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Self-tribute

Heart By Heart hits Cap Center

Among tribute bands, Heart by Heart is unique in actually having original members in its lineup. Bassist Steve Fossen joined Heart when it was a Pacific Northwest club band banging out Zeppelin and Deep Purple covers. Drummer Mike Derosier played on a pair of tracks from their 1976 debut album, Dreamboat Annie, then joined full-time.

Compare that to what’s these days officially advertised as Foreigner — only guitarist Mick Jones was part of its best-known hits, and he tours with them for maybe half the year.

With singer Somar Macek and guitarist Lizzy Daymont performing the roles of Ann and Nancy Wilson, Heart by Heart is a facsimile, but one with real cachet.

“We have to call ourselves a tribute act, because people understand what that means,” Fossen said in a recent phone interview. “At the same time, Mike and I helped write the material, and we toured with it. … Actually, we’re kind of a tribute to ourselves.”

With the rhythm section at the core of hits like “Little Queen,” “Straight On” and “Barracuda,” Heart by Heart provides a faithful version of what Heart sounded like in its heyday. Though Fossen no longer dons a unitard as he did in his twenties and Derosier keeps his shirt on, the overall vibe is solid throwback.

“We try to recreate what it would be like to see a band in the late ’70s and early ’80s,” Fossen said. “The guitar players were out there doing double leads together, harmony solos, there’s keyboards blaring, drums and bass are loud. … That’s our goal.”

Fossen and Derosier were pushed out of Heart together in 1982, after the Private Audition album failed to sell as hoped. In the decades that followed, Fossen mostly stayed away from music.

“I was more into mountaineering,” he said. “I spent a lot of my time going up and down mountains, and driving all around Washington state to different wilderness areas.”

In 2008, Derosier and fellow Heart alum Roger Fisher invited him to play a few Heart songs with Macek at a Seattle party. It was the first night he met the woman who’d become both a music and life partner. His first impression was off, though, because he assumed she spelled her first name like the season.

“I thought, oh, here we go; she’s going to come in with the tie-dye dress, hairy armpits, smelling of patchouli oil, a classic hippie chick,” he said, noting that while there’s nothing wrong with any of those things, he was totally off base. “She spells her name S-o-m-a-r, she’s highly educated, and she’s been singing her whole life.”

Macek and Fossen bumped into each other a few more times and became friends.

“She had a band at the time, so I would go out and see her play,” he said. “They would invite me to sit in on Heart songs; the friendship turned into a romance by Christmas.”

He laughed at the observation that unlike Heart, whose romantic entanglements could rival those of Fleetwood Mac and then some, they fell in love before starting a band.

The two began playing as a duo at social gatherings, creating enough of a buzz that they were invited to open for Dwight Yoakam in Anchorage, Alaska. They decided a bigger sound was needed and brought on Derosier and guitarist Randy Hansen. The Yoakam gig ended up getting canceled, but the group enjoyed rehearsing enough to carry on anyway.

Their first official show was a breast cancer awareness benefit. When Daymont joined two years later, the doppelgänger effect was complete with her solid guitar skills and vocal support.

Their sets span all of Heart’s catalog, even songs Fossen and Derosier weren’t on, like “Alone,” “These Dreams” and “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You.”

“We look at Heart songs that are popular, that people want to hear, and we tried to learn those in the beginning,” Fossen said. “Obviously, with a band like ours, we want to please as many people as possible. There’s a lot of fans of that era of music, so we [play] those too.”

Heart By Heart
When: Saturday, April 2, 8 p.m.
Where: Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $25 and up ccanh.com

Featured photo: Heart by Heart. Photo by Bill Bungard.

The Music Roundup 22/03/31

Local music news & events

• Pickers’ pick: A new band of bluegrass aces, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway is led by the award-winning guitarist and songwriter; the quintet encored a recent Seattle show with twanged-up take on Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Also on the bill is Bella White, a 20-year-old singer and multi-instrumentalist whose debut album Just Like Leaving was called “sublime Appalachian heartbreak” by Rolling Stone. Thursday, March 31, 7 p.m., 3S Artspace, 319 Vaughan St., Portsmouth, $22 to $25 at eventbrite.com.

• Jazzy folk: The four-piece band River Sister came together after an open mic revealed the preternatural connection of singers Elissa Margolin and Stefanie Guzikowski. They melded so well that they formed almost by acclamation. Rounded out by upright bassist Nate Therrien and drummer PJ Donahue, their music is a wonderful blend of folk traditions and jazz rhythms, pure harmony wed to musical complexity. Friday, April 1, 8 p.m., Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord, $15 at ccanh.com.

• Blues man: Though he often sounds like he was plucked from a century ago, Guy Davis didn’t grow up in hardscrabble times. The singer, guitarist and actor has said he learned the blues tradition at first as a Vermont college student. He has a solid knack for channeling masters like Howlin’ Wolf and Blind Willie McTell, however. Saturday, April 2, 8 p.m., Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, $25 at palacetheatre.org.

• Sound machine: A rare live appearance from prog rock duo Delusive Relics is part of an event dubbed Synthwave Night that will feature selections from their second album, The Blind Owl. The show also stars Bosey Joe, the electronic groove pairing of looping wizard Aaron Jones and sax player Curtis Arnett, who will headline their own showcase in downtown Concord at Bank of NH Stage in early June. Saturday, April 2, 8 p.m., Area 23, 254 N. State St., Unit H (Smokestack Center), Concord. See delusiverelics.com.

