, and if his eyes could kill me, I would not be talking to you today. But he finally got up, and he was breathing very, very hard. He said, ‘OK; AIDS.’ I said, ‘See, you can say it — and if you say it, that means that we can follow this.’

We could use an ambassador of health right about now. AIDS research is really under threat. Care to comment?

Yeah. We’ve made major strides, I must say, within the scientific area as well as research and medications. We have a long way to go. We’re going to make this happen, I’m sure. Eventually, we’re going to get to that elusive word called cure … then I can get off [the] train ride that I promised people I would be on until we found the cure. It’s something that we all have to be very cognizant about. Health issues, such as AIDS, can be conquered.

Featured photo: Dionne Warwick. Courtesy photo.

Country singer Annie Brobst stays positive

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

There’s a timeless adage both revered and reviled among songwriters. Essentially, it says that any misery is mitigated if it produces a song. Shawn Colvin once responded to this sentiment with terse words. “I’d rather do anything,” she sang back in 1992, “than write this song for you.”

Annie Brobst can look at it from both sides.

For more than a decade, Brobst has been a big part of the region’s country music scene. The single “Red Wine On Mind,” from 2021’s Where We Holler, netted her latest in a string of New England Music Awards. The album is packed with gems like the popgrass rocker “Little Girl Dreams” and the blues-inflected “On the Record.”

Brobst didn’t set out to be a singer. She found her talents belting out her favorite hits in Boston karaoke bars, and followed her muse after meeting songwriter Roger Hagopian. He encouraged her to channel the elements of her life that resembled a country song into her own music.

Her first song came after a breakup. Brobst had followed her boyfriend from Ohio to Boston, where the romance faded. In response, she wrote “Ghost,” and won her first NEMA. On the other hand, she’d be content with skipping the experience that produced her second drawn-from-life composition, “After the Rain.”

Eighteen months ago, Brobst and her husband and creative partner Ryan Dupont returned from an out-of-town trip to find a burst pipe in their third-floor bathroom. “The place was ruined,” Brobst recalled in a recent phone interview. “We were displaced from our home for about a year.”

Initially, she didn’t feel inspired to write something like When We Holler’s charming “Make Lemonade,” however fitting that might have felt.

“I was just in this mind space,” she said. “I didn’t feel super creative in the time. Once we started to get on the other end of that, I did write a song about that. And then we have a couple more that we wrote and recorded.”

She’ll perform those and others from her debut EP and two albums — the other is My First Rodeo, released in 2018 — when she appears at Lost Cowboy Brewing Co. in Nashua on June 13. It’s one of a few shows Brobst has coming up in New Hampshire, a state she’s played infrequently, though she and Dupont were married in the White Mountains.

On June 28 she’ll headline an early evening show at Stone Church in Newmarket, backed by singer/songwriter Keith Crocker and special guest band Punktry Bumpkins. On July 12 she opens for country rapper Big Murph at The Flying Monkey in Plymouth, and she returns to The Range, a buzzy outdoor venue in Mason, on July 17.

Though the new song was inspired by Brobst’s own tragedy, its message is universal.

“It’s for anyone in that moment of limbo,” she explained. “There’s sun that comes out after the rain; you just can’t quite see it yet. That’s definitely what the song’s about. I think it can apply to so many people and so many situations that they’re just pushing through.”

“After The Rain” and a few others that have been polished in the studio will make their way into a future album.

“Yeah, we’re going to release some singles, and definitely keep writing now that we’re in a better space,” Brobst said. “I definitely always like to have my singles live on an album at some point. That’s kind of always been my M.O. “

Brobst, who’s spent close to 15 years in New England, is resisting the pull of Nashville as her next career move.

“I’m happy here,” she said. “My husband and my stepdaughters are here, so I do have our life rooted…. We’re going to be ourselves, write our music, play our awesome shows out this way, and see if at some point we can’t gain some traction or attention. I don’t see moving in our future anytime soon — not to say we wouldn’t if the opportunity was a great one.”

Annie Brobst

When: Friday, June 13, 7 p.m.
Where: Lost Cowboy Brewing Co., 546 Amherst St., Nashua
More: anniebrobstmusic.com

Also Saturday, June 28, 5:30 p.m. at Stone Church, 5 Granite St., Newmarket ($15 at stonechurchrocks.com)

Featured photo. Annie Brobst. Photo by Liza Czech.