Tag: 250703

American music

The Range hosts Pure Prairie League & The Weight Band

Two bands performing at an upcoming show in Mason have never been on stage together but have a shared history. Mike Reilly of Pure Prairie League met The Weight Band’s Jim Weider in 1970, when both lived in Woodstock, New York, a haven for musicians.

“Jimmy played a lot of gigs with the band I was in,” Reilly recalled recently.

Weider was friends with The Band at the time, and he would eventually assume Robbie Robertson’s role after The Last Waltz, while Reilly was a couple of years away from joining PPL. Fifty-plus years and myriad personnel changes later, the band carries on, with Reilly, steel guitar player and founding member John David Call still aboard, along with drummer Scott Thompson, keyboard player Randy Harper, Jeffrey Zona on guitar and bassist Jared Camic.

In December 2024, Back on Track, their first new Pure Prairie league album in nearly two decades, was released. It’s a solid effort that stands up to music the band made with front men like co-founder Craig Fuller and Vince Gill. Standouts include the high-energy rocker “A Love Like Yours,” the Jimmy Buffett pastiche “Price of Love” and some great covers.

New members Zona and Camic initially pitched a four-song EP, but when Reilly learned they’d written a few more songs, he said, “‘the hell with the EP; let’s do a record, man!’” He suggested a pair of songs by Gary Burr, a PPL member in the ’80s and ’90s who also sings on the new album, along with a favorite Little Feat tune and Elton John’s “Love Song.”

With layered harmonies, stomping fiddle and deft finger-picking, Feat’s “Six Feet of Snow” is a perfect choice for a band that helped define the idiosyncratic hybrid of rock, bluegrass and country that ultimately came to be called Americana. In their early days, though, they confused the music business, including their record label.

It was a good problem.

“In the early ’70s, [it was] us, Poco, the Byrds and the Burritos, and stuff was just a mash,” Reilly said. “We were too country for L.A. [and] not country enough for Nashville. They couldn’t figure out where to put us. As far as I’m concerned, it was to our benefit. We got to do what we wanted to do, and stuck to our guns and made it happen.”

Take their biggest hit, which sank without a trace as a part of Bustin’ Out, the first album Reilly worked on with the band. A few years later it was reborn as a result of relentless touring.

“Probably 250 to 275 colleges a year,” he said, “cramming ‘Amie’ down all these students’ throats. Every Stephen Bishop wannabe with an acoustic guitar could play the chords.”

They’d lost their record contract when Fuller went to jail for draft evasion, but a ready-made hit made them a safer bet. So they were re-signed, though the label never could decide where they fit in. At one point the company president decided to design a high-tech cover for Can’t Hold Back, their first record with new member Vince Gill and their last with RCA.

It was a botched undertaking, beginning with relegating Luke, the band’s Norman Rockwell-drawn mascot cowboy, to the top left corner of the album cover — and it got worse. “He spelled the band’s name Pure P-I-R-A-R-I League,” Reilly said. “I flew to New York from L.A., jumped on the desk, and was promptly escorted out.”

At their next label, Casablanca, they would enjoy what Reilly called “another 15 minutes of fame.” A string of hits began with “Let Me Love You Tonight,” followed by “I’m Almost Ready” and “Still Right Here In My Heart.” Gill left after for a solo career, and these days, he’s playing with The Eagles.

Asked why his band continues to tour and record, Reilly offered a simple answer.

“It’s all about the music,” he said. “When I heard Pure Prairie League the first time, I went, ‘Wow, I really like what these guys are doing.’ … Craig’s voice and John Call’s pedal steel just knocked me for a loop. I said, ‘I want to be in that band,’ and two years later, they called me. That’s it. I’ve stuck with it ever since because I love what we do. I believed the music needed to continue [and] that’s the reason it turned into my life’s work. I never imagined it would be 55 years later.”