• Lunar tunes: In a new video filmed in an open field, percussive guitarist Senie Hunt covers George Ezra’s “Budapest” and makes it his own, with elegant, quick fills and hypnotic rhythm. Hunt is back home from his current Nashville base to play shows, including one at a colonial-era estate owned by Moonlight Meadery, who also makes beer and cider; it often hosts area musicians — see the schedule on their website. Sunday, April 3, 2 p.m., Over The Moon Farmstead, 1253 Upper City Road, Pittsfield, overthemoonfarmstead.com.

New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival Edition

The New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival kicks off Thursday, March 31, and runs through Sunday, April 10, with 16 films in all — 11 features, five shorts and four in-person screenings. Most of the movies also will be available virtually, either during the festival itself or during a bonus week, April 11 through April 24.

Tickets start at $12 for individual screenings or you can buy packages for screenings of all movies, virtual only ($118) or in-person and virtual ($130 for one person, $180 for two). See nhjewishfilmfestival.com for details and check out Meghan Siegler’s story on page 10 of the March 24 (last week’s) issue of the Hippo (which you can find at hippopress.com).

Thanks to the organizers, I got advance screenings to a few of the films.

The festival kicks off with an in-person screening of The Automat at the Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St. in Manchester) on Thursday, March 31, at 7 p.m. with a post-film discussion with director Lisa Hurwitz and collector/restorer Steve Stollman. If you can’t make it to that screening, you can also watch the movie during the virtual screening bonus week.

Either way, this movie, like the coffee it so lovingly describes, is well worth the price. This is an absolute charmer of a documentary about the Horn & Hardart chain of automats, which dominated the New York and Philadelphia restaurant scene in the early and mid 20th century. Put a nickel in a slot and open the compartment to reveal the pie or sandwich or creamed spinach you’d been craving, and another nickel gets you coffee so good that Mel Brooks sings a song about it over the documentary’s closing credits. Brooks appears throughout the documentary along with Carl Reiner and Elliott Gould explaining the place of this democratizing but also stylish eatery in their youth and young adulthood. (Descriptions of the restaurants’ gleaming floors, brass fixtures and high ceilings reminded me of discussions of similar era movie palaces and suggest a real luxury-for-all approach to design in public spaces — in case anybody is looking for a senior thesis.) Also appearing here are Wilson Goode, former mayor of Philadelphia, as well as Colin Powell and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, discussing both the food (there’s a lot of pie talk, be prepared to get hungry) and the social vibe created by a space where a business exec, a member of New York’s booming (in the 1920s) female workforce and a blue-collar worker would share a table and where recent immigrants to New York could feel welcome.

You also get the business side of the restaurant — how it rose and the forces that led to its fall. It’s a delightful story told with great fondness and humor.

I had the great good fortune of watching Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen at the start of Oscar weekend and it was a perfect way to kick off a weekend of thinking about the art and craft of movies. This documentary (which will be available during the bonus week) offers a great examination of all parts of the movie-making process as it looks at how the successful Broadway musical was translated into the 1971 movie. The songs and the way director Norman Jewison wanted to block a scene influenced the production design, just as the casting of the actresses and finding their comfortable key influenced the way John Williams brought the music of the stage musical to the screen. How do you recreate the look of a turn-of-the-20th-century shtetl in Ukraine some 60-plus years later, after wars and during the Cold War? Jewison discusses finding an Anatevka-like village in the former Yugoslavia.

Jeff Goldblum narrates this documentary, which features interviews with the three actresses who played the older daughters, Topol (the actor who played Tevye), and members of the film crew as well as people, like critic Kenneth Turan, talking about the story and the movie from a cultural-relevance perspective.

The shorts program features five films and you can purchase 48-hour access to the five-film block at any time from March 31 to April 10. The films are Ganef, Beefies, The Shabbos Goy, Mazel Tov Cocktail and The Tattooed Torah and they are a diverse mix in terms of style, tone and theme.

The Tattooed Torah presents as an animated storybook, with the screen panning across pictures but with people popped out from the background to give depth and blinking eyes and other small animated details that add a liveliness to the scenes. Ed Asner narrates the story of a boy and a beloved Torah in Czechoslovakia before and during World War II. The story is based on a book of the same name written by Marvell Ginsburg and illustrated by Martin Lemelman.

As with that movie, Masel Tov Cocktail slips bits of history into its tale about a teenager named Dima (Alexander Wertmann), a post-Cold War Jewish-Russian immigrant to Germany. He wrestles with his frustration, all teenage righteousness and humor, over the way Germans — the prejudiced and the well-meaning — pull him into their views of World War II and what their ancestors did (or, as some claim, definitely weren’t a part of). The short is the fourth directing credit (all shorts) for directors Arkadij Khaet and Mickey Paatzsch, according to IMDb, and it has that entertaining, scrappy indie film energy.

Ganefwill be familiar to viewers of the 2021 Manhattan Short Film Festival. It’s a tight drama about the residual effects of trauma that features Sophie McShera (best known as Daisy from Downton Abbey) playing Lynn, the housekeeper to the Hirth family, who live in an upper-class house in England. Mrs. Hirth (Lydia Wilson) tells her young daughter Ruthie (Izabella Dzeiwanska) that people can’t take what they don’t know you have — a lesson she learned as a child in Frankfurt, Germany. It’s a smartly told story that clocks in at about 14 minutes.

