Tag: 251030

Blues rock, with a bit of soul

Joanne Shaw Taylor brings her guitar chops to Nashua

Growing up in the English Midlands, Joanne Shaw Taylor was a fan of guitarist Albert Collins and Stevie Ray Vaughan, who made her love the blues, then Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who were young enough for her to believe she could become a professional blues guitarist. Even as a woman — the guitar is a gender-neutral instrument, she told herself.

That belief found clarity the first time she heard Susan Tedeschi.

“All of a sudden, there are these kids who look kind of like me … but again, they were boys, then Susan came out with Rock Me Right,” she said by phone recently. “Once you’ve been given an example of someone else who’s done it, you feel like you don’t have to break through.”

Up to then, the female musicians she looked to emulate came from the rock and pop charts — Sheryl Crow, Fleetwood Mac and Dusty Springfield were early favorites.

“I was learning pre-internet,” she said, “Just going to the local CD shop, asking, ‘Who can you get me in that’s a female that plays guitar?’ And they’d be like, ‘Ani DiFranco?’” She pressed on.

Taylor was gigging as a teenager. When she was 16, Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame saw her at a charity show and invited her on his European tour with D.U.P., a supergroup that included Jimmy Cliff, Mud Bone Cooper and Candy Dulfer. Stewart also signed her to a record deal, but the company had financial problems and she never went into the studio.

She made her first album on indie label Ruf Records, 2009’s White Sugar. It received a British Blues Awards nomination for Best New Artist Debut. During that year Taylor headed ’cross the pond, moving to Detroit, a strategic decision to be near the U.S. blues scene. In 2022 she moved again, to Nashville, where she’s lived since.

“All my influences were American,” Taylor said when asked why she moved. Upon arriving, she learned a lot of history that wasn’t taught in U.K. schools. “Segregation and slavery was something new to me, and the idea that this magical genre of music was born out of it was crazy to me.”

Though she loves the blues and records for Joe Bonomassa’s Keeping The Blues Alive label, Taylor suggests that fans new to the genre should begin with B.B. King or Muddy Waters before buying her records.

“I think I’m a blues guitarist that is a soul singer, that likes writing pop rock songs,” she told podcaster Alan Paul last year.

This eclectic aesthetic is well-rounded on Taylor’s latest LP, Black & Gold. The countrified growler “Hold of My Heart” features Sav Madigan of the Accidentals playing fiddle. “Summer Love” is a driving-with-the-top-down rocker that would be at home on a Bob Seger setlist, while “I Gotta Stop Letting You Let Me Down” is solid blues rock.

The buoyant title track was a British hit in 2008 for Sam Sparro that Taylor found “driving up and down the motorway to gigs in the U.K., when my first album was about to come out. It was always on the radio, and I loved the heaviness of the lyrics…. I don’t actually know what it’s about, I just know what I think it’s about and how I view it.”

“Love Lives Here,” a Faces deep cut from 1972, is another great cover on the new album. “There’s two male vocalists I’ve always felt like I have a bit of them in me … Paul Rodgers and Rod Stewart,” Taylor said. “I loved them so much growing up; I’ve taken on a couple of little inflections. I got to open for Rod a couple of years ago and it was absolutely fantastic.”

Taylor made Black & Gold at Nashville’s Studio A, where artists from Elvis to My Morning Jacket have recorded. “It’s kind of like a church,” she said. “I’m not a religious person. I’m not sure where I stand on faith, to be honest, about what comes next. But, you know, you go into a thousand-year-old church in Spain and you feel something. RCA is like that.”

It’s the second time Taylor has worked in the iconic facility; she also made 2024’s Heavy Soul there. Bonamassa also lives in Nashville, which helps her find top talent to work with and great places to make music. She’s also contributed to a pair of LPs by Dion, an early signing to Bonamassa’s label.

The two met in 2008, backstage at a festival in Norway. Later they spent hours talking about their shared experience as blues prodigies, and she felt seen.

“To have a conversation with Joe and go, ‘Oh, you were 13 as well, and your mum and dad were driving and flying you around so you could open up for B.B. King.’ I’d never met anyone like that.”

It wasn’t like either of them was Macaulay Culkin, she continued.

“We weren’t massive child stars, but it was still a bit unusual to say, ‘I’m leaving school for a week to go play with Jimmy Cliff.’ That was just a massive connection, and he’s been a massive champion of me ever since. And a big brother, to be honest, because his career was far ahead of mine at that time.”

Featured photo: Joanne Shaw Taylor. Courtesy photo.

Frightful fun

A weekend’s worth of adult Halloween choices

Without a doubt Halloween is the greatest deal in history. Dress up, knock on doors and demand candy — what could be better? Alas, youth is wasted on the young, but adults can still have fun on Halloween. This year there are a bevy of bashes, most on the official day. Here’s a day-by-day rundown of area gatherings.

Thursday, Oct. 30

Ash Cigar Lounge (92A Route 125, Kingston, 285-5174) 6 p.m. Smoke & Shadows: Halloween costume party, costumes encouraged, cocktails flowing, and cigars smoldering.