Pure Prairie League and The Weight Band
When: Saturday, July 5, 6 p.m.
Where: The Range, 96 Old Turnpike Road, Mason
Tickets: $60 and up at etix.com

Featured photo: Miss Alli. Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 25/07/03

Local music news & events

• Croon time: A free outdoor concert has the 19-piece Compaq Big Band performing with guest vocalist Ed Scheer, who promises to channel Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé, Bobby Darin and other famous swinging singers. Given the proximity to Independence Day, the big ensemble plans on playing some patriotic numbers, and the venue has ample space for any dancers looking to kick up some dust. Thursday, July, 5 p.m., Tuscan Village, 9 Via Toscana, Salem, compaqbigband.com.

• To freedom: Celebrate Independence Day with free music sponsored by New Hampshire Underground, which offers an opportunity to buy a meal for a veteran, along with food from Liquid Therapy Brewery & Grill. Performers include Lone Wolf James, doom rockers Dead Harrison, alt hip-hop artist 6 Minds Combined, and lo-fi EDM from DJ The Healer. The event benefits Nashua Veterans Promise. Friday, July 4, noon, 14 Court St., Nashua, newhampshireunderground.org.

• Junk party: After hitting on America’s Got Talent and later in Las Vegas, Recycled Percussion came home and opened its own venue. “Giving them full freedom to turn every show into a one-of-a-kind experience,” the junk rockers explained on their website. A 1980s-themed summer run kicks off with two shows. Saturday, July 5, at 2 and 7 p.m., CAKE Theatre, 12 Veterans Square, Laconia, $49 and up at tix.com.

• Boogie band: Al fresco music abounds, including blues rock in the afternoon with The Love Dogs in Manchester’s North End. The Boston-based band packs a punch, featuring a pair of hot horn players, barrelhouse piano and a rhythm section that Blues Review magazine called “the best in the business.” The raucous, bopping “Rockin’ At The Doghouse” is a set standout; ditto the rollicking “Big & Hot.” July 6, 2 p.m., Stark Park, 650 River Road, Manchester, thelovedogs.com.

• Power duo: Keep it outdoors with Cold Chocolate, the pairing of Ethan Robbins on vocals and strings and Ariel Bernstein, percussionist, banjo player and singer. The two are critical darlings; Boston Review’s Simon Waxman raved that their music “sounds softer than the dew on the mountainside, harder than a Harley pushing back red dust, sweeter than true love.” Tuesday, July 8, 5:30 p.m., Strawbery Banke Museum, 14 Hancock St., Portsmouth, strawberybanke.org.

Album Reviews 25/07/03

Madison McFerrin, Scorpio (Madmcferrin Music)

As everyone who’s ever paid the slightest bit of attention to pop music mythology knows, the best albums come after romantic breakups. That, I’m informed, is the case with this one, but you wouldn’t know it by its smoky, torchy, breezy and ultimately upbeat vibe. As you’d guess, Madison is the daughter of Bobby McFerrin of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” fame, a sentiment that applies here as far as I’m concerned, but in a much more nuanced, sensual, tech-soulful manner, a la Erykah Badu, if you know who that is (if you don’t, think Anita Baker in fully unlocked mellow mode with a focus on loop-driven acid jazz). Regret and pain and such are part of the lyrical template, yes, but again, it’s meant more as gentle escape for recent divorcees and dumpees, not maudlin Adele epicness for those who feel a need to dwell in what-might-have-beens; it’s quite soothing. If you’re planning ahead, she’ll be at De La Luz in Holyoke, Mass., on Oct. 19, and Space in Portland, Maine, on Oct. 20. A+

Butthole Surfers, Live At The Leather Fly (Sunset Blvd Records)

