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Hopping jam

Superfrog in Dover ahead of big Concord show

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

When Nate Proper and Shane Comer formed Superfrog in 2006, it was a trio. At the time, Comer recalled in 2010, the two high school pals hoped it would eventually become “a large, boisterous family band.” It grew into a six-piece, and while a few members came and went, for the past 15 years, the jammy Seacoast band has been a tight-knit crew.

A rhythm section of Proper and Comer on bass and drums is rounded out by Phil Poggi and Jeremy “Fuzz” Grob on guitars, vintage keyboard whiz Max Chase and percussionist Adam Vinciguerra. Poggi left after contributing to their eponymous 2014 album but returned later and is now locked in with the others.

There’s clear chemistry as the six players trade licks on the aptly named “Years,” one of four new songs the band started releasing last fall. First Grob, then Poggi crank out crackling solos, then the band ticks up the tempo to set up a heaven-sent run by Chase on his Hammond B3, as Proper, Comer and Vinciguerra keep it chugging along rhythm-wise.

Proper wrote the song, and said during a recent joint interview with Comer that “Years” was built for jamming. “We definitely can stretch that one out and do,” he said.

The three other new tunes were written by Poggi. “Battle of Blair Mountain” is about a 1921 incident in West Virginia described as the largest labor uprising in American history. “It was a bunch of coal miners going on strike and fighting Pinkertons,” Proper said. “I’m a union rep at my job, so I was all about it.”

A tune about new beginnings and grace, “Sinner” has a gospel feel, while the latest single, “Honestly,” has a solid, driving beat and is very danceable. This tunefulness is something all of Poggi’s songs share. “Phil,” observed Proper, “has been on an awesome songwriting kick lately.”

There are always a few tasty covers in shows. A Chase lead vocal makes Bill Withers’ “Kissing My Love” a real treat, and the Lionel Richie hit “All Night Long” is also wonderful. A standout and longtime set closer is “Shakedown Street,” with the Grateful Dead boogie gem augmented by a snippet of Deodata’s rock take on “Also Sprach Zarathustra.”

When time allows, work continues on a full-length album, but the focus remains on playing shows like the one upcoming at Auspicious Brew, their first at the Dover kombucha brewery. The following weekend they’ll return to Concord to share the BNH Stage at JamAntics’ JamAnnual GetDown reunion show.

The two bands have a shared history.

“We played with them first way back, I don’t even know when, and we have played with them here and there throughout the years,” Comer said. JamAntics bassist Eric Reingold agreed. “Superfrog members are longtime friends and excellent musicians,” he said.

Reingold added that after a two-year hiatus the now almost traditional regrouping gig will be extra sweet.

“I’m extremely excited to get the band back together, as I love playing with all of these guys collectively and individually,” he said; Reingold’s latest band, Up, includes JamAntics guitarist Freeland Hubbard. Regarding Superfrog, “We always love sharing the stage with our friends, and can’t wait to blow the doors off this year.”

Having multiple creative forces can sink a band, but Superfrog stays a musical democracy.

Drummer Comer believes discipline plays a big part; the group practices regularly. “I know Max will say we’re one of the most consistent, and he’s in like 80 bands these days,” he said. “We try to be … diligent, getting together once a week. It makes performing live easier when you’re just consistently trucking along.”

Summing up, Comer alluded to his early idea about the band.

“It actually goes to fundamentals,” he continued. “It’s just really knowing each other and learning how to get through those tense moments, because it is like a six-person family. It’s not always easy to navigate, but we have a lot of respect for each other and get through those moments pretty easily.”

