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Countrified

On his latest, Albert Cummings shifts gears

Though firmly rooted in New England, Albert Cummings has an affinity for the South. He made his 2003 breakthrough album, From the Heart, in Austin, Texas, backed by Stevie Ray Vaughan’s band Double Trouble. His longtime producer Jim Gaines is a Memphis native, and with him, 2019’s Believe was recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

Cummings’ latest, Ten, was done in Nashville, a city he admits is probably the only one that might pry him from his home in Williamstown, Mass. “I don’t have any plans on leaving,” he said on his way to a tour stop in Reading, Pennsylvania. “But if I do, I’d go there. I love the whole area. You’re in the music world, that’s a pretty good place to go and hang out.”

For Ten, Cummings immersed himself in the spirit of Music City. He worked with producer Chuck Ainlay, whose credits include a who’s who of country royalty, from Conway Twitty and George Strait to Dolly Parton and Miranda Lambert. For a guitarist who once had plans to play bluegrass before shifting to blues, it was a dream come true.

“Oh man, it was such a great experience,” Cummings said. “Chuck is just an amazing guy. He jokes around and says, ‘Well, I’m pretty good at turning knobs,’ but he’s a master of orchestrating everything … to work with him was an honor, and to watch him was just amazing.”

For the project, Ainlay recruited “all the first-call players down there, just the best musicians I’ve ever seen,” Cummings said. If that weren’t enough, Vince Gill was enticed to sing harmony on “Last Call,” a country rocker about a long night of drinking that’s one of the disc’s highlights.

“It’s a pinch-me moment, you know what I mean? Vince Gill, talk about an idol,” Cummings said. “It’s just lightning; how does that happen? I really don’t have any words to describe it … an amazing experience, a beautiful human being.”

Cummings says he dug deep for the songs on his most country-flavored record ever. “What I wanted to do was be honest with what was in my head,” he said.

Not every tune was new. “Beautiful Bride” was the first song Cummings ever sang in front of an audience, in 1989. He’d done a spare version for From the Heart, but “I always wanted to have kind of a little bit bigger sound, a different flavor,” he said. “Give it a little boost … I knew once I was in Nashville I had to put that on the record.”

“Sounds Like the Road” is a solid blues rocker inspired by a hotel lobby encounter with fellow guitarist Robben Ford — “I was checking in, he was checking out,” Cummings explained. It was during a period when he split time between working construction and performing, a late-blooming musician who hadn’t begun to play in public until age 27.

When Ford asked Cummings what he was up to, “I told him, ‘I’m just trying to get things squared away, go out and play.’ He says, ‘Oh yeah? Where are you playing?’ I said, ‘We’re going here, we’re going there, and then we’re flying here.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Sounds like the road to me.’ I was like, ‘Bam, that’s a song.’ I knew it right then.”

Many years and tours later, “it just feels so good to be back playing,” Cummings said, particularly after Covid cut a swath through his livelihood; he released Believe just as the world shut down. “It never had a life; it died before it ever got the chance to even get out.”

He’s buoyed by a new release that’s exciting fans, even drawing new ones.

“I think this record has really brought me a lot of attention, because crowds are way bigger than they used to be,” he said. “I have a feeling that people are just loving to get back out; couple of years away from music made them realize how much they miss it … I really do love it, no matter how hard the road is.”

Finally, though much of the buzz around Ten is it’s “Cummings Goes Country,” the fiery-fingered guitarist who’s shared stages with B.B. King and Johnny Winter and worked with Nashville’s A-Team isn’t tucking himself into any genre. He has opined that the difference between blues and country is beverages — one’s whiskey, the other’s beer. He still feels that way.

“I told that to Vince Gill,” he recalled. “He said, ‘That’s a great analogy — the same three chords, just a different cocktail.’”

Albert Cummings
When: Thursday, July 28, 8 p.m.
Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry
Tickets: $30 at tupelohall.com

Featured photo: Albert Cummings. Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 22/07/28

Local music news & events

• Gator rock: Formed in late ’60s Jacksonville, Florida, Blackfoot took a long road to their most well-known hits, “Train, Train” and “Highway Song.” They opened for The Who at the Silverdome and carved out a niche as a Southern rock band with a heavier edge while enduring multiple lineup changes. The current touring unit consists of “ambassadors” hand-picked by original lead singer Rickey Medlocke. Thursday, July 28, 8 p.m., Angel City Music Hall, 179 Elm St., Manchester, $20 at the door.

• Getting down: With a member who sings, beatboxes and simultaneously plays up to four keyboards, Sophistafunk is a dance floor-filling powerhouse. They’ve worked with the late Bernie Worrell and Motley Crüe’s Tommy Lee, among others. In 2016 they provided the theme song for a game show hosted by Guy Fieri, a few years after Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives visited Funk ‘N Waffles, a Syracuse restaurant owned by the band’s Adam Gold. Friday, July 29, 9 p.m., Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester, $20 at the door.

• Twofer show: A pair of veteran singer-songwriters performs in Concord. Peter Mulvey and Mark Erelli both have new records coming. Mulvey and SistaStrings are set to release Love Is The Only Thing on Aug. 12, while Erelli’s fan-funded Lay Your Darkness Down drops later this fall. The latter was made as Erelli was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease that threatened to blind him. The Kickstarter effort brought in twice what he’d asked. Saturday, July 30, 8 p.m., Bank of NH Stage, 16 Main St., Concord, $25 at ccanh.com.