Beefies is a charming tale about Josh (Adam Lebowitz-Lockard), a man trying to figure out the recipe to his late mother’s “beefies” dish. (Lebowitz-Lockard wrote and directed Beefies; on the website he describes the dish as his own mother’s “sort of beef stew/stroganoff dish of meat and veggies” which he hasn’t been able to reverse engineer since she died.). In Beefies, Josh finds clues in his mother’s papers but realizes that to get answers he’ll have to call Mark (Goran Ivanovski), the brother he’s been estranged from. The movie is a sweet family tale that gets bonus points for the rare good use of pandemic as story point.

The Shabbos Goy is my favorite of the pack. This movie stars Milana Vayntrub, perhaps still best known as the lady from the AT&T commercials. As the movie poster explains, the titular person is a non-Jewish person who performs certain tasks that religious law prohibits a Jewish person from doing on the Sabbath or, more succinctly, “a human loophole.” During a gathering with her family and her future in-laws, Hannah (Vayntrub) is desperate to keep her engagement on track but won’t break the Sabbath by turning off her, er, personal device when it is accidentally activated. She runs out to find a non-Jewish person to help her, leading her to Davian (Devere Rogers), who first tries to ignore her when she crazily tries to wave him down. The movie is written and directed by Talia Osteen, who has a director credit on the Hulu movie Sex Appeal (also a fun trailer) and it is executive produced by Paul Feig.

Oscar wrap-up

If there’s one thing you’ll remember from last Sunday’s Oscars, it’s that you need to watch CODA.

OK, one other thing.

Truly, though, if you have “meh-ed” at Oscar nominees — which isn’t an unfair response in 2021 when the movies never fully felt back — hopefully CODA’s wins will entice you to check it out. It won for best picture, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor for Troy Kotsur, who co-starred with Marlee Matlin as the deaf parents of a hearing teen (Emilia Jones) in this truly heartwarming movie. It’s on Apple TV+.

Another winner worth seeking out is Summer of Soul (… Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), the documentary that won Questlove an Oscar (which you may have missed while Googling “Chris Rock Will Smith was it a bit?”). That excellent documentary about the multi-concertHarlem Cultural Festival is on Hulu and Disney+ and is available for rent or purchase (and you can also purchase the very excellent soundtrack).

Another winner that might have gotten lost in the evening’s proceedings for a different reason (it was one of the awards cut from the broadcast and then deep-faked back in, as writer Chris V. Feil described in a tweet) was The Queen of Basketball, the winning documentary short, which is available on nytimes.com. It’s a charming profile of Lucy Harris, a star college (and Olympic) basketball player in the 1970s who was drafted by, but never played for, the New Orleans Jazz.

Then feel free to shut the book on the whole messy 2021 in the Oscar-verse, with its category strife, its lack of real surprises among the winners (though my swing-for-the-fences guesses led to my still only correctly predicting a little more than half the winners) and all-over-the-place ceremony even before the infamous slap. Or, at least, shut the book after one more watch of the beautifully staged Beyonce opener and the uneven but lively at least “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” remix.

The Lost City (PG-13)

The Lost City (PG-13)

Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum are accidental explorers seeking ancient treasure and running from a petulant Daniel Radcliffe in The Lost City, a movie that should have kept its original title, The Lost City of D.

Why “of D”? The movie has an “ancient tribe of D-yada yada” answer but mostly it’s exactly why you think it’s “D” and for that reason the movie also should have gone for an R rating. This is a “ladies meeting up for a movie” kind of movie and it should have gone to town with its female-friendly bawdy comedy goofiness. As it is, it’s more like the movie went to the end of the driveway, maybe a bit down the block, but then decided, eh, maybe not all the way to town this time.

Loretta (Bullock) is a successful author of a series of romance novels about Angel Lovemore and Dash, two adventurers who find themselves in situations like being menaced by a villain in a temple full of snakes while professing their love, all heaving chests and throbbing other things. But real-life Loretta isn’t feeling the love for her characters; still mourning the loss of her husband, she’s having a hard time writing her latest book and when she finally finishes it it’s not well-received by the public.

To try to gin up sales, publisher Beth (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) sends Loretta to a romance convention and pairs her with Allen (Tatum), the cover model who has posed as Dash all these years. Loretta doesn’t have much patience for conventions, Q&As or Allen and suffers through it until her car arrives to take her home.

Or, at least, she thinks it’s her car. It turns out to be what she describes as a low-key Taken scenario, more of a whisking-away, really, by Abigail Fairfax (Radcliffe), the very rich, very indignant son of a media family. His younger brother has just been given the family business and Abigail is looking to one-up him by discovering a priceless ancient treasure. Since she worked some real-world archaeology into her books, Loretta is the perfect person to help him on his quest, Fairfax thinks, whether she wants to or not.

Allen, who wants Loretta’s respect and maybe more, sees her being taken-ed and decides to rescue her. Or at least he decides to participate in her rescuing: He calls in his trainer, named, naturally, Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt), to help him free Loretta.

