Category: Nightlife

Lotus Land plays twice at Tupelo

By Michael Witthaus

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A good tribute act walks a tightrope, capturing a sound without trying to fully reproduce it. It’s something that bassist Chris Nelson thinks about frequently. His band Lotus Land plays the challenging catalog of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame trio Rush, and Nelson knows that convincing proximity, not perfection, is a sane performer’s best target.

“It’s not like we’re trying to repaint the Mona Lisa, that’s almost a thankless task,” he said by phone recently. “We’ve gelled into performing this stuff with a certain degree of our personalities. Tone comes from the hands of the musician; you can’t help but sound a bit like yourself … you’re not trying to just be a robot.”

Fortunately, Nelson’s voice has a natural pitch that’s similar to that of Rush’s lead singer. Comments about the vocal resemblance have followed him for years. “I’d sing a Zeppelin tune and without fail people would say, ‘You sound so much like Geddy Lee,’” he said. “Here I thought I was doing a pretty good Robert Plant! But anyway, I’m a crazy Rush fan.”

His bandmates, guitarist Bob Chartrand and drummer Mark Dalton, started Lotus Land as a four-piece, parting ways with the original bass and keyboard players when they met Nelson and became a trio. Before playing out, they watched videos and practiced hard, aware that Rush’s fans would “be as understandably critical of us as they are loyal to the real thing.”

They approached their first gig fretting about the formula, prepared to bail if it failed. “I’m not going to put myself and my bandmates through the embarrassment — if it doesn’t work, that’s going to be it, because I know it’s a tall order,” Nelson recalled thinking at the time. “But it was well-received … and it kept snowballing.”

The band took its name from a line in “Freewill,” a song from Rush’s breakthrough 1980 album Permanent Waves. The late Neal Peart was inspired by Homer’s The Odyssey when he wrote it, according to interpretations. In the book Merely Players, Peart said the “Lotus-land” was “a metaphor for an idealized background, a land of milk and honey.”

Their website describes “an obsessive approach … that inevitably compels us to incorporate every authentic Rush nuance into whatever amazing tune of theirs we may be playing,” and on songs like “Spirit of the Radio” and “Tom Sawyer” they deliver on the promise with masterful musicianship that honors the original songs.

Nelson’s bonafides as a fan are undeniable — he’s seen them live almost 20 times, and Lotus Land performed at the 2012 RushCon in Toronto. The latter was a life-changing event for him — he met his future wife there. She was there from L.A., along with thousands of others who’d traveled there.

The meeting only sparked a friendship; both were with other partners at the time. “Two years later, our situations changed, and here we are married; so I can credit the band for that,” he said. “What’s cool is I got to tell Geddy Lee that, very briefly at a book signing, I had my 60 seconds like everybody else, and I got to tell him that.”

Asked to name his most enjoyable moments during Lotus Land’s set, Nelson responded, “I love that question. People have their favorite areas of the band and mine happens to be from Permanent Waves through Grace Under Pressure, so that’s also Moving Pictures and Signals. For my natural register as a vocalist, that feels right in my pocket, so that’s the kind of stuff I love to do.”

That said, there’s another song he loves not on any of those albums.

“I love playing ‘The Path,’” he said, adding a side note. “I never try to change my voice to sound like him at all. I hear some other tribute acts do, but I’ve got a higher, and similar register as Geddy, so I’m just going to sing in my natural voice. If it sounds like him at the end of the day, great. If not, it shouldn’t be too painful on people’s ears because I’m going for the right pitch … it should be close.”

Lotus Land

When: Friday, Feb. 7, and Saturday, Feb. 8, 8 p.m.
Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry
Tickets: $42 and up at tupelohall.com

Featured Photo: Courtesy Photo.

Paying tribute to a hot streak of albums

By Michael Witthaus

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Beginning with Beggars Banquet in 1968, the Rolling Stones made four records in a row that are all among the greatest to come from the classic rock era — and the last one, 1972’s Exile on Main Street, was a double album. The other two were, of course, 1969’s Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers, released in 1971.

Here’s the thing, though. It was an iconic streak, but the band’s true achievement was surviving it. Most of them, anyway; co-founder Brian Jones barely made it through the first two LPs before his death. Arrests, bad business deals, a disastrous free concert and a midnight run from England to France all happened, while the music just got better.

A show on Feb. 1 at Pembroke City Limits will feature four songs from each album, along with a look at the times that produced them. A house band led by John Zevos of Lichen will recreate “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Midnight Rambler,” “Dead Flowers,” “Tumbling Dice” and a dozen others.