• Country kid: A singer-guitarist who splits his time between Nashville and New England, Chris Dagnese brings a hybrid sound as well to his music. He’s down home on acoustic guitar, singing about small-town life, but he’ll kick out the rock jams with his band Dags. The group’s new single “Sorry I Missed Your Call” is solidly in the wheelhouse of the current John Mellencamp-informed brand of country. Sunday, July 31, 4 p.m., Millyard Brewery, 125 E. Otterson St., Nashua. See @dagsmusicnow on Instagram.

• World music: Touring in support of his new album Les Racines, Vieux Farka Touré is a guitarist who’s been called the “Hendrix of the Sahara.” Over five critically lauded records, he’s pushed the boundaries of traditional West African music. The new release explores the traditional Songhai music of Northern Mali, what Westerners call “Desert Blues.” He’s also collaborated with Dave Matthews and jazz guitarist John Scofield. Tuesday, Aug. 2, 8 p.m., The Press Room, 77 Daniel St., Portsmouth, $28 at eventbrite.com.

At the Sofaplex 22/07/28

PERSUASION EDITION

Persuasion (PG)

Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis.

Also starring Richard E. Grant, Henry Golding and Nikki Amuka-Bird. The mopiest of Jane Austen’s big four novels (the others being Emma, Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice; Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park have always seemed like the Austen B-team), Persuasion is the tale of Anne Elliot (Johnson), the sensible middle daughter of a titled but indebted family, who is still mourning the loss of Frederick Wentworth (Jarvis), the Navy man she was engaged to but then broke up with at 19. He was a poor sailor, and family friend Lady Russell (Amuka-Bird), who served as Anne’s mother figure after the death of her own mom, felt the match was all wrong for Anne. Lady Russell convinced Anne to give Wentworth up but Anne never got over him and never married anyone else. Now she’s in her late twenties and, as she tells us in some direct-to-camera chatter, still self-medicating with long baths and lots of wine.

Anne is thrown back into the path of her ex when Wentworth, now wealthy and looking to marry, visits Anne’s sister Mary (Mia McKenna-Bruce, doing a lot of fun things as the whiniest Elliot sister) and her extended family, with whom Anne is staying now that her family has been forced to rent out their fancy manor house. Anne can’t figure out how Wentworth feels about her now and, despite being pretty mouthy in a way that is not exactly canon for this character, can’t seem to communicate her own feelings to him.

Acerbic chattiness and excessive drinking are two of many ways this Anne doesn’t exactly jibe with the Anne Austen fans might know from the book or earlier movie adaptations. One of the others is that she is Dakota freakin’ Johnson and an obvious knockout whereas book Anne has always felt to me like someone who thinks of herself as a wallflower who blooms according to the circumstances. I get what this movie seems to be doing, with its “what if Bridgerton plus Dickinson to the power of Fleabag” approach, but for me Anne’s character just doesn’t work. The 2020 Emma highlighted what a jerk the Emma character could be, but it did this by making that existing element of the character bolder. Here, I feel like the movie invented a new Anne (someone maybe closer to an Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice) and then shoved her in book Anne’s story, with the two elements always in opposition. It’s never clear why this Anne let herself be “persuaded” away from her bae in the first place and why she stayed that way all these years, even as she becomes a Regency-era Daria.

That said, I didn’t hate it or at least I didn’t hate this Persuasion as much as headlines suggest other reviewers hated it. It’s the first Persuasion I’ve seen that dug a little more into the Anne/Lady Russell relationship. You understand how these two women could remain close in spite of the persuasion-ing that has made Anne so unhappy.

I also liked everything to do with Mary and her in-laws, the comic-relief-y Musgrove family. They feel less goofy and more like full characters than in previous iterations. And this movie gets the tone of the William Elliot (Golding) character maybe better than any other movie I’ve seen. He is the right amount of “up to something” and charming and very open about all of it in a way that would be appealing to a brainy girl like Anne. And, for what it’s worth, the movie does a pretty good job of demonstrating how to cast actors of color in period stories that don’t include characters of color: you just do it. It works great here and allows this huffily received movie to at least get to be part of the “Henry Golding having fun on screen” film genre.

Persuasion feels like a “for Austen completists only” product but, as just such a person, I’m not mad that I watched it. B- Available on Netflix.

This newest Persuasion had me wanting to remember how other adaptations had approached the story. Here’s a look at some of the other Persuasion adaptations available for viewing. I’m not including Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, the novel of which claims a loose connection to Persuasion, for the carefully considered and scholarly reason that I don’t wanna.

Modern Persuasion (PG, 2020)

Alicia DeWitt, Bebe Neuwirth.

Also Mark Moses (a “hey it’s that guy” from like everything on TV; maybe you remember him as Duck Phillips on Mad Men) and Liza Lapira (who is fun on The Equalizer) and Shane McRae as the love interest.

Here, instead of the central family living at Kellynch Hall, Keller Keller-Lynch is the name of some kind of PR firm that has gone through hard times recently and had to downsize from offices in Manhattan to, gasp, Brooklyn. Wren Cosgrove (DeWitt), this movie’s Anne, is a loyal worker, giving her all to Keller-Lynch. Perhaps this is because she can’t get over her decision not to follow her college boyfriend Jasper Owen (I’m sure McRae is a nice person but he leaves absolutely no impression in this role) to San Francisco. Her aunt, Vanessa (Neuwirth), was insistent that Wren not give up her career for a man and while Wren agreed at the time, she has grown to wish she’d chosen differently.

Jasper, now the CEO of a company that does some app thing, interviews Keller-Lynch to run his PR, putting him and Wren back in contact. The firm’s social media girls (Tedra Millan, Daniella Pineda) stand in for the Musgrove sisters as the young women Owen flirts with, and instead of a title-protecting cousin Wren gets her flirting action from Tyler (Chris O’Shea), a guy at a rival PR firm.

