Category: Nightlife

NH Irish Fest returns to Palace

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

Two shows — one free, another ticketed — will celebrate New Hampshire’s connection to Ireland when the New Hampshire Irish Fest returns to the Palace Theatre. On the big stage, the Spain Brothers, Liam and Micky, host a bill topped by Eileen Ivers with renowned tenor Ronan Tynan, the Screaming Orphans and Mick McAuley.

In the Palace’s Spotlight Room, a free show (reservations required) has a local flavor, with JD & the Stonemasons, Black Pudding Rovers, Marty Quirk and Speed the Plough playing at the top of each hour, beginning at 3 p.m. Since the paid admission event kicks off at 5 p.m., a festival vibe will prevail.

“There will be some overlap between the two,” Liam Spain, who also booked the shows, said by phone recently. “We’re trying to make it more of a festival, having the multiple stages.” At the end of the evening all the musicians will gather to perform a closing song. It’s always a highlight at the event, now in its third year.

Screaming Orphans, a family band, have appeared at all three festivals. The four Diver sisters — Joan, Angela, Gràinne and Marie Thérèse — hail from Bundoran in Ireland’s County Donegal. Their last album, 2023’s Paper Daisies, hit No. 1 on Billboard’s World Music Top 10 and was a fan favorite. “Every track evokes a different feeling,” gushed one.

Called the “Jimi Hendrix of the violin,” Ivers performed a Christmas show at the Rex a few years back, but this will be her first Irish Fest appearance, and Spain is excited.

“She’s a go-to for a lot of contemporary artists that are looking to give that kind of extra spice to whatever they’re doing,” he said.

Tynan first rose to fame in the late 1990s as a member of the Irish Tenors, branching out to a solo career in 2005, with an eclectic repertoire that includes show tunes, standard pop songs and an occasional faith-based piece. Songs in his recent sets range from “My Irish Molly ’O” to “Send in the Clowns” and “Danny Boy.”

A longtime member of Solas, McCauley is a multi-instrumentalist who plays accordion, melodeon, concertina, whistles and guitar who’s contributed to albums by Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Larkin, Paul Brennan of Clannad, and he played melodeons in Sting’s autobiographical theater production The Last Ship.

The Spain Brothers debuted a new album last year — Bright & Better Morning, their duo’s first — and released a Christmas EP in tandem with a concert at the Rex Theatre with Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki and his band. That holiday season show will be back in December, Spain revealed in the interview.

The Irish-curious will enjoy the complimentary slate of musicians in the Palace Spotlight Room. Speed The Plough began as a duo in 1981, performing regularly at Jearnie’s End in Goffstown, growing into a quartet playing a range of acoustic music featuring fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar, pennywhistle and dulcimer. They’re a trio these days, with three albums.

Black Pudding Rovers, who played the Spotlight Room last year, are an area tradition every St. Patrick’s Day. The band features Mike Becker and Ken Wyman on guitar, with Gary Hunter on woodwinds, playing reels, hornpipes, polkas and Irish ballads, along with covers of tunes by everyone from the Dropkick Murphys to Van Morrison.

JD & the Stonemasons are called “New England’s most rollicking band of traditional musicians” and perform regularly around the region, including a show at The Fells in Newbury with Liz and Dan Faiella on Aug. 27 and at the Lancaster Fair on Aug. 31. Marty Quirk is a mainstay at Shaskeen Pub.

Being a musician booking shows, something he’s done for multiple years, gives Spain an advantage that provides lots of benefits to area fans, particularly with the New Hampshire Irish Music Festival’s lineup.

“We’ve known them for 20-odd years, so I can cater to that, make it more welcoming and make it feel like home for them when they show up,” he said.

NH Irish Festival

Eileen Ivers, Ronan Tynan, Screaming Orphans, Mick McAuley, Spain Brothers
When: Saturday, Aug. 16, 5 p.m.
Where: Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester
Tickets: $44 and up at palacetheatre.org

Free Event – Speed The Plough, Marty Quirk, Black Pudding Rovers, JD and The Stonemasons
When: Saturday, Aug. 16, 3-7 p.m.
Where: Spotlight Room, 96 Hanover St., Manchester
Tickets: Free, reserve at palacetheatre.org

Featured photo: Eileen Ivers. Photo by Tim Reilly.

Greenery, art and music at Wildflower Fest

Thanks to a decision by her manager, Joni Mitchell didn’t perform at Woodstock, but she did write a song that defined the legendary 1969 festival. Thus, it’s fitting that some of the Woodstock generation’s grandchildren are carrying on the spirit summoned by Mitchell’s words “we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden” on its anniversary date.