“I was peeling through some of the Stones’ essential works of the late ’60s and ’70s and I just could not get past these four records,” PCL owner Rob Azevedo, who organized the show, said recently. “Mick’s potent lyrics, Keith’s blazing riffs and the magnitude of these incredible creations…. I thought, we need to pay tribute to these songs, and soon!”

Hosting and providing historical context for the event will be me, Michael Witthaus. I watched a lot of it unfold as a teenager in Northern California, like the horrific Altamont show that summarily ended the ’60s idealism once rising at Woodstock. When the Stones returned to San Francisco in 1972 and played Winterland, I was there.

Since then, I’ve learned a lot more from books and podcasts about the decade’s music. I’ll talk about living in that era, and tell stories about the Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World, like the one about how the organ player on Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” later joined The Stones and helped shape the opening bars of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

A seasoned group of Stones-loving musicians is promised, which will include a horn section for a few songs consisting of sax players Brian Booth, Dani Sven and Jason Reichelson, along with John Spring on trumpet. Zevos wrote the horn charts, something he’s done for Azevedo-organized tribute shows in the past. The band, he said in an email interview, consists of “people I’ve played with a lot over the years that I knew would be great playing Stones tunes.”

On keyboards and singing is his wife Diane Zevos. She’s also a member of Lichen, a band nearly as durable as the Stones, having marked 43 years together last August. “Di loves rock ’n’ roll, and adds so much to any band she plays in,” Zevos said. “We love playing together.”

Playing guitar and vocals is Wayne Hughes, a longtime collaborator of Zevos’. “We play together all the time in various situations, and he knows more about the Stones than anyone I know,” he explained. “As soon as Rob asked me to do this I said to myself, ‘I have to get Wayne,’ and he was eager to jump in.

Steve Forgione, though best known for his guitar work in local band Who Knows What, will move to drums for the show. “He grew up drumming in drum corps, and he is also a fantastic drummer,” Zevos said, adding, “Steve knows this material really well and I think because he is a guitar player he is a very musical drummer.”

On bass and vocals is a newer friend of Zevos, Peter Borden. “I met Peter while playing with him in another band and we found that we have the same taste in music,” he said. ‘Even more than that, we hit it off musically. When I found out he was into the Stones, he seemed like the logical choice, and it is working out really well.”

Zevos will handle the “Keef” parts on guitar. “A lot of them are in the open tunings that Keith Richards uses,” he said. “You can play all of the songs in standard tuning, but to get the same sound as Keith, on some songs you need to use the tunings. I like it, it’s really fun. I’ll need to bring four guitars.”

Rolling Stones Tribute Show

When: Saturday, Feb. 1, 2 p.m.
Where: Pembroke City Limits, 134 Main St., Suncook
More: pembrokecitylimits.com

Featured Photo: Rolling Stones, 1969 (Courtesy Photo).

Co-bill promises collaboration

By Michael Witthaus

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An upcoming show at Exeter’s Word Barn features a pair of unique performers both collaborating and performing their own music. Nate Sabat is an upright bass player who transforms his rhythm instrument into something all-encompassing. Rakish, the duo of Conor Hearn and Maura Shawn Scanlin, weds traditional Celtic music to modernity for a fresh sound.

The show is part of a four-date mini tour. “We’re really excited about it,” Hearn said, along with Scanlin, in a recent Zoom interview. “Nate’s going to play, and then we’ll play with Nate on his music, and Nate will play with us on our music…. it’s sort of this integrated thing that we’re trying to pull off.”

Rakish released their second-full length album, Now, O Now, in October. It’s a rich and varied work that kicks off with “Lonely Hotel Room,” a buoyant yet bittersweet ode to road weariness. The title track follows, one of two James Joyce poems set to music by Hearn, something he also did with W.B. Yeats’ “The Stolen Child” on their eponymous debut EP.

Hearn, a literature major at Tufts, delights in detecting song patterns in poetry. “Joyce was very interested in music, but we don’t necessarily hear the music that they had going on in their head when we read their poems except to the extent that we have their rhyme schemes and their meters and such,” he said. “To take a text like that and infer what a new melody could be lets us use some of our compositional muscles.”

The two took artistic risks on the new disc, like the Jamie Oshima-produced “765,” which echoes Natalie MacMaster’s 1999 crossover hit “In My Hands” with its fiddle electronica dance beat. It’s also the only track not helmed by Hearn and Scanlin, who elected to self-produce after working with Solas’s Seamus Egan on 2022’s Counting Down the Hours.

In addition to being lyrically compelling, with standout songs like “Island in the Sea” and “Lightly Come or Lightly Go,” Now, O Now stands out for another reason, Scanlin pointed out.