This movie is incredibly lightweight and has that quickie rom-com feel of Hallmark movies and some of the more discount-y Netflix romances. It’s perfectly fine as “something that’s on”-level entertainment but it doesn’t offer much else in the way of romance or comedy or any fun twist to the original story. C- Available via Hulu and Amazon Prime and I guess you could pay money to buy or rent it but, like, I wouldn’t.

Persuasion (NR, 2007)

Sally Hawkins, Rupert Penny-Jones.

Penny-Jones, this ITV movie’s Wentworth, was apparently the mayor in the recent The Batman, IMDb informs me. Also here are Tobias Menzies (of The Crown, Outlander and Game of Thrones, among many other things), as Wentworth’s romantic rival for Anne, William Elliot. And see Watcher Giles himself, Anthony Head.

Head is pretty perfect as the vain and oblivious Walter Elliot, father of Anne (Hawkins), who believes himself to be much better than everyone despite having completely decimated his family financially. This very faithful, in story and in period, telling hits all the familiar points: Anne goes to stay with her sister Mary (Amanda Hale) and her family only to find herself reintroduced to Frederick Wentworth (Penny-Jones), the naval officer she loved but was persuaded to dump years earlier.

What this movie offers that others don’t is more of a window on Wentworth and his feelings. He’s still angry when he first sees Anne again and it’s clearer here than in other tellings that his flirtation with another woman is more about his reaction to Anne than his genuine attempts to find a non-Anne wife.

Coming in at just over 90 minutes, this adaptation is worth a watch for Austen fans — if you can find it. As far as I can tell, it’s not available for rent or purchase and only available to stream with BritBox, which I got a month’s subscription to just for this project and now excuse me while I go watch the eleventyjillion gardening-based shows that this service offices. B Available on BritBox.

Persuasion (PG, 1995)

Amanda Root, Ciarán Hinds.

This is my OG Persuasion, the one I can’t help but measure all other Persuasions against. Wikipedia says this movie appeared on TV in the U.K. and got a small theatrical release in the U.S. But I suspect it found most of its audience the way first I saw it, on VHS (ask your grandparents about ye olde video stores). Austen was having a bit of a moment in cinema — Sense and Sensibility would be released later in 1995 and the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice (or, as you may know it, “the one with Colin Firth and the wet shirt”; kids, ask your moms) aired in the U.K. in fall 1995 and on A&E in early 1996, according to Wikipedia.

Thusly, I don’t know if it’s nostalgia or some kind of imprinting or solely on the basis of the performance that Amanda Root is, for me, the just-right Anne. She isn’t a wimp but she isn’t outgoing. She’s smart and capable but she’s not some anachronistic trailblazer. Because she’s capable, she seems to get her family’s messiness plopped on her to deal with — closing up the house when the Elliots move to Bath to economize without, you know, looking like they’re economizing, and dealing with her aggrieved sister Mary (Sophie Thompson), who is always believing herself to be ill. (Is she bored with her life and illness is the only acceptable way to throw off the expected duty of a wife and mother? Or is she truly ill but society at the time sees women’s pain only as a sign of moral weakness? — Free essay ideas!)

This Wentworth (Hinds) is more of a mystery; we are definitely looking at their relationship and its effects on Anne through her eyes.

This movie might have the most malevolent-seeming group of Elliot family and associates. Whereas other Ladies Russell often seem to soften on Wentworth or at least seem to want a happy Anne more than they want to stick to their guns, this Lady Russell (Susan Fleetwood) really does not seem to budge, seeming to pressure Anne to consider the extra shady William Elliot (Samuel West). This Elizabeth (Phoebe Nicholls), Anne’s snooty older sister, is a particular sour lemon of a person.

These BBC Austens are not fast-paced laughs-a-minute but they are enjoyable adaptations, particularly if you know the books and enjoy seeing the smaller characters and details brought to life. I deeply enjoyed watching it again and, even after 27 years, I think it holds up. A Available to rent or purchase.

Rational Creatures

Kristina Pupo, Peter Giessl.

OK, technically this one isn’t a movie but a web series. The first season is available at rationalseries.wixsite.com and a second season is scheduled to drop this summer, according to the website. Here, Ana Elias (Pupo) and Fred Wentworth (Giessl) are modern twentysomethings. Ana goes to stay with her sister Marisol (Gabriela Diaz) after the travel agency owned by her father, Guillermo Elias (Armando Reyes), can no longer pay her. Ana, who seems like a sweet and gentle pleaser, isn’t sure what to do with her life now and is still thinking about her high school relationship with Fred, now a travel writer/internet personality.

Amanda Root might be the ur-Anne to me but Pupo perfectly captures the essential Anne qualities of being uncertain without being wimpy and being always predisposed to put others first without necessarily being a pushover. I found myself charmed at how the story unfolded and riffed on the source material. I am genuinely looking forward to the next season. B+ Available online.

Nope (R)

Nope (R)

A horse training family encounters Something at their desert ranch in Nope, the latest film from Jordan Peele.

Nope absolutely hits the ground running with action and plot points and I’ll try not to spoil more than you could get from the trailers.

Otis Haywood Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya), called OJ, seems uneasy about the sudden requirement that he take the lead in the family business of training horses for use in movies and TV. He seems to care about the animals and the family’s long legacy in film but he seems less than delighted with the salesmanship aspect of the business and the part where he has to deal with Hollywood people and their Hollywood attitudes. His sister Emerald (Keke Palmer, just radiating charisma) seems more comfortable with this element of the business but less interested in making it and the family’s rural ranch her whole life.

To make ends meet, OJ has had to sell off some of the family’s horses to Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun, doing a whole fascinating thing), a former child actor who now owns a small Wild West-y theme park. He’s eager to buy more of OJ’s horses but OJ tells Ricky he plans (or maybe just hopes) to buy back the ones he’s sold.