Superfrog

When: Friday, April 4, 8 p.m.
Where: Auspicious Brew, 1 Washington St., Dover
Tickets: $12 at auspiciousbrew.com ($15 at the door)
Also at JamAntics reunion on Friday, April 11, 8 p.m., BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord, $21 and up at ccanh.com

Featured photo. Superfrog. Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 25/04/03

• Jimi jamming: The Hampton Beach concert season kicks off with Experience Hendrix. A packed slate of guitarists pay tribute to the “Purple Haze” legend, including Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Black Label Society’s Zakk Wylde, Eric Johnson, Devon Allman (of the Allman Betts Family Revival), Samantha Fish and Grammy winner Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. Thursday, April 3, 8 p.m., Casino Ballroom, 169 Ocean Blvd., Hampton Beach, $69 and up at ticketmaster.com.

• Big belters: Benefitting A Better Way To Help, Ladies Sing the Blues is a triple bill of talented singers. Janiva Magness turned a tragic origin story into a career as a singer, songwriter and author, Danielle Miraglia is also renowned for her guitar and stomp box skills, and Cheryl Arena’s skill set includes harmonica playing. The charity helps patients recovering from severe brain injuries. Friday, April 4, 7 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $40 and $50 at tupelohall.com.

• Charlie’s back: Paying tribute to country rocker Charlie Daniels, FiddleFire makes its debut at a Mill District brewpub. The group is fronted by Vinnie Mirisola and promises “creative narratives” while recreating the music of Daniels, who joined his first band when Elvis was coming up. His fame grew in the early ’70s while touring with the Allman Brothers. Saturday, April 5, 9 p.m., Stark Brewing Co., 500 N. Commercial St., Manchester, facebook.com/TheFiddleFireBand.

• Southern man: The weekly Rap Night Manchester welcomes Long Way From Home, a tour originating in Richmond, Virginia. It’s led by Reppa Ton, now in his 20th year as a hip-hop artist, producer and director. He’s joined by fellow Richmond rappers Skinny Hendrixx (the MC, not the California band) and TRIG. DJ Myth spins, with hosts Eyenine and Shawn Caliber. Sunday, April 6, 8 p.m., Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester, facebook.com/RapNightManchester.

• Anniversary nights: To perform their 1999 box set 69 Love Songs, The Magnetic Fields will do two downtown shows. Stephen Merritt was inspired to write the “miniaturist epic” after hearing a Manhattan gay bar piano player “grapple with Stephen Sondheim” and deciding to try theater music. The work was initially conceived as a drag queen revue. Tuesday, April 8, and Wednesday, April 9, 7:30 p.m., Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord, $53 and up at ccanh.com.

Heartwood, by Amity Gaige

Heartwood, by Amity Gaige (Simon & Schuster, 320 pages)

“Any woodsman who says he’s never been lost in the woods is a liar. It’s inevitable,” says Maine game warden Beverly Miller in the opening pages of Heartwood, a new novel about a woman who goes missing while hiking the length of the Appalachian Trail.

“Up here, we tend to think of being lost as something you can be good at,” Beverly, who goes by Lt. Bev, explains. But for some people who get lost in the woods, panic sets in, and “loss of mental control is more dangerous than the lack of food or water.”

And with that, we are propelled headlong into the search for Valerie Gillis, the 42-year-old nurse who vanished about 200 miles from the terminus at Mt. Katahdin, where she was supposed to end her three-month trek. Valerie’s voice is present throughout the novel, however, in letters she is writing to her mother as she tries to stay alive in what’s known as the Hundred-Mile Wilderness, growing weaker by the day.

“The first thing I should say is that you were right. You didn’t want me to hike the Appalachian Trail,” she writes, acknowledging that a “thru-hike” — the insider’s term for walking the trail straight through — “isn’t a reasonable thing to do.”

“Anyone who wants to walk two thousand miles in a row does it because they find beauty in the unreasonable. All that misery, that’s the point. The high probability of failure, that’s motivation,” she writes.

Meanwhile, her parents and husband are part of a search effort that grows larger as each day passes, even as the odds of finding her alive drop as the days tick on. “Ninety-seven percent of the time, we find lost people within twenty-four hours. The other 3 percent, we know those stories like scripture,” Lt. Bev says.