To the guy who was giving me crap all last year for “covering too much mainstream stuff” (he’s literally been the only one ever [eye-roll emoji]): this oughta make you happy. I’ve always hated this San Antonio, Texas-based psych-punk band’s name more than any of you people do, trust me, but its way-over-the-top weirdness has absolutely earned these guys a star on some Rock ‘n’ Roll Walk Of Fame somewhere; at this point, leaving them out of any non-commercial-rock conversation would be like pretending the Sex Pistols never happened, so let’s just not. Bandleader Gibby Haynes and his boys offered a unique brand of bizarrely skewed but somehow addictive tuneage that often conjured Jello Biafra babbling over your uncle’s garage band as recorded by an answering machine, but it was somehow irresistible. This live set (recorded someplace that’s still unidentified; the “Leather Fly” was a Gibby in-joke) kicks off with a wacky version of “Graveyard” from their 1987 LP, which was when I boarded their victory train to nowhere; it’s an album I’d still tell anyone on Earth to listen to until they like it. What a mess here, but a glorious one. A

PLAYLIST

A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases

• This Friday is the Fourth of July, are you drunk yet? I should be, because what am I supposed to be talking about this week, like, what kind of lunatic releases an album on the Fourth of July, when they know full well that anyone who actually buys albums rather than pirate all their music through all those totally suss but workable YouTube-To-MP3 sites will be drunk that day? OK, I expected a bunch of new albums to be released this week on odd days that weren’t Friday the Fourth, but no, I’ve had to go hunting around to find enough albums to fill up this space, because according to Metacritic there’s literally only one more-or-less-notable LP streeting this week, so I suppose I’ll have to do some actual work this week, to find stuff, but for the moment we’ll jump into this horror with Period, the latest from Kesha! Now, not that Kesha’s stuff is distinguishable from half the bling-divas who emerged during the Aughts, but in her defense, she’s something of a survivor, having spent her childhood living in actual poverty, as opposed to the non-actual poverty Billie Eilish was originally purported to have suffered. Then of course was the kerfuffle with her producer Dr. Luke, who allegedly was an abusive lunatic. What does all this mean? Not much, it just means that I’m willing to give Kesha five seconds to impress me with the album’s newest single, “Boy Crazy!” So, it’s got a sort of trance-meets-hip-hop vibe with a side of Mr. Roboto, and the hook is nothing more than a Millennial Whoop bit, which I thought had gone out of style five or 10 years ago, but whatever, all the power to her, I suppose. The video features her lusting after basically every type of guy, including older guys, a growing trend among younger women that I endorse wholeheartedly. She’ll be at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Mass., on July 24.

• Like I said earlier, very few albums are being released this Friday, but we can play a little catch-up by talking about Atlanta rapper-singer Lazer Dim 700’s new album, Sins Aloud, which came out on Tuesday, July 1. Lazer, whose real name is Devokeyous Keyshawn Hamilton, is renowned for his breathless ad-lib rhyming, a fetish for primordial 808 beats and bringing a lot of fun to his art (for example, last year’s single “Injoyable” is propelled by a sample of Spongebob Squarepants’ laugh). New single “Undalay” is pretty weird itself, with its drum-less, woozy, Lewis Carroll-redolent beat; in the video, Hamilton spits at top speed (he’s been rapping since second grade, by the way) while fondling stacks of hundred-dollar bills. No tour coming for the moment; last year he was at Boston’s Middle East, in case you were wondering whether he’s “legit underground.”

• Let’s see, what else. On July 3, London, U.K.-based indie-rockers Double Virgo release Shakedown, which is their first full-length, I believe (the two principals, Sam Fenton and Jezmi Tarik Fehmi, also play in the band Bar Italia). I was really impressed by the single “Bemused,” which combines drunken pub-indie/oi with art rock.

• And finally, Pitchfork Media tells me we have a new record from another Londoner, Nilüfer Yanya, namely the Dancing Shoes EP, which came out on Wednesday, July 2! The single, “Where To Look,” is more upbeat and tribal-sounding (she grew up on Turkish music) than your average Chappell Roan tune. She’ll play three shows in Massachusetts (one at the Drake in Amherst and two at the Roadrunner in Boston) from Sept. 9 through Sept. 11.

Kicker Rock

Allegedly, this cocktail is named after a famous rock in the Galapagos Islands. Who knew that there were any famous rocks anywhere?