Some 15 or so years ago, I think The Lost City would have really annoyed me, with its dumb plot and its sharp-as-a-butter-knife-or-maybe-a-spoon humor. But now, saying a movie is “a goofy premise filled with dumb jokes” feels like more of a recommendation and Bullock and Tatum know exactly what they’re doing here and exactly how to do it. Bullock presents a variation on the smart-but-prickly characters she’s been playing over the last decade in comedies and Tatum knows how to mix the “beefcake with a meathead but a sweet heart” cocktail and serve up a character who — OK, every way I could think of to finish that metaphor sounds dirty. Basically, Tatum knows what he looks like and knows how to make that guy funny. Even though The Lost City isn’t as smart as it could be, isn’t as big-dumb-laugh as it could be, it is pretty dumb and it is pretty fun. It uses Radcliffe and Randolph well, even if both could probably have done more. And it’s a good time, if not right now in theaters definitely in the near future in your living room. B

Rated PG-13 for violence and some bloody images, suggestive material (though not nearly suggestive enough), partial nudity (ditto) and language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Aaron Nee and Adam Nee with a screenplay by Oren Uziel and Dana Fox and Adam Nee & Aaron Nee, The Lost City is an hour and 52 minutes long and is distributed by Paramount Pictures in theaters.

Infinite Storm (R)

Naomi Watts plays Pam Bales, a former Granite Stater who rescued a man from a particularly stormy Mount Washington, in Infinite Storm.

Pam heads out for a hike on Mount Washington on a day that, based on a conversation with ex-husband Dave (Denis O’Hare), is already heavy with some kind of grief for her. As she hikes, the weather gets colder, clouds roll in and a storm starts. She finds the hike harder, she falls and has to climb out of the snow and then she comes upon a man just sitting on the mountain. John (Billy Howle) is what she calls him when he declines to give his name or say anything about why he’s sitting in a blizzard in what appears to be shorts and sneakers. She tells him they’re leaving, going down the mountain, and they begin the slow, painful trek down, with John often giving up and Pam essentially ignoring that and keeping him going, even when it’s clear she’s putting her own life at risk.

At points, this movie reminded me a bit of 127 Hours, with Watts’ Pam frequently either talking to herself or talking to John, who doesn’t really answer her. Watts’ performance is a solid one that the whole movie is basically hung on. It’s a strong enough performance that the movie probably doesn’t need the flashbacks to Pam and her young daughters or the movie’s final 15 or so minutes that do a lot of unnecessary telling after Watts has spent a good deal of the movie showing us Pam’s inner turmoil and her determined personality. Infinite Storm is ultimately a thin but interesting watch about this slice of recent New Hampshire history. B-

Rated R for some language and brief nudity, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Malgorzata Szumowska with a screenplay by Joshua Rollins, Infinite Storm is an hour and 37 minutes long and is distributed by Bleecker Street.

Featured photo: The Lost City.

What Happened to the Bennetts, by Lisa Scottoline

What Happened to the Bennetts, by Lisa Scottoline (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 400 pages)

Most people have heard of the federal witness protection program; far fewer have ever actually given it any serious thought. Those who have might know its acronym, WITSEC for witness security, and that it is a program of the U.S. Marshals Service that gives new identities to people who testify against criminals who have networks that enable them to retaliate.

According to the government’s website, more than 19,000 people have taken part in the program since its formation some 50 years ago. That includes not just people who testify but also any dependents who might be in danger.

Lisa Scottoline dives into this world with her new novel, which probes the hellscape one family endures after a violent carjacking. Up until this point, Jason and Lucinda Bennett had enjoyed a comfortable suburban life — replete with a Mercedes sedan, two nice teens and a small white dog with two speeds: “asleep and annoying.” But driving home after their daughter’s field hockey game, they were cut off by two men, which started a cascade of horrific events that led up to FBI agents banging on their door later that night.

The agents informed the already reeling family that they were in imminent danger because they had witnessed one of the carjackers shoot the other. They had 15 minutes to decide whether to enter the witness security program or to stay home and risk their own deaths.

That in itself is worth some reflection. Many people have thought through what they would take to leave their house for an emergency, such as a wildfire or hurricane; that’s why “bug out” bags are a thing. But this wasn’t just bugging out. The Bennetts had 15 minutes to gather belongings with the realization that they were never coming back, and in fact, they would never even be “the Bennetts” anymore after they left. Moreover, they weren’t allowed to tell anyone they were leaving — not Jason’s employees, not Lucinda’s friends or even her mother, who lived in a nursing home for the memory impaired.

As such, it wasn’t quite as easy a decision as it seemed.

The Bennetts do leave, however, and that’s not a spoiler; the title tells us as much. And although they are not allowed to go to their social media accounts on the new laptops the U.S. taxpayers give them, Lucinda uses an old account to see what’s being said about their disappearance. This makes it even harder, of course, seeing a thread called “What happened to the Bennetts” and a search being organized by citizen investigators, much like what happened in the real-life case of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie last year.

Moreover, by seeing what was said on the internet, the couple can see the rampant speculation that is taking place, such as whether Jason killed his family and then burned down the house and his office.

All this is fascinating enough, but eventually the story turns into a more conventional crime novel, enabled because Jason, as a court reporter, knows how to read lips, and learns something about the criminal he is hiding from that he wasn’t supposed to know.

From there the story accelerates, going back and forth between Jason’s quest for justice and the frenzied search for answers within the community they left behind.

It would be a mistake to call this a nail-biter; the novel is not as accomplished as that, although it certainly qualifies as a run-of-the-mill thriller. Scottoline, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, has somehow found the time to write 32 novels in addition to non-fiction books of humor, including Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog. She also writes humor with her daughter, Francesca Serritella.

There’s little humor in this story, however, and in fact, the opening sequence of events will be disturbing to anyone who is a parent. It’s an emotional haul for the reader to move past what happens to fully embrace the thriller mode.