“The entirety of the album is all original musically, even excluding those two James Joyce poetry pieces,” she said, adding that she’s pleased to have it as a unifier, “instead of trying to come up with a thread about how JS Bach relates to this other old Irish tune relates to a tune that I wrote yesterday or something, which was the case on the previous album.”

Scanlin hails from Boone, North Carolina. Despite growing up in the Appalachian region, she initially studied classical music, but repeated trips to folk festivals with her parents got her interested in fiddlers like MacMaster, Hanneke Cassel and Liz Carroll. Hearn grew up in Washington, D.C., and got into Celtic music at summer camps and other places.

The pair met while both were attending different colleges, Hearn at Tufts and Scanlin at the New England Conservatory. Mutual friends and shared interests brought them together. They’d jam at Irish sessions at clubs like The Burren and The Druid; later they were in a band called Pumpkin Bread, before pairing up to focus on their shared favorite music.

One of the duo’s earliest supporters was Brian O’Donovan, a major force in New England’s Celtic music community and beyond before his death in 2023. “Brian was definitely the first to really elevate us and what we were doing and give us a platform and throw gigs at us,” Hearn said. Scanlin concurred, saying, “in a more tangible sense Brian literally did give us our very first gig together as Rakish, so our relationship as a band goes back all the way.”

Recently Rakish was named as the inaugural Brian O’Donovan Legacy Artist, part of an effort to memorialize the man who, here in New Hampshire, regularly hosted events like Celtic Christmas at Derry’s Pinkerton Academy. The weekend after this interview they served as resident artists at the Boston Celtic Music Festival, which featured a musical tribute to O’Donovan along with the awarding of six $2,500 grants in his name, with Rakish being among the recipients.

“Brian brought so much to Celtic music,” Scanlin said, from connecting people Stateside to folks back in Ireland as well as bringing the Northeast community and the rest of the U.S. together. “We’re really grateful to him, and also honored … to be stepping foot into this Brian O’Donovan Legacy role for its very first year. We’re so excited to see where that fund goes, and just totally excited to be the first in that role.”

Rakish and Nate Sabat

When: Thursday, Jan. 23, 7 p.m.
Where: Word Barn, 66 Newfields Road, Exeter
Tickets: $16 and up at portsmouthnhtickets.com

Featured Photo: Rakish. Photo by Sasha Pedro.

Modern Fools take a country turn

By Michael Witthaus

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The idea for Clearly Country, the new EP from Modern Fools, came from a sign spotted by songwriter Josh Blair at a yard sale in Peterborough. He couldn’t shake it from his mind, so he returned to make an offer. “I didn’t know why I bought it,” he said by phone recently. “Then it just kind of dawned on me that it was going to be the cover of a honky-tonk album.”

The result is a gem, born as much from Blair’s love of purists like Hank Williams and Buck Owens as from his affinity for cosmic cowboys such as Gram Parsons and the Byrds album on which he served as a guiding light, Sweetheart of the Radio, an effort many point to as key in launching country rock as a genre.

Standout tracks on Clearly Country include “Ballroom Bender Blues,” a song about a guy whose drunkenness doubles for dancing; it rollicks like The Band with a pickup pedal steel player. “On My Mind” has guest vocals from Rachel Sumner and could be a cut from John Prine’s In Spite of Ourselves, while the high lonesome ballad “Eastern Standard” evokes the Everly Brothers, another big influence. Its supple harmonies are complemented by Braught’s spare, elegant soloing.

The Keene/Peterborough band — Blair, drummer Justin Gregory, Jon Braught on guitar, keyboard player Nick Hayes and Ian Galipeau on bass — will celebrate the seven-song collection at a release show in Concord on Jan. 18. The BNH Stage date includes support from indie rockers Slim Volume and singer/songwriter Rachel Berlin.

The group began over a decade ago with a different lineup and sound.

“We played a lot of local shows and kind of fizzled out around 2016,” Blair said. During the pandemic he and Gregory began working on ideas, later recruiting Braught, and Galipeau a while after that. The band released the introspective LP Seer in 2020 and Strange Offering in 2023.

Neither of those efforts bears much resemblance to Clearly Country.

“It’s a bit of a tangent … a departure from our normal sound,” Blair said of the new EP. “This is a concept album of sorts.” He’d kicked around ideas for a twang-forward effort soon after releasing their last album, including teaming with their friend Sumner.

“I wanted that old country duet sort of thing, like Johnny Cash and June Carter sort of thing; we all unanimously thought about Rachel,” Blair said. “She really liked the song and absolutely delivered … she sent us a quick demo back, and she just nailed it.”