Emerald is visiting the ranch when OJ, checking on a horse that isn’t where it’s supposed to be, sees something in the sky. Something big, something fast, something that really freaks out the horse.

Emerald decides if there really is something out there, what they need to do is get clear video evidence of it, the kind that will earn them big bucks. Thus do they head to an electronics store for surveillance equipment, where the alien-conspiracy-enmeshed Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) offers to help them set up their cameras and sort of worms his way into their plans.

I don’t know that calling this movie a horror film would be exactly accurate, even though there are jump scares. It’s maybe more of a quirky suspense movie. Trite as it sounds, at some point while I was watching Nope I noticed that I had been leaning forward, literally sitting on the edge of the theater seat, for most of the movie. Nope just pulls you in and holds you there in the movie’s mix of creepy sounds and things that are just as mysterious when they’re seen as when they’re half seen or mostly unseen. I’m not going to get into the whole “is it a Western” thing but there is a real “spooky things in the dusty West” quality to the movie; think X-Files meets campfire tales.And while I definitely wouldn’t call it a comedy or even funny, necessarily, it has a bounciness to it that can blend some sincere sibling emotions with lighter moments. I mean, I did laugh, and not just at the well-delivered “nope”s.

This is a perfectly composed cast. Everybody is working their characters as though they are the center of the story, which gives even smaller parts depth. Kaluuya and Palmer have excellent brother-sister chemistry and Palmer is just crackling throughout. I don’t know that anybody is going the extra mile for DVD and digital movie purchases anymore but if Peele does a Kickstarter to do a prequel short about Yeun’s character let me know and I will contribute.

There are lots of little elements in Nope that just tickled me and a few that I’m not sure what I think yet. I think we in the culture just all need to see it so we can spend the next few years talking and arguing about it until Peele delivers his next creation. B+

Rated R for language throughout and some violence/bloody images, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Jordan Peele, Nope is two hours and 10 minutes long and distributed in theaters by Universal Studios.

Featured photo: Nope.

Nightcrawling, by Leila Mottley

Nightcrawling, by Leila Mottley (Knopf, 271 pages)

Promising young writers don’t always live up to their potential; they can collapse under the combined weight of heavy expectations and featherweight talent. In the interest of kindness, let’s not name names.

Not so Leila Mottley, the young novelist that Oprah Winfrey has been gushing about. Mottley started writing Nightcrawling at 17; she’s now 20. Her novel is all Winfrey promised it would be, and then some.

It’s based on actual events in Oakland, California: the sexual abuse of a young Black woman by police officers who trapped her into serving an ever expanding number of officers sexually. Mottley, who lives in Oakland, read about the case and the ensuing cover-up and couldn’t stop thinking about the young woman and the experience of growing up “vulnerable, unprotected and unseen.”

From her imagination came Kiara, a 17-year-old in similar circumstances. Kiara and her older brother, Marcus, live in a run-down apartment complex where the pool is contaminated with feces. “Houses give away all their secrets at the door. Dee’s is full of scratches. Mine doesn’t even have a working lock no more,” Kiara muses in the first-person narrative which is both lyrical and devastating.

Their father is dead; their mother long gone and currently living in a halfway house. Their only other family member is an uncle who is something of a rap star in L.A. and has no contact with them.

Kiara carries the weight of their meager existence, since her brother spends his days recording rap music in hopes of hitting it big like his uncle. When the apartment complex is sold and they receive notice that the rent has been doubled, she is desperate, not only for herself and her brother, but also for Trevor, the young boy in an adjacent apartment whom she has been caring for in the absence of his mother.

She tries to find work, but without a work history, she is repeatedly turned away. Even the third-rate bars to which she applies won’t hire her until she turns 18.

One night, she has a sexual encounter that is more of a business transaction than romance, and the shock of receiving several hundred dollars for sex leads Kiara into selling her body more frequently. One night, she’s picked up by a couple of police officers who, in exchange for not arresting her, take advantage of her services. They soon begin calling her regularly and sharing her with other officers, to the point of her being the “entertainment” at police parties.

Although Kiara does not know the officers by name, she knows them by their badge numbers, and they indulge in her services so much that she knows their preferences and habits; she is paid both in money and also in a shabby form of protection. For example, once, when she is at a party, she gets a call from an officer who tells her that there are undercover officers in the house and there’s about to be a bust. An officer picks her up, preventing her arrest, but his “protection” involves taking her to his home for the night and sexual activities for which she is not paid.

One day, police come to her home and take Kiara to the station for questioning. The administration has learned of Kiara’s existence and abuse through a suicide note left by a member of the force. Kiara denies any involvement with officers and is released, but from there, must confront more dilemmas that a teenager should never have to face.

She has choices, but they’re all terrible. She feels she can trust no one; the institution that is supposed to protect her is corrupt. Her brother — who loves her so much that he had her fingerprint tattooed on his neck, who pierced her ears with a sewing needle as a gift for her 16th birthday — is in jail. And Kiara is unable to pay the rent and buy food without the money she receives from sexual encounters with the police.

While Kiara’s experiences and life, even before she descended into sex work, are foreign to much of America, they will be painfully familiar to many.

Mottley clearly knows something about the humiliation of poverty: of having nothing but cereal and ramen in a roach-infested pantry; of having to share a washing machine with someone else at the laundromat; of making your own birthday cake from a mix using syrup because you don’t have any oil; of never having slept in a real bed, or been invited to anyone’s house because your daily existence is limited to staying alive.