What Happened to the Bennetts is being praised by some as Scottoline’s best novel yet, which does not make me want to rush to get the others. It’s an excellent beach read, a few months early and a hundred pages too long. B-

Book Notes

Looking for new releases in gardening, I came across a term I hadn’t heard before: survival gardening. Apparently, this is a subset of doomsday prepping that has been a thing since long before Joe Biden warned us that Ukraine-related food shortages are coming.

`Until the seed shortage hits, you might be interested in some more traditional titles as we wait for the growing season to start. Out this month is Gardening for Everyone (Harvest, 304 pages) by sustainability expert Julia Watkins, who focuses on vegetables, fruits and herbs.

If you’re more into flowers, there’s Garden Maker (Harvest House, 208 pages) by Christie Purifoy. The Healing Gardenby Juliet Blankespoor is out this week (Harvest Press, 448 pages) and is a comprehensive guide to growing therapeutic plants. Next week comes Containers in the Garden (Cool Springs Press, 176 pages) by “celebrity gardener” Claus Dalby, who is apparently the Scandinavian Martha Stewart.

But for sheer reading enjoyment about gardens with none of the actual work, look for Marta McDowell’s Unearthing the Secret Garden (Timber Press, 320 pages), which explores the life and gardening history of Frances Hodgson Burnett, the author of the beloved children’s classic.

The opening: “Can a book be a horticultural trigger? A sort of gateway drug for gardeners? If so, then surely The Secret Garden by Franches Hodgson Burnett is a contender.”

McDowell, who teaches at the New York Botanical Garden, has also written horticultural histories of sorts about other writers, to include Emily Dickinson and Beatrix Potter, is the author of 2016’s All the Presidents’ Gardens (Timber Press, 336 pages), a history of White House gardens — “from Madison’s cabbages to Kennedy’s roses” — that sounds infinitely more interesting than foraging for seeds. — Jennifer Graham

Book Events

Author events

• AN EVENING TO REMEMBER: CONVERSATIONS WITH CONCORD-AREA AUTHORS Authors Margaret Porter, Virginia MacGregor (Nina Monroe), Paul Brogan and Mark Okrant, in conversation with NHPR’s Laura Knoy. Presented by The Duprey Companies. Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord. Wed., April 6, 7:30 p.m. Free to attend. Visit ccanh.com.

• MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD Author presents The Great Circle. Virtual event hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Wed., April 13, 6 p.m. Registration required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• EMMA LOEWE Author presents Return to Nature: The New Science of How Natural Landscapes Restore Us, in conversation with author Hannah Fries. Virtual event hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Wed., April 13, 7 p.m. Registration is required. Held via Zoom. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• MARIE BOSTWICK Author presents her new book The Restoration of Celia Fairchild. Bookery, 844 Elm St., Manchester. Fri., April 15, 5:30 p.m. Visit bookerymht.com or call 836-6600.

• BECKY SAKELLERIOU AND HENRY WALTERS Becky Sakelleriou presents The Possibility of Red. Henry Walters presents Field Guide A Tempo. Sat., April 16, 9:45 to 11:45 a.m. Peterborough Town Library, 2 Concord St., Peterborough. Visit monadnockwriters.org.

• ANNE HILLERMAN Author presents The Sacred Bridge. Virtual event hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Tues., April 19, 7 p.m. Held via Zoom. Registration is required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• BRANDON K. GAUTHIER Author presents Before Evil: Young Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, and Kim. Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord. Wed., April 27, 6:30 p.m. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

Poetry

• REBECCA KAISER Poet presents Girl as Birch. Virtual event hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Mon., April 11, 7 p.m. Held via Zoom. Registration is required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

Writers groups

• MERRIMACK VALLEY WRITERS’ GROUP All published and unpublished local writers who are interested in sharing their work with other writers and giving and receiving constructive feedback are invited to join. The group meets regularly; the next meeting is scheduled for Tues., April 5, from 5 to 7:15 p.m., and will be held virtually over WebEx Meetings. To reserve your spot, email pembrokenhtownlibrary@gmail.com.

Writer submissions

• UNDER THE MADNESS Magazine designed and managed by an editorial board of New Hampshire teens under the mentorship of New Hampshire State Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary. features creative writing by teens ages 13 to 19 from all over the world, including poetry and short fiction and creative nonfiction. Published monthly. Submissions must be written in or translated into English and must be previously unpublished. Visit underthemadnessmagazine.com for full submission guidelines.

Album Reviews 22/03/31

Various Artists, Black Lives: From Generation to Generation (Jammin’colorS Records)

The Belgium-based Jammin’colorS label is run by its chef/cook/bottle-washer, Stefany Calambert, whose husband, bassist Reggie Washington, helped out on the writing end in this collection of songs, which aims to present “Black music as a source of moral truth and potent weaponry against the scourge of racism.” The Belgian government directly contributed to the creation of this hefty double album, so Calambert was able to gather an amazingly diverse herd of artists that includes Oliver Lake, Marvin Sewell and a chorus line of others. It’s strikingly produced and deeply urban, all of it: Stephanie McKay’s playful, electric-piano-and-la-la-la driven “Phenomenon” checking off the ’80s-jazz-pop tick; Andy Milne & Unison’s dreamy, soprano-scatted “Togged To The Bricks”; Cheick Tidiane Seck’s tribal-rhythmic “Sanga Bo” adding some Fela Kuti texture; even some opera-diva high-wire stuff from Alicia Hall Moran, getting plenty of help from Washington and DJ Grazzhoppa (“Walk”). An honest, depthlessly immersive experience throughout; it may not solve anything but it sure does try. A