For most of his childhood, Griff Comtois remembers Keyes Memorial Park in Milford as a Superfund site, surrounded by chain link fences. When the EPA declared it clean enough for public use, a stone and wood amphitheater was built there. Early on, Comtois thought it was underutilized. It prompted him and his friends to launch the first Wildflower Festival in August 2023.

The Wildflower Festival will mark its third year on Saturday, Aug. 16, at the Keyes Field Stage. Three stellar acts top the bill: Nova One, who appeared at this year’s Newport Folk Festival; Lazy Trail, a project led by Boy Scott’s Emma Willer, and Sneaky Miles, a Seacoast band that performed at the first fest.

The initial vision for that event was “a really cool concert for all our friends and everyone in the community,” Comtois recalled recently. Three bands were booked, but it quickly grew, to include an art fair with dozens of vendors. From there, he continued, “we were like, well, we should also raise money to do something.”

They netted $6,500 in contributions. With it, a pollinator garden was planted near the park’s gazebo. Buoyed by success, the festival returned last year, with more bands and art vendors, and raised enough money to install a meadow strip in the park. Both are regularly tended by a core group of volunteers.

“We all are really passionate about our environment and want to find ways that we can make a difference,” Comtois said. “One of my biggest interests is how can we make the spaces that we already live in more sustainable, rather than all this grass and concrete. How can we blend the line between wild nature and where we live?”

A big list of local acts will perform, including singer-songwriter Lily Soleil, Interstate 10, the Manchester-based duo of guitarist Corbin Sage and singer Kevin Lundstrom, Tin Fish, Portsmouth trio Bird Friend, Vale’s End, Burnin’ Shores, Trash Sun and Born Fools.

Darth Brandon rounds out the performers, and one of its members was instrumental in organizing music for the festival.

“Andrew West is really connected in the local music scene,” Comtois said. “He used to run open mic and different music events at Union Coffee in Milford, so he got a lot of the more local bands from there.”

West and Comtois first saw Sneaky Miles while both were at UNH, and Comtois is keen for their return.

“They really get people moving and they’re so fun to dance to,” he said. “They know how to keep the energy flowing … they’ll bring you really high, keep it going, give you a little break, then bring you back up. They throw a great concert.”

Even more artists will be on hand this year. “Everyone’s excited to be part of something, especially when it supports the environment,” Comtois said. “Every year I’m amazed by how much art they have, how well their stands are set up. They sell everything from stickers and prints to original paintings … sculptures and figurines. There’s a lot of pottery, upcycled clothes, woodworking and crocheted items.”

Comtois didn’t plan for his festival to coincide with Woodstock.

“I didn’t know, but August is a good time for festivals,” he said. But the garden motif will be strong, with a plant sale starting at 11 a.m. “Two hundred-plus plants, and I’d say it’s going to sell out probably before 1 [p.m.], because plant people are crazy. If you want some plants, I’d get there early.”

Wildflower Festival
When: Saturday, Aug. 16, 11 a.m.–9 p.m.
Where: Keyes Field Stage, 45 Elm St., Milford
Tickets: $10-$20 (sliding scale, pay what you can) at eventbrite.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Brad Williams ‘Growth Spurt’ tour hits Concord

Brad Williams was groomed for comedy from an early age. Born with dwarfism, he says getting laughs began as self-defense.

His parents, who weren’t little people, knew he’d face challenges at school, so they sent him with some quick comebacks.

“My dad said, ‘When people meet you, there’s going to be one obvious thing that they notice,’” Williams said by phone recently. “‘Make a quick joke, let them know you’re OK. They’ll pay more attention to you and less to your dwarfism.’”

Performing for a crowd was a happy accident that happened when he was in the audience at comic Carlos Mencia’s show.

“He made midget jokes, and the audience wasn’t laughing,” Williams said. “He was very confused by this, like, ‘What, is one of them here?’ And I raised my creepy little hand in the air.”

Mencia called him up on stage and started asking questions. “Not trying to be funny, my answers got laughs,” he recalled. “That was kind of like the spark that made me go, ‘Ah, man, this feels pretty good.’ I started going up on open mic nights, trying it out. Thankfully, it went well, and 21 years later I’m an overnight success.”

Williams worked on Mind of Mencia while the show was on Comedy Central in the mid-2000s. At the outset, dwarfism helped his standup career.