It’s delicious and adventurous and should be drunk very, very cold

  • 1½ ounces cachaça – this is a musky sugarcane spirit from Brazil; alternatively, you could use a flavorful rum
  • 1½ ounces pineapple juice
  • 1 ounces simple syrup
  • ½ ounces Campari
  • ½ ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon jalapeño hot sauce
  • chili-lime seasoning powder – Tajin, or Trader Joe’s makes a good one
  • garnish – sprig of rosemary

Squeeze your lemon juice. Reserve one of the spent lemon halves; it still has more to give.

Sprinkle a tablespoon or so of the chili-lime powder on a small plate. Rub the rim of a rocks glass with the spent lemon carcass. Turn the glass upside-down, and press the rim into the chili-lime powder to rim the glass. Feel free to swirl the glass around to make sure that the entire rim gets coated with the powder.

Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with ice. While you’re at it, carefully drop five or six ice cubes into the rocks glass, making sure not to mess up that handsome rim you’ve just coated.

Add all your remaining ingredients except the rosemary to the cocktail shaker. Seal it and shake it enthusiastically, until your hands start to get uncomfortably cold.

Carefully strain it into your rocks glass — again, avoiding the rim.

Bruise the rosemary sprig by rolling it briefly between your hands, then poke it into the cocktail.

The first time you make this cocktail, you will be tempted to sip it tentatively. Resist that impulse. Take a healthy pull on it, washing some of the powder from the rim, and filling your mouth with cold, spicy, fruitiness.

Is it spicy? Yeah, a little — not enough to be off-putting, but between the jalapeño and the rim, there’s no denying that there is a little bit of a kick. A tiny kick. Let’s call it a microkick. But more importantly, there is a push and pull between the musky sweetness of the pineapple — which, not for nothin’, pairs beautifully with the muskiness of the cachaça — and the acidity of the lemon juice. So you’ve got a sweet-and-sour situation going on, but then there’s a kiss of bitterness from the Campari.

(“Kiss of Bitterness” would be a great title for a noir detective story. Humphrey Bogart would be blindsided and almost killed by thugs while kissing Myrna Loy, who, it would turn out, had hired them. He would catch a flash of a thug’s bright red necktie in the mirror, drop to the floor, and roll away, pulling his revolver from his shoulder holster, and shoot the thugs in the knees, but not before they accidentally riddle Myrna Loy with the gunfire meant for him. He would leave a large tip for the cleaning lady.)

All things considered, this is a nice, adult cocktail — sophisticated and not too boozy. It will take at least two of these to wrap your head around the experience, but in the end this might become your pitcher drink for the summer.

Featured photo: Kicker Rock. Photo by John Fladd.

Coffee, cookies and art

Two Moons Coffee & Curiosities serves lattes with a side of books and puzzles

Meg Wright has spent a lot of her life working with food and beverages in a lot of very different places.

“I originally came from a culinary background,” Wright said. “I’ve had a little over two decades of culinary experience. I’m from Bar Harbor, Maine, but I just kind of went all over the world. I’ve lived in Texas a lot. I was a barista-slash-English liaison in Germany for Starbucks. When I came back to the U.S., I started back in kitchens, back in restaurants, and I just wanted to do my own thing.”

Her own thing, as it turns out, is Two Moons Coffee & Curiosities.

“Our idea,” Wright said, “was to bring a little bit of the unusual to Manchester and be a spooky-type cafe. I love Halloween more than a friend, some could say, and it was just kind of a dream I had. And so I brought the two together and I found this location.” Tucked between a nail salon and a yoga studio in the Millyard on Dow Street, Two Moons provides Wright an opportunity to showcase her enthusiasms.

“I’ve got art by somebody who does bugs,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “He puts bugs in frames and makes it pretty. We also sell a lot of curiosities like puzzles that have different ins and outs, and books, lots of gardening books and stuff like that. The curiosity part was just me bringing in something that’s unusual to Manchester.”

The cafe half of the equation is even more interesting.

Two Moons offers coffee drinks, teas, and smoothies, some of which are influenced by its neighbors.