Graeme James, Seasons (Nettwerk Records)

In the busking space, you’ve got your golden-throated guys like Peter Bradley Adams, and you’ve got your po-faced Art Garfunkel types. This New Zealander would fall into the latter category, a serious balladeer who plays a million instruments in these smooth, sometimes mildly rocky tunes. Let’s see, here you’ll hear him play mandolin, double bass, fiddle, guitar, banjo and bass ukulele, among other things, a cornucopia of sound that’s equal to the task of supporting his voice, which is similarly all over the place, ranging from floaty Bon Iver to vanilla Sufjan Stevens to clear-throated sea shanty slinger to the aforementioned Garfunkel (“Death Defying Acts”). The song that’s so far received the most attention (including some love from Rolling Stone) from this album is a song about a terrifying adventure aboard an old ship (let’s all agree that humanity will never have enough of those), that being “The Voyage of the James Caird.” A-

PLAYLIST

• The next batch of new albums scheduled for release will get here on April 1, i.e. April Fools’ Day, which is, of course, most apropos, because this week we start with badly tattooed Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose new album, Unlimited Love, is first to be put into the Snark-O-Scope™ for a thorough and proper evaluation! But before we do that, let’s go over it again: I don’t like this band, and, um, well, I never really did. If the ’90s were the ’60s, RHCP would have been the Rolling Stones to Pearl Jam’s Beatles, if you’re down for some rather trite juxtaposition, and I have no idea how that happened, how RHCP got so popular. But people of all ages love ’em, they just love ’em. A couple years ago I was given a single pass for the RHCP show at TD Garden, and since it was snowing and it was only one pass and I don’t like RHCP to begin with, I gave it to a friend, who drove down from New Hampshire, through the snow, to see the show. He loved it, which I wouldn’t have, because I don’t like a single one of their songs, literally none. The only thing that pumps me up about the old ’Chili Peppers is being given this new opportunity to trash their funk-ska nonsense in public, and since I’m salivating at that prospect, I’ll toddle off to YouTube right now, to listen to the new song “Black Summer.” OK, the video starts with Anthony Howeveryouspellit dressed like the Karate Kid, and the song is mellow, with their usual drippy guitar sound (it would be so cool if they’d learn that their Peavey amplifiers actually have things like distortion knobs and stuff and thus don’t necessarily have to sound like the sort of 1-foot-tall amp that’s normally played at kids’ birthday parties, so lame!). Anyway, on the tune drags, with Anthony making rapper hand movements even though he doesn’t rap, and then there’s some psychedelic ’70s vibe that’s just annoying and then some Austin Powers 1960s-pop vibe that also just made me depressed. What does this all mean? Well, it means that a lot of people will like it, just to tick me off.

• In spite of their German-sounding name, Warmduscher is a British garage/post-punk band. Wikipedia says that a “Warmduscher” basically refers to someone who’s a wimp, like, at English “pubs,” the beer-gargling “punters” tease their “mates” with that term, in the hope that someone will start a huge bar fight that will need to be broken up by the “bobbies.” Any-whatever, the new album, At The Hot Spot, is on the way, in the “lorries” right now, headed to the “record shoppes,” where you can buy it with your shillings and tuppence, and it will feature a song called “Wild Flowers,” a stream-of-consciousness rant spoken by one of the “lads,” who “prattles” on and on about all the stuff he hates in everyday life. There’s a wah-wah pedal on the guitar, not that that sound will be coming back from the grave for widespread use anytime soon, or at least I hope.

• You have to admire a band whose cover art is inspired by those old Garbage Pail Kids stickers, so props are due for Toronto four-man power-pop band PUP, whose new LP The Unraveling Of Puptheband is on the way! The push track, “Robot Writes A Love Song,” is a pretty well-rounded amalgam of Weezer and Violent Femmes, if that sounds like something anyone out there would be the slightest bit interested in.

• Finally, let’s check in with Canadian singer Lights, and her new album PEP, with its single “Salt and Vinegar.” This is basically next-gen Taylor Swift bubble-pop, made tolerable by some nifty samples; it’s brainless but not hateful.

If you’re in a local band, now’s a great time to let me know about your EP, your single, whatever’s on your mind. Let me know how you’re holding yourself together without being able to play shows or jam with your homies. Send a recipe for keema matar. Message me on Twitter (@esaeger) or Facebook (eric.saeger.9).

Pink for spring

Lighten up with some rosés

It’s official! Spring is here! It happened at 11:33 a.m., March 20. Mother Nature may not be able to make up her mind as one day the temps rise into the 50s and the next day temps barely rise to the 30s. But spring is a mindset. It is more than the promise of longer days. It is a time of rebirth. It is the time to change from dark, luscious, chewy reds to wines that reflect our wanting to shed the wrappings and trappings of winter and embrace something new and light. It is the time to visit the garden to see what is popping through the last vestiges of winter. Spring is the time to try this year’s offering of rosé wines.