In one moving scene, Kiara remembers going grocery shopping with her mother, before she disappeared. While her mother is trying to figure out how much credit was left on their EBT card, how much they could spend, young Kiara wistfully fills a carriage with frozen pizza and “fancy” cereal — things that, to her mind, were luxuries only rich people can afford.

“I don’t think you can feel more trapped than in the center of food you’re not allowed to eat, waiting to go home, and not knowing if anyone will remember your existence,” Kiara says.

While Nightcrawling takes us into a deeply depressing underworld of shame, despair and corruption, it is still a pleasure to read. Mottley’s voice is true and compelling, and she endows Kiara with unsettling wisdom that gives us hope that she will survive and move (both literally and figuratively) to a better place, with Marcus and Trevor in tow. A

Book Notes

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a year since the disappearance of Gabby Petito, the young woman traveling across the country in a van with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, who the FBI has said claimed responsibility for killing her, according to a January story in the New York Times and other media reports. That case mobilized a nation of armchair investigators. We can all track down murderers now from the comfort of our living room, or at least come up with tips that might prove helpful.

And there are plenty of unsolved cases out there, as Trailed by Kathryn Miles reminds us. Trailed (Algonquin, 320 pages) is the account of two women, Laura “Lollie” Winans and Julie Williams, who were found dead in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and Miles’ personal investigation into their deaths. The case remains unsolved, but Miles, a science writer who lives in Portland, has evidently done a masterful job of telling this story; there are lots of “couldn’t put this book down” in reader reviews. The author explores not only the flaws that plagued the investigation, including charges that the National Park Service tries to bury cases like this so people feel safe on its property, but also the unique dangers that confront women and members of the LGBTQ community when in the wilderness.

The “true crime” genre isn’t for everyone, but for those who enjoy it, there are plenty of offerings this summer. Another is When the Moon Turns to Blood(Twelve, 320 pages), journalist Leah Sottile’s account of the Idaho murders allegedly committed by Lori Vallow, a former beauty queen, and her husband Chad Daybell, a doomsday novelist. The couple are accused of killing two children and Daybell’s ex-wife. (The trial is scheduled for January 2023.) The subtitle promises “a story of murder, wild faith and end times.”

Less sensational but equally dark is We Carry Their Bones (William Morrow, 256 pages) by Erin Kimmerle. The author is a forensic anthropologist who examines the crimes committed at the Dozier School in Florida, which operated from 1900 to 2011 despite reports of cruelty, abuse and unexplained deaths of young boys, many of whom were Black. School records show that about 30 boys were buried in a field on the property; Kimmerle found that there were actually twice the number of graves.

And finally, those who enjoy true crime will appreciate Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases (Celadon, 288 pages) by Paul Holes. Hole is the forensic detective whose obsession with the case of the Golden State Killer led to a former police officer’s arrest for 13 murders and 50 rapes in California between 1974 and 1986.

Book Events

Author events

• DIANE HALLENBECK presents Rejecting Fear: Learning to Be Led By Loveat the Bookery (844 Elm St., Manchester, bookerymht.com, 836-6600) on Thursday, July 28, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Free event; register at www.bookerymht.com/our-events.

• MARY ELLEN HUMPHREY presents My Mountain Friend: Wandering and Pondering Mt. Majorat Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Thursday, July 28, at 6:30 p.m.

• LAURIE STONE presents Streaming Now: Postcards from the Thing That Is Happeningat Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Thursday, Aug. 4, at 6:30 p.m.

• KATHLEEN BAILEY and SHEILA BAILEY present their book New Hampshire War Monuments: The Stories Behind the Stones at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Thursday, Aug. 11, at 6:30 p.m.

• R.A. SALVATORE presents Glacier’s Edge at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Friday, Aug. 12, at 6:30 p.m.

• CASEY SHERMAN presents Helltown at the Bookery (844 Elm St., Manchester, bookerymht.com, 836-6600) on Sunday, Aug. 14, at 1:30 p.m. Free event; register at www.bookerymht.com/our-events.

• VIRGINA CHAMLEE presents Big Thrift Energy: The Art and Thrill of Finding Vintage Treasuresat Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Monday, Aug. 15, at 6:30 p.m.

• SPENCER QUINN presents Bark to the Future: A Chet & Bernie Mysteryat Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Thursday, Aug. 18, at 6:30 p.m. and on Sunday, Aug. 28, at noon at the Bookery (844 Elm St., Manchester, bookerymht.com, 836-6600). The Bookery event is BYOD: bring your own dog.

• PHIL PRIMACK presents Put It Down On Paper: The Words and Life of Mary Folsom Blair in a Literary Lunchtime event at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Thursday, Sept. 8, at noon.

Poetry

• OPEN MIC POETRY hosted by the Poetry Society of NH at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com), starting with a reading by poet Sam DeFlitch, on Wednesday, July 20, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Newcomers encouraged. Free.

• 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 Email pembrokenhtownlibrary@gmail.com.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. 844 Elm St., Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email elizabethw@goffstownlibrary.com or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email bookclub@belknapmill.org.

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email information@nashualibrary.org or visit nashualibrary.org.

Language

• FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSES

Offered remotely by the Franco-American Centre. Six-week session with classes held Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. $225. Visit facnh.com/education or call 623-1093.