“We have kind of a symbiotic relationship with Humble Warrior [Yoga Studio] as far as like smoothies and coffees. [The yoga students] love coming over and getting their smoothies right after class,” Wright said

And what goes well with hot yoga?

“Right now, we have a Warrior Smoothie that actually one of the studio owners Talitha designed,” Wright said. “It is a banana, cashew butter, peanut butter powder and almond milk smoothie with collagen. With cold brew. So it’s got the energy part in it, but also it has all the benefits of the collagen and the protein.”

“We just introduced breakfast sandwiches and sandwiches and salads,” Wright said. “Our No. 1 seller is the cinnamon rolls; they fly off the shelves. And our chocolate chip cookies. … [O]ur pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies are huge and they’re just spectacular. We also do a lot of seasonal-themed things all year round.”

Most recently, to celebrate Pride Month, Wright has featured a selection of extra-sparkly foods and drinks.

“We’ve done a lot of Pride specials,” she said. “Right now, we have ‘Sounds Gay; I’m In,’ which is a cereal-milk latte with a vanilla cold foam and some cereal on top. And then we have the Pink Pony, derived from Chappell Roan’s ‘Pink Pony Club.’ It’s a watermelon-mint lemonade situation.”

Wright said her customers have been enthusiastic and quickly become loyal regulars. Her biggest problem, she said, is trying to explain how to find the cafe.

“This is definitely a tricky location,” she said. “Just describing how to get here is not easy. If you come through Humble Warrior, it’s super easy — just follow the hallway down. But if you come from upstairs, you’re going to go several floors to try to find us. In the future, I would love to not be in a shared space. That would be great, just to have a little more autonomy. But also, I do love that we are a part of the Tree Fort.”

Two Moons Coffee & Curiosities
Where: 155 Dow St., Suite 102,Manchester, twomoonscafenh.com). Two Moons can be accessed from Dow Street, where it is located next to Fratello’s Italian Grille, or from Humble Warrior Power Yoga.
When: open Tuesday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m, and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Featured photo: Two Moons Coffee & Curiosities. Photo by John Fladd.

The Weekly Dish 25/07/03

News from the local food scene

• Community pancakes: The Merrimack Rotary Club (portal.clubrunner. ca/2943) will hold its annual pancake breakfast featuring pancakes, sausage, juice and coffee on Friday, July 4, from 8 to 11 a.m. at Merrimack High School (38 McElwain St., Merrimack). The cost is $12 for adults, $10 for children and seniors, and free for children 3 and younger.

• Picking lavender: The lavender fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm (393 Pumpkin Hill Road, Warner, 456-2443, pumpkinblossomfarm.com) will open for pick-your-own harvesting on Saturday, July 5, and will continue through Sunday, July 20, 10 a.m. through 6 p.m. daily, rain or shine. Call the farm or check its website for daily picking conditions.

• Open for the summer: The Nashua and New Boston farmers markets have opened for the season. The New Boston market takes place every Saturday on the Town Common from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; all products are made or grown in New Hampshire by local farmers and artisans, and there is always live music. The Nashua market takes place every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with local food, art, music and community; the market will run through late October.

• The future of wine: Wine on Main’s (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) July wine class is “The Future of Wine” on Tuesday, July 8, or Wednesday, July 9, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Learn about the latest innovations taking the wine world by storm. The cost is $35 per person, which includes six wines, light snacks and fun education. Limited to 20 people. Sign up on Wine on Main’s website.

• Martini and cupcake: The theme for July’s martini-and-cupcake pairing at the Copper Door restaurants (15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, and 41 S Broadway, Salem, 458-2033, copperdoor.com) is “Life’s a Beach.” The Life’s a Beach Martini, $14, features whipped vodka, Sobieski Raspberry Vodka, limoncello, Monin Raspberry, and lemonade, and is garnished with Swedish Fish candies. The Life’s a Beach Cupcake, $11, is a funfetti cupcake with raspberry cream funfetti filling, topped with vanilla buttercream, a white chocolate cup, and garnished with Swedish Fish candies.

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