The story unfolds, not only through the narration of the game warden leading the search effort, and Valerie’s letter, but also through the eyes of Lena Kucharski, a 76-year-old disabled resident of a retirement community who becomes something of an an internet sleuther, eager to help in the only way she can.

Interspersed throughout, we are introduced to people who met Valerie on the trail — members of her “tramily,” as AT hikers call each other — as well as various tips that are phoned in by psychics, do-gooders and other concerned people. While it’s assumed there has been some sort of accident that has befallen Valerie — maybe a bad fall or medical episode — there is also the concern that someone she came across in the woods harmed her, and or that even someone she knows was involved in her disappearance.

Meanwhile, we learn of a secretive facility near where Valerie disappeared, a real-life military operation identified by the acronym SERE — Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape — which is training for members of the Armed Forces and civilian contractors who might one day be trapped behind enemy lines. It sounds like the stuff of video games, but a SERE facility exists in Rangeley, Maine, among other locations.

The story has good bones, for sure, but its heart is in the development of four characters:

– Valerie, who became a nurse to “fix things” but was exhausted by the challenges of caring for patients during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic; who had come to question her love for her husband while on the trail, where she assumed the name “Sparrow” while making new friends and writing quirky trail poetry like “Ode to My Spork.”

– Bev, one of only two female wardens in the state, an imposing 6 feet tall, but with a mother, now dying, who didn’t understand her daughter’s line of work: “It’s just so unusual. For a woman to want to drive around chasing criminals,” she’d said.

– Ruben, the 260-pound Black man who decided to hike the trail on a whim and became Valerie’s companion for a while and kept her laughing with his stories of trying to find hiking clothes and boots that fit, while also trying to fit in, so to speak, on the trail: “Man, do you have to be friendly when you are a Black man hiking. You have to start waving, like, a mile away. ‘Hey, ya’ll! Beautiful morning, innit?”

– And Lena, the lifelong voracious reader who lives alone in a retirement community, where she rebuffs the attention of other residents in favor of foraging for edible plants and chatting with an internet friend who goes by the name TerribleSilence.

Gaige gives all of these characters such warmth and depth that they could each hold up a novella on their own, but she weaves their stories together and manages to keep the tension thrumming until the last few pages.

As someone who has technically been on the Appalachian Trail but never felt the compulsion to actually hike it, I found this story compelling not only as a novel but in its ample nonfiction detail. Gaige, the author of four other novels, hung out with real-life game wardens in Maine and heard their stories while researching this book, and it is full of the language, customs and experiences of thru-hikers.

Gaige has said she has been long haunted by the story of a 66-year-old hiker who died of starvation and exposure after getting lost in Maine in 2013. There are similarities between that hiker’s story and the fictional Valerie Gillis’ — both started their trek in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (Valerie plans to complete the upper stretch, then the lower), and like the real hiker, Valerie is afraid of the dark and takes anxiety medication, making a terrible situation even worse.

In simple and sparse narration that blooms with lyrical descriptions of New England landscapes, Heartwood manages to be part mystery, part thriller, part how-to-hike-the-Appalachian-Trail guidebook — or it might convince you to never set foot in the woods again. Either way, start Heartwood and you’ll likely be a thru-reader, all the way to the end. A —Jennifer Graham

Featured Image: Heartwood, by Amity Gaige (Simon & Schuster, 320 pages)

Album Reviews 25/04/03

Michael Rudd, Going to the Mountain (Invisible Road Records)

Although one would naturally assume that Bob Dylan viewed Townes Van Zandt as a competitor, the two were quite respectful of each other; like the Stones and The Beatles, one couldn’t exist without the other. Thus we could wax hyperbolic and say that there are only two types of roots-folk fans in the world, and this K-8 school principal, an Albuquerque resident who left New Jersey to concentrate on writing, lumps into the “darker please” category, preferring muddy examinations of slovenly desperation to Dylan’s more laissez-faire, metaphor-stuffed acquiescence. Rudd’s second album begins with “Before The Demon Came,” and immediately comparisons to Eels and Tom Waits spring to mind, along with the usual suspects, T. Bone Burnett and such. In that, the tuneage is more appropriate for an American civilization that’s creaking awkwardly around on its last legs; sung in a baritone that’s both weary and indestructible, Rudd weaves a tapestry comprising dream fugues (“Going To The Mountain”), quiet soul-searching (“End Of Days”) and spidery unplugged honky-tonk (“Walk My Way”). Boy, would I like to hear local folkies lean into this approach. A+ — Eric W. Saeger