“Every show doesn’t want just five straight white guys … they want different perspectives,” he said. “I may have gotten some shows I didn’t quote-unquote deserve.”

This grew frustrating as he improved.

“People were like, ‘He’s only funny because he’s a little person,” Williams recalled. “It took a while for people to see past that, and I would argue there are some people that still don’t. You know, I’ve never done a late-night set. So there are still certain entities out there that don’t believe that I’m actually funny.”

While those folks are entitled to their opinion, he’s glad to have success on his own terms, through clips and specials like 2024’s Starfish that fans passed around.

“It was a very organic way of growing the brand, and I’m really thankful for that,” he said. “Because now, people aren’t coming to my show expecting this character that they saw on TV or waiting for me to get to talking about my sex life because I’m with some celebrity. They’re genuinely interested in my perspective.”

That said, Williams always addresses the obvious when he starts a show.

“I’m never going to know what it’s like to be a six-foot-two guy,” he said. “My jokes will always have the perspective of a little person, but it’s great to get those out of the way…. When I walk on stage, there’s a lot of people who are immediately curious. I have that opportunity to be [their] introduction to dwarfism.”

His act includes bits about being a father to a daughter who’s also a dwarf, having a pit bull, and battling with his awful neighbor Carol; he uses her real name onstage. “Probably not the smartest idea for my family dynamics,” he concedes. “I’m a horrible liar, so I can’t go up on stage and say, ‘Her name is Andrea’ if I don’t feel it.”

During the interview, Williams revealed that he’ll shoot his next special later this year in Lexington, Kentucky. His comedy is definitely winning over audiences. When his “Growth Spurt” tour was booked in Concord, tickets for a 7 p.m. Aug. 8 show at the Capitol Center’s Chubb Theatre sold so quickly that a late one was added.

“Thank you to the good people of New Hampshire,” he said, while adding this about his act. “My comedy is like my general personality … very ADD. If you don’t like a joke, wait 30 seconds. It’s going to be high-energy … a lot of fun. I don’t want people leaving and not talking on the way to the car. You’re going to be talking with whoever you came with about the show and things you heard. But the bottom line is it’s going to be fun.”

Brad Williams
When: Friday, Aug. 8, at 7 and 10:15 p.m.
Where: Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $42.25 and up at ccanh.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Atlanta Rhythm Section at Tupelo

Known for ’70s hits like “So Into You” and “Imaginary Lover,” Atlanta Rhythm Section began as the house band at Studio One in Doraville, Georgia. It would be where Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama,” and a diverse group of artists ranging from Ronnie James Dio’s pre-Sabbath band Elf to Journey and Joe South all made albums.

Rodney Justo was one of the musicians there when Studio One opened in 1970. His association with the others stretched back to the Candymen, a group that included future star Bobby Goldsboro. It was formed to play with Roy Orbison when the British Invasion shifted the focus from solo singers to bands like The Beatles.

If you believe the internet, the Candymen backed Orbison on his biggest hit “Oh Pretty Woman,” but in a recent interview Justo countered the legend. “That’s not true,” he said by phone, but added, “it’s not a rumor we try to stop, you know what I mean? We have lied so much about being on that set that we almost remember the session.”

The rest of ARS was drawn from the Classics IV, whose song “Spooky” would later go Top 10 for them. With Justo on vocals, guitarists Barry Bailey and J. R. Cobb, Dean Daughtry on keyboards and a rhythm section of bassist Paul Goddard and drummer Robert Nix, the group began working on its own music soon after the studio opened.

When their first album failed to dent the charts, Justo left for session work in New York City.

“I had a daughter that had some physical problems, and like all stupid musicians in those days, none of us had insurance,” he said. “I left because I didn’t see anything happening, and I had opportunities in New York. But so you understand, I didn’t leave on bad terms.”

The proof is that he readily helped out in 1983 when asked to sing on a few dates and did it again a few years later. He’d be back permanently in 2011, always feeling he belonged.

“The fact is the band was built around me and Barry Bailey; it’s that simple,” he said. “So I never came back feeling like a stranger.”

That said, there is a line in Atlanta Rhythm Section’s first chart hit, “Doraville,” that could be a comment on his departure. “Singing, ‘Friends of mine say I should move to New York / New York’s fine but ain’t Doraville,’ I thought they might be taking a little shot at me,” Justo said. “But I didn’t care. We were friends to begin with, and I didn’t leave as enemies.”

Justo is now the last remaining ARS member and has no plans to retire.