Our first wine is a 2020 Fleur de Mer Rosé (originally priced at $21.99 at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, and on sale with a price of $16.99). It has a brilliant coral pink color and is a medium-bodied wine that evokes aromas and flavors of subtle citrus, lavender and Mediterranean herbs. It is fresh and elegant with a soft texture and mineral finish that is balanced with refreshing acidity. Fleur de Mer means “Flower of the Sea,” and the wine brings to mind the region’s famed fields of flowers and vines that bask in the warm summer sun. Côtes de Provence is an extensive appellation that includes vineyards of the greater Provence region and extends east all the way to the Italian border. Its sites vary from subalpine hills, receiving the cooling effects of the mountains to the north, to the coastal warm Mediterranean of St-Tropez. This wine is a superior rosé, made from high-quality 43 percent grenache, 23 percent cinsault, 12 percent carignan, 7 percent mourvedre grapes, and 15 percent selected other varieties. It can be sipped with hors d’oeuvres of soft cheeses and berries or paired with fish or chicken.

Our second wine is a 2019 Tasca D’Almerita Regaleali Terre Siciliane Rosé (originally priced at $16.99 at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, and on sale with a price of $7.99). Located in the mountainous heart of inland Sicily, Tenuta Regaleali is a vast estate owned and operated by the Tasca d’Almerita family since 1837. Almost 1,000 acres of vineyards thrive between 1,300 and 3,000 feet above sea level. Soils vary from vineyard to vineyard, creating a mosaic of geologic compositions. The microclimate here boasts excellent light and temperatures of hot days and cool nights. Wine Enthusiast named Tasca d’Almerita the 2019 European winery of the year.

Produced from nerello mascalese grapes, grown almost exclusively on the side slopes of Mount Etna, that give Le Rose di Regaleali its class and elegant fragrance and its deep salmon-pink color, this wine offers delicate aromas of cherry, raspberry, blackberry and, appropriate to its name, rose petals. Rich on the palate with refreshing acidity and a long, flavorful finish, it is perfect for pairing to tuna, salmon, poultry, pork and flavorful pasta dishes. This wine is universally food-friendly.

Our third wine is just plain fun! The IGP Pays d’Oc Rosé All Day has us returning to the south of France, but this time we go to the Languedoc-Roussillon region, west of Provence. A quick interpretation of the label: IGP (Indication Géographique Protégée) places this wine between table and superior wines. D’Oc, or the Languedoc-Roussillon region, shares many of the terrain and climate characteristics with the neighboring regions of Southern Rhone and Provence, but at a far greater value. A top trending wine hashtag, #RoséAllDay has become a social media phenomenon with hundreds of thousands of rosé lovers sharing their excitement for the wine by posting pictures emulating a trendy, chic lifestyle. Made from grenache grapes, this wine has the nose of watermelon and strawberry, with crisp, fresh notes on the palate, and a long fruity finish. Pair this with fish, chicken and sushi, or salads and appetizers, but always enjoy it with friends! It’s also available in cans for those warm, sunny afternoon picnics.

So succumb to the allure of spring fever, catch a bit of sunshine, and go out and “smell the rosés.”

A cocktail forged in the heart of a suburban kitchen

I blame Forged In Fire.

Granted, I’ve always had a weakness for television competition shows where people make things and are nice to each other — The Great British Bake-Off obviously, and its ceramic counterpart, The Great Pottery Throw-Down. And it goes without saying that I’m a fan of Making It, Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman’s crafting show.

OK, yes. Also, the glass-blowing one.

And the science fiction makeup one.

And — I think you get the idea.

Anyway Forged In Fire is sort of like Chopped for metal-smiths. Brawny men with hammers are given a ridiculous piece of metal — a box of random tools from a flea market, a cement mixer, half a bicycle — and a few hours to forge it into a knife, a sword, or maybe a ninja assassination weapon. The judges then put the weapons through insane challenges like hacking through a castle drawbridge, or elk antlers, or ballistic gel dummies, and everyone hopes they don’t shatter. It’s crazy.

A little like inventing new cocktails each week.

After I wrote a few weeks ago that I was out of bourbon, several very generous people have given me bottles of bourbon.

(I would like to take this opportunity to announce that I also do not have an apartment above a used book shop, around the corner from a Manhattan jazz club.) (As long as I’m wishing, Minnie Driver would be the bartender.)

Given my new wealth of bourbon, it made sense to find a recipe to use it in. I found a bourbon-based punch that I like the sound of, but it has two significant drawbacks: (1) It’s called a Tomahawk Punch, which seems problematic; and (2) I’m something of a connoisseur of bad decisions, and the idea of making a gallon of this stuff brings on a familiar and dangerously comfortable feeling.

This needs to be reconfigured, much like the engine block from a ’72 Matador that I’m supposed to turn into a set of X-Acto knives.

The original recipe calls for a fairly pricey ancho chile liqueur — which I’ve replaced with Fresno-infused rum — and sparkling cider, which I think would be a little more sweet than I’m looking for, so I’ve replaced it with an aggressively bubbly club soda.

Suburban Anvil

2 ounces bourbon — Right now, I like Wiggly Bridge, a solidly dependable label. I’ve been a fan of their gin, and their bourbon has not let me down.
¾ ounce Fresno-infused rum — see below
1 ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
1 ounce honey syrup
1½ ounce Topo Chico mineral water
Fresh grated nutmeg and cinnamon, for garnish

Shake bourbon, rum, lime juice and syrup over ice.

Pour mixture, with ice, into a Collins glass.

Top with mineral water and stir gently.

Garnish with a pinch each of fresh-grated nutmeg and cinnamon.

This punch is definitely bourbon-forward, but it is the lime juice that takes the starring role. This starts out tasting fruity, but the spices — the nutmeg especially — take things in an unexpected direction. The bubbles keep it light, and you are left with a hint of heat from the Fresno rum.