Carriers, Every Time I Feel Afraid (self-released)

This band’s leader/frontperson is Curt Kiser, formerly of indie rockers Pomegranates; in this project his focus is fixed in the direction of War On Drugs (for reference, old people should think David Essex fronting Pink Floyd). There’s a similar airy quality to these songs, and in fact Kiser’s infatuation with WOD is a little off-putting: The title track is a little too close to WOD’s “Suffering” for my comfort, not that that should necessarily dissuade you from checking this out, and besides, a little melodic helium does fit our zeitgeist a lot better than that of Bon Iver and such, especially given that the Aughts-indie period has finally been consigned to the recycle-bin of history where it belonged on Day 1. What am I even saying, you ask? I mean that it’s melodically pure if derivative in spots; where WOD’s “Under The Pressure” is more Joy Division-ish, Kiser selects A-ha’s “Take On Me” as his spirit animal for the push track, “Motion.” Hey, either way, at least I don’t have to stomach more Sigur Ros verisimilitude, put it that way, which is always a good thing. B — Eric W. Saeger

_PLAYLIST

A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases

• Hooray, the most pointless month of the calendar is over, good old March, goodbye forever, hasta la vista, arrivadertch, but oh goodie, here comes March’s annoying little brother, April, the month when we all hit Target at 7 a.m. the morning after Easter just to stock up on Reese’s peanut butter eggs at 50 percent off, what else are you supposed to do in April other than start a really inadvisable romantic relationship now that the alcoholic bars are serving their gourmet cheeseburgers outside, when there isn’t a “freak” (in other words normal for April) snowstorm? Well, OK, there’s always that other thing you can do, go to Strawberries or Rockit Records or Bradlees or K-Mart or Amazon to buy bad albums, but you can do that every week, when Friday strikes, with its Easter basket-load of new albums! Just look at this one, streeting this Friday, April 4, a collaborative album between Elton John and Brandi Carlile, titled Who Believes in Angels! Now hopefully, Elton, who recently celebrated his 3,000th birthday at his vampire pyramid-castle, had some vague idea of who Brandi Carlile is when he was doing these recordings and didn’t think she was actually Lorde or Madonna or Brenda Lee, who can even keep up with all this nonsense, you know? In case you’re also a mega-old vampire who doesn’t know who she is: Carlile’s a famous folk-rocker who wrote a bunch of tunes for Tanya Tucker, so maybe Elton’s handlers told him she was actually Alison Krauss (of frequent Robert Plant-collaboration fame) to get him on board, but either way, I’m sure the circumstances of their collaboration are bizarre indeed, but belay all that, folks, let’s go listen to the title track of this collaborative collaboration between the 3,000-year-old mummy-vampire and Carlile, whom some of us professional rock journalists refer to as “No, Not Bonnie Raitt, The Newer One.” Yikes, you should see the video for this song, they’re trying to revive Elton’s most famous antics, the stage set in the video revolves around his Captain Fantastic-era optics, you know, when he was into high nonsense-art a la Hieronymus Bosch (but nice!), and then we move to the song, which is in the same vein as “Candle in the Wind,” Elton’s famous ode to Princess Diana. What am I saying? Well, basically I’m saying that there was no need for this mutually collaborative collaboration-a-thon to ever happen, but I’m sure there are some 80-year-old National Enquirer readers who’ll love it, and Elton looks really good for someone who’s been preserved in a Dracula coffin with ancient tanna leaves since Carter was president.