“A lot of people are very grateful that I’ve kept the band going, including the band members when they were alive,” he said, “Barry was happy, and J.R. was happy, he said, ‘Man, that’s so great you’ve come back, and you keep doing it.’”

On Saturday, Aug. 2, the band will return to Tupelo Music Hall, where they have a strong following. The current lineup consists of Justo, guitarists David Anderson and Steve Stone, keyboard player Lee Shealy, along with Justin Senker and Rodger Stephan on bass and drums, respectively.

There’s no typical ARS show, though Justo is quick to point out one obvious fact.

“You’ve got to understand that there’s probably six or seven songs we have to play,” he said, “In addition we do some deep tracks, and we finally have learned enough songs that we can play any type of venue. We change the show based on where we’re playing, but they’re going to get the six or seven hits.”

Atlanta Rhythm Section
When: Saturday, Aug. 2, 8 p.m.
Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry
Tickets: $60 and up at tupelohall.com

Featured photo: Atlanta Rhythm Section. Photo credit: Courtni Meadows.

Toto, Christopher Cross and Men At Work hit Gilford

Yacht Rock, the genre that was another genre when it was popular, got a big boost last year with an HBO documentary that featured interviews with the musicians behind songs like “What A Fool Believes,” “Baby Come Back” and “Ride Like the Wind.” It also had Donald Fagen offering an unprintable response to the notion that his band belonged in the film.

A few months later, two of the sound’s stalwarts announced a summer tour: Toto and Christopher Cross, along with Men At Work, an Australian band that broke on MTV but whose hits nonetheless were probably in rotation on more than a few sailboats and cabin cruisers.

The well-timed showcase stops at BankNH Pavilion on July 28. In a June phone interview Toto lead singer Joseph Williams had some thoughts on the retroactively applied moniker once loosely referred to as West Coast Style until someone spotting a skipper’s hat on a ’70s album cover led to a rebrand.

“Some of the guys in Toto didn’t really consider it much of anything other than a parody, possibly an insult,” he said. But the name stuck, and bands like Weezer elevated it. “What it did do is help bring younger generations to the table with this music, and you can’t fault that. So everybody has sort of embraced it at this point.”

Williams joined in the mid-1980s, following a career that included jingle work, a Las Vegas tribute revue and the proto-American Idol show Star Search. His connection to the band that produced hits like “Africa,” “Hold the Line” and “99” began before that, however, even though he was 17 when the first Toto album was released.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Williams met Toto guitarist Steve Lukather in high school. His dad, movie and television composer John Williams, worked with the fathers of both David Paich and Jeff Porcaro. “I knew these guys, they knew who I was; I was a friend and a fan,” he said. “It was very exciting to watch the big success that they had.”

With an Oscar-winning dad behind the soundtracks of Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, Williams’ career path was inevitable. “I don’t remember a time that music wasn’t sort of a language for me,” he said, “I learned [it] before I learned the English language, or how to speak.”

There are two parts to Williams’ tenure with Toto. From 1986 to 1988 he toured and helped the band make a pair of LPs. The second, The Seventh Album, had massive success overseas. “A few of those songs were huge … bigger than they were here,” he said, “One of them was a No. 1 hit and the others were top 10 and top five.”

He then left due to a cocaine addiction, as recounted in a 2022 interview with MEL Magazine. “Nothing abnormal,” he’s quoted as saying at the time. “But as a singer, that’s the one substance you can’t do. It freezes your throat.” Williams returned permanently in 2010. In the interim, he also contributed to a song on Toto’s 2006 album, Falling in Between.

His rehabilitative comeback included a role in Disney’s 1994 animated movie The Lion King, as the singing voice of Adult Simba on “Hakuna Matata” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.” Williams was hired to record demos of the songs with singer Saida Garrett a year before production began, and came back to record some final parts in Hans Zimmer’s studio.

“They hadn’t figured out exactly how they were going to pull off ‘Hakuna Matata’ and I just happened to be in the booth,” he recalled. “They said, ‘Why don’t you give this a try? No guarantees but maybe we’ll come up with something.’ So I sang my part and the animation happened after that. I think Nathan Lane and those guys did their singing later, because it didn’t exist on the version I did.”

Toto, Christopher Cross and Men At Work
When: Monday, July 28, 6:45 p.m.
Where: BankNH Pavilion, 72 Meadowbrook Lane, Gilford
Tickets: $44 and up at ticketmaster.com

Featured photo: Toto. Courtesy photo.