You can’t reliably count on porch weather quite yet, but if we have a sunny afternoon this week, you could do worse than knocking off work early and wrapping yourself around a couple of these.

Fresno-infused rum

I’ve gone on about this before, at length, but lacking a dependable supply of spicy, flavorful jalapeños, your best bet for a pepper to infuse into alcohol is bright red Fresno chiles.

Roughly chop three-four Fresno chiles and add them to a quart-sized jar.

Top the jar off, to an inch or two from the top, with a lower-shelf white or silver rum. The flavor of the Fresnos will blow out any delicate tasting notes from a more expensive rum.

Seal the jar and shake it. Store someplace cool and dark, shaking twice per day. Taste after four days, then every day thereafter, until it suits your taste. Strain and bottle.

Honey syrup

Bring equal amounts (by volume) of honey and water to a boil. Boil for 10 or 15 seconds to make sure that the honey is completely dissolved.

Cool and bottle. This will keep for about a month in your refrigerator.

Featured photo: Suburban Anvil. Photo by John Fladd.

Spinach and salsa egg white muffins

After five weeks of baked goods, it seems like a good time to switch to a healthier dish.

This week I have an utterly healthy recipe that can be used as a breakfast or brunch dish, as well as an afternoon snack. You also can make a batch of these egg white muffins in advance and store them in the refrigerator to be eaten later. They are perfectly fine when served cold but also can be quickly warmed in the microwave.

There are only three ingredients to this recipe. In fact, there is a good chance you already have all of them at home. Frozen spinach is key for keeping it simple; if you prefer to use fresh spinach, you should cook it before starting this recipe. For the egg whites, I prefer to use whole eggs and save the yolks for another recipe. If you want to use a container of egg whites, you need about two tablespoons per muffin cup. Finally, the salsa can be whatever degree of heat you prefer, but try not to use one that is too watery, as it will interfere with baking.

While it’s not included in this recipe, you absolutely could add a tablespoon or two of shredded cheese to each cup. However, these muffins are so tasty as is, the cheese really seems unnecessary.

As you will soon discover, healthy eating can be quite tasty!

Spinach and salsa egg white muffins
Makes 8

1 10-ounce package frozen spinach
8 large egg whites
1/2 cup salsa, divided
Salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Defrost spinach and squeeze out excess liquid.
Coat a muffin pan thoroughly with nonstick spray.
Divide spinach among 8 muffin cups.
Place one egg white in each cup.
Top with 1 tablespoon of salsa.
Season with salt and pepper.
Using a fork, mix spinach, egg white and salsa in each cup.
*If you are using a 12-cup muffin pan, place 1/4 cup water in each empty cup to ensure even baking.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the egg whites are fully set.

Featured Photo: Spinach and salsa egg white muffins. Courtesy photo.

In the kitchen with Paige Melanson

Paige Melanson is the owner of Crumb to Mama (find her on Instagram @crumbtomama), serving as the in-house baker for The Brothers’ Cortado (3 Bicentennial Square, Concord, 856-7924, brotherscortado.com). A Concord native, Melanson is a longtime family friend of the shop’s owners, having worked together with founder Chuck Nemiccolo at Starbucks nearly a decade ago. The Brothers’ Cortado opened in November, with Melanson joining the team in mid-February — currently you can find her there every Monday, Friday and Saturday, with a rotating offering of freshly baked treats like vegan strudels, gluten-free buttermilk blueberry muffins, apple loaves, protein egg bites and cinnamon rolls. The goal, Melanson said, is for her to eventually take over the kitchen space adjacent to the coffee shop full time.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

My bench scraper. It’s very versatile because it’s great for baking but also for cleanup.

What would you have for your last meal?

It would be a double smash patty on a brioche bun with extra pickles.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

One that I’ve been going to a lot more recently is Sun Shui in Bedford. … I love the dan dan noodles and the basil chicken.

What celebrity would you like to see trying something that you’ve baked?

Action Bronson [rapper Ariyan Arslani]. He’s a musician but also a trained chef. He loves good food and sharing it with people, so I’m a fan of [his] music and also a fan of his food.

What is your favorite baked treat that you offer?

I know the crowd favorite is the strudel, but [recently] I made these cheese Danishes with a triple berry jam. It’s a really awesome combination of a nice fluffy dough with a slightly sweet cheesecake filling and a really good homemade jam. I think I’m going to be trying to make it as often as I can and probably rotate out the flavor.

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?

Those loaded Korean corn dogs. … The Hop and Grind over in Durham has them on their menu and I’ve been dying to get over there to try one because they look so good.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

My favorite meal to make is anything that I can just do totally from scratch. … I love having pasta nights, doing homemade pasta and some sort of sauce that you can just put a little effort into and let simmer for a while. … Vodka sauce is delicious, and it’s a nice quick one that you can make in about 20 minutes.

Homemade vodka pasta sauce
From the kitchen of Paige Melanson of Crumb to Mama

3 Tablespoons butter, divided
2 shallots, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely diced and grated
4 Tablespoons tomato paste
⅓ cup vodka
1 cup heavy cream

Saute shallots and garlic in one tablespoon of butter until soft. Add tomato paste and cook for two minutes while stirring. Add vodka and let simmer lightly for two minutes. Stir in cream and bring to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir in the last two tablespoons of butter. Toss in a half pound of cooked pasta of choice with ¼ cup of pasta cooking in water. Top with grated Parmesan cheese and fresh basil (optional).

Featured photo: Paige Melanson. Courtesy photo.

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