• DOGGOD also comes out on Friday; it’s the third album from L.A. Witch, an all-girl garage band that launched when the singer’s boyfriend forbade her from playing with male musicians, and instead of dumping him on the spot she decided to go with it, because boyfriends don’t just grow on trees, you know. “The Lines” is a cool ’80s-goth-dance thingie, evincing the band’s love for The Gun Club (and by extension X-Ray Spex, but don’t tell them that). It’s fine, sure.

• And yadda yadda, here’s another one, The Ophelias, with their new LP, Spring Grove! Oh, it’s not the California psychedelic band, it’s the Ohio indie band, what are we even doing right now? The single, “Salome,” is a grungy filthy indie-grinding mess with a really catchy groove, I approve of these people, whoever they are.
• We’ll put this week to bed with New York noise-poppers Sleigh Bells, who are selling a new album, Bunky Becky Birthday Boy! The single, “Bunky Pop,” is like a Nintendo-ized ripoff of Outkast’s “Hey Ya,” and yes, it’s as artistically important as it looks. — Eric W. Saeger

In the kitchen with Kristen Chiosi

Kristen Chiosi is owner of and instructor at The Culinary Playground (16 Manning St., Derry, 339-1664, culinary-playground.com). “I got my master’s in business management and human resources. But I’d always loved to cook,” Chiosi wrote. “I always spent a lot of time in the kitchen and always took cooking classes wherever I was. … The business came up for sale and I decided that I kind of wanted to take a leap of faith and buy this business and see where I could take it. That was in 2013. The previous business owner had put in a lot of elbow grease, got a nice foundation going. I took it on in 2013 and we’ve just continued to grow and develop, offer new things.”

What’s your must-have kitchen item?

I say my must-have kitchen tool is your mindset. You have to want to do it. … It’s just an opportunity to connect and be really present. Getting all of your stuff in order — ‘mise en place’ is a term that we use. It’s just from start to finish, from pulling your ingredients, compiling your recipe, enjoying the meal, cleaning up, it’s just all such a beautiful ritual.

What’s your favorite place to dine out at?

I really like to try to keep it local, and we have some nice options downtown in Derry. We have Cask and Vine, who is just always being really unique and coming up with some great menus. We have Foundations that just reopened. We have a great little Indian place downtown, Destination India. I love that just from my location from my kitchen I can walk to all different types of cuisines.

Who’s a celebrity you would like to see taking one of your classes or eating some of your food?

Oh my gosh, I just love Barefoot Contessa [television chef Ina Garten]. She’s just so approachable …

What is a class that you really enjoy at the Playground?

I love homemade pasta. I think people are really impressed when you can make your own pasta, and it’s such a tactile experience. … We do homemade ravioli in one of our classes, and it’s just awesome.

What’s a food trend that you see in New Hampshire right now?

… I think we’re kind of moving away from a dependence on all these meat-filled dishes. I like the idea of getting more vegetables and whole grains into the diet, but not in kind of fake ways. Let’s highlight the ingredients for what they are and their nutritional value.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

I like soups and stews — something that you piece together and leave it simmering. It fills your house with these beautiful scents…

Ham & Cheese Scones

From Kristen Chiosi at The Culinary Playground. Makes 4 regular sized (or 8 smaller sized) scones

1 cup flour, spooned and leveled
½ Tablespoon sugar
½ Tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons buttermilk
¼ cup diced ham steak or deli slices
½ cup shredded cheddar
½ Tablespoons snipped scallions

Preheat oven to 425°F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, garlic powder and salt.
Add cold butter. Mix into coarse crumbs using hands or pastry cutter, working quickly so as not to soften butter too much.
Stir in buttermilk, ham, cheese and scallions. Mix until a soft dough forms.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 3-4 times with hands.
Flatten out dough with hands until you have an even circle of dough, approximately 1 inch thick.
Cut into wedges (4 large or 8 small).
Place each wedge onto baking sheet, separating them so they don’t touch. Use a pastry brush to brush each scone with heavy cream.
Bake for 18-22 minutes or until lightly browned and firm to the touch. Let cool on baking sheet on a cooling rack for a few minutes before serving.