Album Reviews 22/07/28

NoSo, Stay Proud Of Me (Partisan Records)

Abby Hwong is L.A.-based non-binary Korean-American singer-guitarist NoSo, whose debut album — this one here — had a successful launch on Soundcloud. Seems to me they’re big into epic indie-techno like M83, but their trip is more of a songwriter thing, and what first struck me was Hwong’s vocal likeness to Sarah McLachlan. The songs are big and lush, pretty much yacht-rock but with a lot of blooping percolation running along the lowest deck; I know there’s been a big Kate Bush resurgence of late owing to Stranger Things, and that’s fortuitous for Hwong, who sets their sights on the usual targets that strike dread into the hearts of differented people trying to make peace with themselves: of course there’s a song called “Suburbia” here, steeped in mellow Goldfrapp steez. Beautiful stuff here, folks. A+ — Eric W. Saeger

Trashed Ambulance, Future Considerations (Thousand Islands Records)

Today I learned that when Barenaked Ladies recorded the theme song to the TV show The Big Bang Theory, there were actually several other verses in the song, and most people have never heard them. I’m not suggesting you run right to YouTube and start memorizing those lyrics; it’s certainly not required listening for die-hard fans, and the rest of the song isn’t that great anyway. This album — from an Alberta, Canada, punk crew that’s been around for eight years, if I’m reading their sloppy press materials correctly — is the same kind of stuff as that, geeky Hoobastank-splattered nerd-punk that couldn’t hurt a fly if it wanted to. But point of order, they’d probably prefer I leave names like the Barenakeds and They Might Be Giants out of it: They’re actually “inspired by the likes of Pulley, Face to Face, and The Flatliners,” names that I could have dug up with a little luck, but since you have no idea who those bands are, to save us all time, just expect a bunch of tunes in the vein of the Big Bang Theory theme song, and they’re mostly good. All set? B+

Playlist

• Well isn’t that special, it’s July 29 already, how can this even be happening? Before you know it the summer will be gone, I mean, why don’t I just put all my winter stuff in my car, like my snowshoes and parka and my emergency survival bug-out bag with bear repellent and extra rations of Fritos and Devil Dogs in case I slide off the road and need rescuing from some crazy enchanted remote witch-filled forest in deepest, darkest Meredith, New Hampshire. OK, fine, I’m riffing mindlessly, and trust me, you’d do the same thing if you were supposed to be writing about Beyoncé’s new album, Renaissance, which comes out on Friday the 29th. Everyone knows that the only reason a critic of eclectic art would even mention the new Beyoncé album at all would be to demonstrate that said critic hasn’t been hiding under a rock, much as I’d much prefer that to trying to talk about an album that will instantly inspire one of only two possible reactions in people: They’ll either instantly decide to buy it, or they’ll yell “LOATHE ENTIRELY” like the Grinch and hope they never have to hear it playing at the Food Court. I’m sort of stuck in the middle myself, like my days of humming along to sexually baffling pop music ended when I turned 10, but in the meantime I still have to see what’s going on with Bee’s new single, “Break My Soul,” a tune she, ahem, “wrote” with like five other people, including her husband, Jay-Z, who’s credited as “S. Carter.” You know, I’m way too much of a punk to take royalty seriously, especially fake-royal cultural icons du jour, but since there are probably five of you who’ll actually buy this album just to irritate me, I’ll give this stupid song a whirl, why not, maybe it consists of more than the usual three notes that can be played on a Fisher Price toy xylophone. Nope, there’s only two notes, but the beat is kind of ’60s-James Bond-y overall but nothing more innovative than a ripoff of Young MC’s “Bust A Move” from back when Fred Flintstone drove a brontosaurus crane. Regardless, the success of that song gave her the distinction of being the first woman to notch at least 20 top 10 titles as a solo artist and at least 10 top 10 tracks as a member of a group on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Yay, super-lucky famous people, aaand we’re moving.

• Ack, ack, it’s Groundhog Day, it has to be, wasn’t I talking about some other “Elephant 6 musical collective”-affiliated band last week (Austin group Elf Power, if I recall correctly) (yes, that was it), and saying how much I dislike that stuff? Well, no matter, because Of Montreal are here with a new album, the first two words of the title being Freewave Lucifer, whatever that means, and I have to go listen to their new single, “Marijuana’s A Working Woman.” Bulletin: There are festive, childish watercolors in the video. Oh boy, it wants to be Flaming Lips meets The Shins or some such, unlistenable analog-ish console noise and a barely discernible hook. Holy crow, folks, people are still listening to this kind of thing?

• If you ever wondered where Billie Eilish got the idea to use barely-there techno bloops to build songs like “Bad Guy” around, it safe to say she was at one point really into the song “Alaska” by googly-eyed Maryland anti-diva Maggie Rogers, whose new LP Surrender will be out Friday. I like the teaser track “That’s Where I Am” a lot better than anything I’ve heard from Billie; her yodel-y singing goes well with the punk no-wave-ish groove. It’s cool, you’ll like it.

• Finally it’s American singer-songwriter and fiddle player Amanda Shires, who’s in the country supergroup The Highwomen. Her new full-length, Take It Like A Man, features a title track that’s torchy and depressing if you like that sort of thing.

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).

Go light for summer

Uncommon whites to go with your summer eats

It is summer and we remain in an extended heat wave. This is the season of “summer whites”— those lightweight clothes of whiter-than-white to reflect the heat of the summer sun. It is also the season of light meals — salads, sandwiches, cool entrées and desserts! And it is the season to pair light, white wines, the color of a sun-shading straw hat, with those meals.

We are always looking for something off the beaten track, wines other than chardonnays and sauvignon blancs, so we headed to the Loire Valley in France and, surprisingly, Napa Valley, to try a few whites made with other varietals.

Our first wine, the Domaine Bourillon Dorleans Premium Vouvray Brut (available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, priced at $64.99, reduced to $23.99), is a delightful take on a crémant, which is sparkling wine not produced in Champagne and sometimes made with grapes other than chardonnay and pinot noir. It has a pale gold color; the bubbles are tiny and persistent. To the nose, there are citric notes with just a touch of yeast. To the tongue this bubbly is ripe with apple and honey while remaining crisp with acidity. The wine is made from 100 percent chenin blanc grapes from 30-year-old vines. It is made by the method Champenoise, with sur lie for 16 months, before being disgorged and re-corked. While crisp, this wine has a very subtle creaminess to it. Chilled, it is a perfect wine to be sipped, or joined to soft cheeses or a light meal.