Chatting with Tom Papa

A middle-aged dad whose kids are out of the house and off to college, Tom Papa revels in the joy of empty nesting on his 2024 Netflix special, Home Free. However, the reality turns out to be different, he noted recently.

“It’s more like you get breaks,” he said. “My daughter just came home from college, and I learned the other night that she’s going to be here for four months. I was like, ‘Well, that’s not great.’”

Born in New Jersey, Papa was “knocking around” in the New York comedy scene when Jerry Seinfeld spotted him and gave his career a much needed boost in the late ’90s. A few years later, his sitcom Come To Papa ran briefly on NBC, until a new network CEO looking to launch another show called The Office poached cast member Steve Carell and canceled it.

Papa will be at Hampton Beach’s Casino Ballroom on July 17. He spoke with Michael Witthaus in June — here’s an edited transcript.

When did you realize that you were funny?

In second grade…. I had an idea for a bit [and] a banana peel. I walked to the front of the classroom in the middle of the lesson, and I sang a song parody of ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ only as ‘Rhinestone Banana.’ It was throwing this banana and shaking my hips. The kids were laughing, and the teacher was sitting next to my desk like, what are you doing? But I remember distinctly thinking, yeah, that works.

What made you decide to be funny in front of people?

In seventh grade, this one week, I walked into my friend’s house, and all the older kids were listening to Steve Martin’s Let’s Get Small album. Later that week I was at my other friend’s house. He had a copy of George Carlin’s Class Clown. You would sit and listen to albums and look at the cover, and it really dawned on me that these are grown-up men [and] this is their job. They’re funny for a living. That really hit me.

Was there a moment where you knew you were going to be successful?

When I met Seinfeld. He came into this club two nights in a row when I was on stage [and] wanted to talk to me after the second one. He was talking about how funny I was, he was really interested and complimentary and spent time with me. I was like, all right, if this guy is endorsing me and saying I’m on the right path, then I think I have a shot. It really came at an important time where it was like, am I going to do it? And he’s like, you’re going to do it. I was like, OK. And that was really the moment.

Come To Papa … What are your memories of that?

…I did a set on Conan and the head of the network wanted to meet me. Then it was kind of this little leaf in this roaring river. Before you know it, I had a pilot and I was casting a show. It was all happening and it wasn’t like I was trying to get it. I was surprised it was happening … we ended up getting hooked up and then there was a new president and he was looking to do The Office. So, it ultimately got canceled after several years of working on it. It was a little confusing because I didn’t know. I got there, that’s got to be something. So … do I have to go back home now? You don’t know what’s up. Then someone gave me advice…. More shows get canceled than become hits … you’re good enough to have people want to make a show with you. It’s validation that you have it. … I was unhappy about it, of course, but I wasn’t crushed. But the real thing that kept me going was like two months after I was called to do a spot on the Tonight show, and I had done it before, but it was just a funny moment to be, OK, NBC put my show on, they canceled my show, and here I am driving back through the gate showing my ID because I’m going back onto the lot to stand up on their network. It was like, oh, wait a minute. I don’t need a show. I don’t need other people to say I can do this. If I’m funny as a comedian, I kind of call the shots. That was a huge moment. The show would have been fun and cool in its own way, but … you’re kind of unstoppable if you can be funny.

This current tour, you headlined the Beacon Theater for the first time. As a Jersey kid, that must have been exciting.

Yeah, that was great. It was a real milestone. Within a couple of weeks I did the Chicago Theater and then the Beacon … definitely milestone spots. I love places that have that kind of history. The one in Hampton is definitely that, right?

You’re right, the Casino Ballroom has had many, many greats on their stage.

I had no idea the first time I went. I was like, oh yeah, I know the area. That’ll be fun. It’s got to be a quirky little place. Then everyone from Count Basie to George Carlin, I mean, everybody. It was like, oh man, I better straighten my tie.

Tom, anything that I haven’t brought up that folks should know?

No, it’s just that I think my comedy really is pretty hopeful and not really that cynical. I sign books at the end of the show, so I get to actually meet the people that are coming out on this tour. You can just tell from the response and spending a little time with these people that they really appreciate that they were able to escape for an hour and a half. It feels like people are under a lot of pressure. It’s easy to yell about the sky falling, but my whole goal out there right now is to give people a good time and a little bit of an escape.

Tom Papa
When: Thursday, July 17, 8 p.m.
Where: Casino Ballroom, 169 Ocean Blvd., Hampton Beach
Tickets: $36 and up at ticketmaster.com

Featured photo: Tom Papa. Courtesy photo.