Blair has significant roots in the Concord music scene dating back to playing psychedelic blues at Penuche’s with Ghost Dinner Band, and later in the supergroup Band Band. He immediately thought of the BNH Stage for the concert, reaching out to John McArthur at New Hampshire Music Collective, which books a lot of original bands there.

With NHMC on board, they began looking for bands to share the stage.

“Slim Volume was the first pick for everybody in the band; we just love their sound, it’s very complementary,” Blair said. “Then we thought of Rachel Berlin, she’s from the Concord area and just a great singer/songwriter with a great voice. It’s a really solid lineup and a really solid venue.”

The show is a solid reflection of the Capitol City’s continuous support for local artists. Even though Blair isn’t a resident, he feels an affinity from his years playing in the city, with so many different musical projects.

“Concord always felt like home in the music scene,” he said, “and it’s always kind of felt like a home away from home for me.”

Modern Fools with Slim Volume and Rachel Berlin
When: Friday, Jan. 17, 8 p.m.
Where: BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $18.75 at ccanh.com

Featured Image: Courtesy photo.

Women of Soul celebrates depth of talent

By Michael Witthaus

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An upcoming showcase will bring together three female performers of varying backgrounds for an evening of community and camaraderie. Each artist will perform for 45 minutes, but the goal of the evening goes beyond music. The event is the first of an envisioned series aiming to celebrate the quality of women’s talent in the region.

Organizers Audrey Drake and Pam McCann hope that Women of Soul will foster a wide range of connections between the musicians and their audience. Drake called the Jan. 11 concert at Pembroke City Limits a “soft launch” in a recent phone interview, adding that the envisioned the series will incorporate storytelling, insights and more along with songs.

“It will include what we’re writing, what we’re working on, possibly collaborations and passion projects,” Drake said. “We want to give a broader perspective of what each person is offering, and what we bring to our music.” Sophie Markey will kick things off, followed by Katie Dobbins. Then Drake, with McCann playing drums, will close the evening.

Drake and McCann conceived the series almost a year ago and revisited the idea many times over the past months.

“I’d say to Pam, ‘When and how is it going to happen? Do we have to have a big plan?’ Then a couple weeks ago I was like, we’re just doing it.” PCL owner Rob Azevedo was on board, having seen Drake and Dobbins perform together there in December. “He’s amazing, he does so much good work in the community, and for all musicians, so let’s jump in.”

Azevedo opened the listening room and tavern, which offers food from Sleazy Vegan, last summer. The Women of Soul event is consistent with his vision for the venue, he said by text recently. “We have such a swath of super talented female performers in our camp,” he wrote. “That is one of the things I am so proud of since we started.”

McCann is both a singing drummer and a visual artist. She’s worked professionally since age 16, including touring with Jonathan Edwards and opening for The Band, and released a solo album, Kinder Enemies. In an email she described her involvement in Women of Soul and praised her musical partner.

“This project is near and dear to me especially as it is in alliance with the multi-talented Audrey Drake,” she wrote. “The idea behind this gathering of curated female artists is to embrace women who are not only musicians but multi-disciplined artists, healers and messengers. A melting pot of soulful offerings.”

An information table at the PCL show will offer artist merchandise and information on wellness services for women, and each performer will be able to engage with audience members individually, Drake said. “There’s music, but what else can we talk about and connect with people on, to really showcase the creative force of women in all aspects of what we do in our lives?”

Drake is involved with a few other efforts, including a Sacred Song event on Jan. 18 at the Gathering Place in Keene. “It’s a combination of singing and what’s being called sound bath,” she said of the singalong gathering. “In some traditions it’s called kirtan; how I do it is a little different. There are more songs that people might be more familiar with.”\

Beyond that, Drake is working on a follow-up to her 2020 album, The Next Best Thing. Her musical influences include Patty Griffin and Lori McKenna, and similar singer-songwriters. “Because their music is so beautiful and it’s so simple and it’s so authentic,” she said. “It’s written from their hearts, and it’s received in people’s hearts.”

Admission to the first Women of Soul event is free. Drake and McCann hope to do five more in 2025, and build their spark into a fire of unity and common purpose.

“You can tell this is kind of playing out in my head at the moment,” she said. “It’s definitely in its infancy, but I’m looking forward to this year.”

Women of Soul – Audrey Drake, Katie Dobbins and Sophie Markey
When: Saturday, Jan. 11, 7 p.m.
Where: Pembroke City Limits, 134 Main St., Pembroke
More: facebook.com/audreyjdrake

Featured Image: Audrey Drake. Courtesy photo.