Featured Image: Kristen Chiosi. Courtesy photo.

Mushroom season

In springtime, foraging ramps up

By John Fladd

jfladd@hippopress.com

It’s maple season, and for Christine Gagnon that means one thing.

Mushrooms.

Gagnon is the owner and operator of the Uncanoonuc Foraging Co. (uncforaging.com) in Goffstown. Her passion is finding and identifying edible plants and fungi.

“I just love foraging,” she said..”I love being out there and finding things. It’s like a treasure hunt. Just the idea of what mushrooms do and what they are and to see the many different forms that they come in and how they—.” She paused to put her feeling into words. “It’s so vast. It’s just … vast.”

Gagnon said one type of mushroom that appears in early spring is an oyster mushroom. “Sometimes you’ll see those in the winter too,” she said. ”If you have a 60-degree day — and there can be snow in the woods, but 60, and you might see oyster mushrooms pop up on trees.” In other words, during maple season. “They like maple trees actually,” she said.

Another mushroom that makes an appearance at this time of year is called a Pheasant’s Back (Cerioporus squamosus). “Those grow on trees,” Gagnon said. “And they have a very cucumber-y, melon-y, watermelon-rind smell to them. So sometimes people will pickle them. Because smell makes up a lot of how things taste a lot of times.”

One of the things that can make finding mushrooms difficult, Gagnon explained, is that the mushrooms most of us see are just the fruiting body of a fungus (mycelium), which is usually tiny and threadlike and difficult for non-specialists to see. Depending on the variety of mushroom, finding them “is a combination of the season and when the conditions are right,” she said. “Some mushrooms will pop up all season and some are very seasonal.”

For example, morel mushrooms only happen in the spring for a very short period of time. “When the ground temperature has warmed up to a certain amount, when the air temperatures are certain, when the humidity and moisture is what it is. And then around here, we don’t really have the ‘burn morels’ [which appear after forest fires] they have out west so much, so you have to find them with the right trees, whether it’s in old orchards or elm trees The mycelium grows in or around or through roots of trees and plants and other organisms.”

But that’s not true of all mushrooms, Gagnon said. “Other ones are called saprophytic or saprotrophic; they’re breaking down dying material. They’re decomposers, which also makes sense with the fire morels like out west.”

“In the early spring,” she said, “you [find] mushrooms that are trying to get a jump on their biological competition. You can find morels if you know where to find them.” But, she said, sometimes they will spring up somewhere completely unexpected. “They are what we call ‘landscape morels’ because sometimes when people order mulch for their gardens the mulch is coming with the mycelium already in there. And so people find [a morel], and they’re like, ‘Oh, it was in my garden.’ It was, but it’s usually because the mycelium was present in the mulch.”

Mushrooms aside, early spring is also the season for ramps, sometimes called wild garlic, which Gagnon said is in the onion family. “The genus is allium,” she said, [with the scientific name] allium tricoccum or trichocum, variety braticii. They have a white stem or sometimes a red stem, but they are in the allium family. Sometimes they’re called wild onions, and sometimes they’re really called a wild leek, because you can eat the entire thing.”

Gagnon said that her biggest thrill is finding something new, especially mushrooms.

“There’s so much DNA work now being done on them. So if we’re not exactly sure what it is, we can go home and dehydrate it, upload it to iNaturalist, send a specimen in, and it gets DNA’ed, and then we get the results back in however long it takes. The great thing about taking pictures with our phones these days or with iNaturalist is it gives you the exact locations and when you took it. So you can kind of go back and look for anything later.”

Caution where you eat

Eating unidentified plants or mushrooms can be dangerous. Please forage under the supervision of a trained forager.

Featured photo: Oyster mushrooms. Photo from NH Garden Solutions.