Our second wine, the 2021 Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc + Viognier (priced at $17.99 but reduced to $15.99 at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets), is a blend of 80 percent chenin blanc and 20 percent viognier. This wine is interesting in that I tend to think of chenin blanc as coming from the Loire Valley, which has a climate decidedly cooler than that of California. Because of the terroir and heat of the Valley, this wine is more expressive with notes of rich honeysuckle, orange blossoms and citric. These carry through to the tongue. In the glass, the wine has the palest of a light straw, almost silver, color. The inherent creaminess of the chenin blanc is emboldened in this wine, making it a great accompaniment to a frittata or a seafood tostada. It is indeed interesting seeing this wine come from a winery such as Pine Ridge, located in Stag’s Leap, Napa Valley, producing iconic cabernet sauvignons. This is a blend one would never see in France. The grapes for this wine come from the Sacramento River Delta, where 90-degree days are met with cool nights, producing a wine with lush flavors.

Our third wine, the 2019 Domaine Long-Depaquit Chablis (priced at $29.99, reduced to $27.99 and available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets), is a Burgundian chardonnay. This is a perfect wine to pair with grilled pork, salmon or tuna, shellfish, or mild cheeses if you cannot stand the prospect of cooking anything. The color is a pale greenish yellow. To the nose and tongue we find green apples, along with citric notes of lemon and lime with a slight trace of almonds, and that flinty earthiness that permeates the wines of Chablis. Chablis is the northernmost wine-growing region in Burgundy. The ancient soils of this region give its wines a distinctive minerality. This is a crisp, light wine that can make the summer heat tolerable.

Our fourth wine, a 2020 Joseph Drouhin Pouilly-Fuissé (priced at $31.99, reduced to $29.99 at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets), is another chardonnay, but coming from vineyards in the villages of Pouilly and Fuissé, in the Mâconnaise subregion of Bourgogne, where the only grape variety grown is chardonnay. This wine is different from the others in that there is some barrel aging, six to eight months in the case of this wine, giving the wine a more “full-mouth-feel.” The color is golden, along with a slight green tinge. To the nose, green grapes and almonds abound; this is then carried through to the tongue. These are pleasant notes, not to be considered heavy, but instead ethereal, and with a long finish.

These are four wines that can satisfy every palate and yet are decidedly different from the mainstream everyday whites of chardonnay or pinot grigio. So, live dangerously! Try one of these alternative whites to pair with your summer evening meal. You will welcome the adventure!

Featured photo. Courtesy photo.

Mango Salsa

Last week we were baking; this week we are going to enjoy a cool kitchen. Take your protein outside to the grill, top it with this easy salsa, and serve it with a fresh loaf of bread from the bakery!

This salsa is perfect for pairing with almost any protein I have considered. Whether you are grilling fish, chicken, pork, steaks, or even tofu, this is the topping you need. It is slightly sweet, very crunchy, and has a little bit of acidity and bite. What better way to excite your palate?!

There are a few notes on the ingredients. For the bell pepper, you want sweet. If the red peppers don’t look good, go with orange or yellow. I like the color contrast of red, but flavor is more important. For the jalapeno, if you like heat, feel free to leave the seeds and/or ribs. I like a little less spice. For the cilantro, fresh is optimal, but you also can use dried. If you will use dried cilantro, add only one teaspoon.

This simple recipe only requires peeling, dicing, juicing and mixing. It will take maybe 10 minutes. If you want the salsa to be at peak crispness, serve it immediately. If you want the flavors more commingled, give it an hour or two in the refrigerator before serving.

Mango salsa
Serves 4

1 mango
1/2 red pepper
1/2 jalapeno, seeds & ribs removed
Juice of 1 lime
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons diced, fresh cilantro
salt & pepper

Peel mango and cut into small cubes.
Dice red pepper.
Finely dice jalapeno.
Combine mango and peppers in a medium bowl.
Add cilantro and season with salt and pepper; stir.
In a small bowl, whisk together lime juice and honey.
Pour lime juice mixture over salsa; toss.
Can be served immediately, or covered and refrigerated.

Featured Photo: Mango salsa. Photo courtesy of Michele Pesula Kuegler.

In the kitchen with Justin Hoang

Justin Hoang of Nashua is the executive chef and co-owner of Luk’s Bar and Grill (142 Lowell Road, Hudson, 889-9900, luksbarandgrill.com) and Bellissimo Italian Steakhouse (194 Main St., Nashua, 718-8378, bellissimoitalian.com), the latter of which opened in the former Fratello’s space back on March 31. Born and raised in Nashua, Hoang worked his way up the culinary ranks at Luk’s, starting as a dishwasher before getting an opportunity to work as the chef and create menus for the restaurant. He followed suit at Bellissimo when that eatery opened earlier this year, bringing a number of signature dishes to the space that include filet oscar, saffron lobster risotto and steak tip Gorgonzola alfredo, as well as brick-oven pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, appetizers and more. Both Luk’s and Bellissimo are part of a restaurant group that also includes Joey’s Diner and The Black Forest Cafe & Bakery, both in Amherst.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

It’s a toss-up between a chef’s knife and a pair of tongs. I really don’t know which one I need more, but those are the two things that I absolutely need to be able to function in the kitchen.

What would you have for your last meal?

That would be Irish eggs Benedict.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

The New Taj India in Nashua. … I get the makhani chicken, which is basically a butter chicken, and then garlic naan and white rice. The sauce they have in that chicken is just unbelievable.

What celebrity would you like to see eating at Luk’s or Bellissimo?

Gordon Ramsay, because I watch just about every show that he’s on. … As intimidating as he comes off as in those shows, I think he’s a phenomenal chef.

What is your favorite thing on any of your menus?

That’s a tough one. I love the steak Gorgonzola alfredo. It’s on both menus, but it started at Luk’s. I made that dish because I’ve had different interpretations of it at other restaurants and I kind of meshed together what I found I enjoyed, and now it’s one of our most popular dishes. … At Bellissimo, my favorite is probably the truffle risotto with scallops. It hits different palates and there’s so much depth in that dish.

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

I think we’re in a transitional phase right now, but one trend that has just passed was definitely the sweet and spicy combination, and then the chicken sandwich [trend] has also come in really hard. … One of the most popular ones we have is a hot honey chicken sandwich. It’s a panko-crusted chicken breast and I make a hot honey sauce that takes me like three hours. It’s the perfect balance of sweet and spicy.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

Basically anything that I don’t have to cook. I cook all day long, so I’m a huge advocate for DoorDash when I get home.

Bacon jam
From the kitchen of Justin Hoang of Luk’s Bar and Grill and Bellissimo Italian Steakhouse

1 cup caramelized Vidalia onions
1 cup cooked bacon, chopped
¾ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup fresh black coffee
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Add the onions, bacon and brown sugar to a saucepan and simmer until the sugar is melted and incorporated. Add the water and coffee and reduce to a jam-like consistency. Take off the heat and stir in the balsamic vinegar. Season with salt to taste.

Featured photo: Justin Hoang, executive chef and co-owner of Luk’s Bar and Grill in Hudson, and Bellissimo Italian Steakhouse in Nashua. Courtesy photo.

Keep calm and root on

“New England’s first kava bar” opens in Nashua

A 3,000-year-old root indigenous to the South Pacific islands, kava is used in tea-like herbal beverages consumed socially at establishments known as kava bars. Around 200 such bars exist across the United States — and a new one has just arrived in New Hampshire.

Root Awakening, now open on Main Street in Nashua, is being touted as “New England’s first kava bar” by owner Greg Gately. Kava, he said, is lauded for its relaxing effects on the body and mind, and it’s also a popular natural remedy for anxiety and muscle and joint pain.

“What I like to say is that it slows down that 9-to-5 tick. It calmly relaxes you,” Gately said. “It’s definitely something that you want to finish off in two or three big gulps, like a shot … [and] instead of saying ‘Cheers,’ in the islands we say ‘Bula.’ It’s the celebration of life.”

Gately, whose mother is from the South Pacific, was born and raised in California’s Bay Area before moving east to New England for college. He said he first became introduced to the Fijian root and its properties through a friend, who owns several kava bars out on the West Coast.

coconut bowl filled with kava drink and 2 pineapple pieces on cocktail skewer — A fresh kava drink with a pineapple chaser. Photo by Matt Ingersoll.

“I really started drinking it heavily when I started going for my MBA program,” he said. “It helped me focus whenever I had a big milestone and had to put my head down and hit the books for four or five hours. … Kava really allows you to kind of focus in a really good, natural way.”

Inspired by his kava bar-owning friend and looking for his next move in life in the wake of the pandemic, Gately began looking for spaces last year to launch his own kava concept.

Root Awakening, he said, was built on the foundation of providing visitors with a “non-alcoholic alternative social experience” to traditional bars, using kava beverages as its vessel.

Three kava root varieties — sourced from the Fijian, Vanuatu and Tongan Islands of the South Pacific — are currently available at Root Awakening. Premium raw kava drinks come in a single-serve 10-ounce “kava shell,” or a plastic cup made to resemble half of a coconut shell. You can also get them in larger serving bowls called tanoas — small and large-sized tanoas are respectively 80 and 120 ounces, serving two to three and four to six kava drinkers.

“We chop down the roots, dry them out and then we grind them into a fine powder,” Gately said. “It’s going to then be brewed up almost like a tea. It gets rinsed in a giant tea bag, and then I squeeze out the active ingredient, which is called the kavalactones.”

The result produces “an earthy and pungent” drink that Gately likes to top off with a customer’s choice of a pineapple or strawberry as a chaser. He also serves single-serve mango-flavored kava shots that can be mixed with any beverage of your choice, as well as a total of five flavors of Leilo, a ready-to-drink canned kava product available in 12-ounce cans.

So far, Gately has reported “literally 95 percent” of his patrons to be first-time kava drinkers.

“I almost have an elevator pitch now about what kava is and what to expect,” he said. “A lot of folks are nervous about their first drink. They’ll look at the person they’re with and they’ll say to each other, ‘Are you ready? On three.’ … Usually my first-timers will drink two to three shells.”

As an alternative to kava, Gately does also offer multiple flavors of East Coast kombucha on tap. He also carries drinks like cold brew coffee, ginger beer, coconut water and orange cream soda, and hopes to soon expand his menu to include small perishable food options. Community events like trivia nights, open mic nights and comedy shows are also being planned for the space.

Root Awakening Kava Bar
Where: 300 Main St., Unit 603, Nashua
Hours: Monday through Saturday, noon to midnight, and Sunday, noon to 10 p.m.
More info: Visit rootawakeningkava.com, or find them on Facebook and Instagram @rootawakeningkava
Root Awakening requires customers to be at least 18 years of age or older to consume kava beverages. Drinks should not be taken with alcohol or prescription medications.

Featured photo: Greg Gately of Root Awakening Kava Bar in Nashua prepares ground kava root for two single-serve premium raw kava drinks. Photo by Matt Ingersoll.

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