Bridgewater Inn (367 Mayhew Turnpike, Bridgewater, 744-3518) 8 p.m. Karaoke with Christine and cash prizes for best male and female costume.

LaBelle Winery ( 345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898) 7:15 p.m. Halloween disco party with Booty Vortex Band. Disco attire is encouraged. $40 at labellewinery.com.

The Word Barn (66 Newfields Road, Exeter, 244-0202) 7 p.m. All Hallow’s Eve: Spooky Tunes, Songs and Tales From Scotland. $25 at thewordbarn.com.

Friday, Oct. 31

Arts Alley (20 S. Main St., Concord, artsalleyconcordnh.com) 7 p.m. Alley After Dark party with DJ music, specialty cocktails, costume contest and giveaways, $30.

Auburn Pitts (167 Rockingham Road, Auburn, 622-6564) 6 p.m. DJ Chris hosts karaoke, with a bonfire and costume contest; gift cards first $100, second $50 and third $25.

Auspicious Brew (1 Washington St., Dover, 953-7240) 8 p.m. 5th anniversary weekend includes Halloween house party with a drag show from Raya Sunshine + friends at 8 p.m., two DJ sets w/ DJ MAM and DJ XO from 9 p.m. to midnight, face and hair glam by Tease Salon, a costume contest and more, $17 advance, $20 day of.

Beanie’s Bar & Grill (58 Route 129, Loudon, 961-0372) 8 p.m. Wacko Magnet, an area trio, performs at this Halloween party.

Big House (322 Lakeside Ave., Laconia, 366-9100) 9 p.m. 7th annual Big Stage karaoke Halloween party with host DJ Tim.

Bogie’s (32 Depot Square, Hampton, 601-2319) 7 p.m. Michael Troy performs with drink specials and prize for best dressed costume.

Bonfire Country Bar (950 Elm St., Manchester, 2017-5600) 7 p.m. Halloween costume party with Lexi James performing.

BrickHouse Restaurant & Brewery (241 Union Square, Milford, 672-2270) 8 p.m. Hell On Heels plays rock covers.

Bridgewater Inn (367 Mayhew Turnpike, Bridgewater, 744-3518) 8 p.m. Halloween party with Stray Dog playing covers and cash prizes for best male and female costume.

Cercle National Club (550 Rockland Ave., Manchester, 623-8243) 7:30 p.m. Dancing Madly Backwards plays rock covers and originals at this social club’s party. Costume contest, with first-, second- and third-place winners.

Chop Shop (920 Lafayette Road, Seabrook, 760-7706) 8:30 p.m. 16th Birthday Halloween Bash with Casual Gravity and prizes for most original, couple, sexiest and king & queen. $20.

Crotched Mountain (534 Mountain Road, Francestown, 808-0174) 5 p.m. Blue Bear Halloween Party with buffet 5-7 p.m., costume contest and DJ music, $30 adults, $12 kids under 12.

Exeter Brewing (156 Epping Road, Exeter, 686-7253) 8 p.m. 21+ Halloween social with costumes, prizes and DJ dancing.

Flannel Tavern (345 Suncook Valley Road, Chichester, 406-1196) 6 p.m. Dave Graham plays music at this party.

Forum Pub (15 Village St., Concord, 565-3100) 8 p.m. Rabbit Foot plays at 7:30 p.m. at a party featuring a costume contest and hosted by Maizy Rae that concludes with an open jam session.

Front Four Cellars (13 Railroad Ave., Wolfeboro, 633-5433) 6 p.m. Dakota Smart plays music from 6 to 9 p.m. at this Monster Mash & Merlot Halloween costume party.

Fury’s Publick House (1 Washington St., Dover, 617-3633) 9 p.m. Jam stalwarts Superfrog perform at a party including Frenzie and Roots, Rhythm & Dub along with a costume contest.

Haluwa Restaurant (44 Gusabel Ave., Nashua, 864-8348) 8 p.m. Bush League rocks at this Chinese stalwart.

Henry J. Sweeney Post (251 Maple St., Manchester, 623-9145) 7:30 p.m. Mugshot Monday performs with a costume contest, prizes for scariest, funniest and sexiest.

Hop Knot (1000 Elm St., Manchester, 232-3731) 7 p.m. DJ Ctrl F spins at this party hosted by Cabana Love. No cover, costume contest and great pretzels.

Lafayette Club (34 High St., Nashua, 889-9860) 8 p.m. Mighty Colors perform, $8 in advance (available at the bar) or $10 at the door.

Lost Cowboy Brewing (546 Amherst St., Nashua, 600-6800) 7:30 p.m. Justin Federico plays country songs.

Lower Level Lounge (North End, Nashua, facebook.com) 6 p.m. Spooky Speakeasy, cocktails & bites, and costumes are encouraged.

Luk’s Bar & Grill (142 Lowell Road, Hudson, 889-9900) 7 p.m. Johnny Roberts plays acoustic music.

Makris Lobster & Steak House (3544 Sheep David Road, Concord, 225-7665) 8 p.m. Stray Dog Band returns to Makris Seafood for a highly anticipated local show and Halloween party.

Music Hall (28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth, themusichall.org) 8 p.m. Space Oddity, the Quintessential David Bowie Tribute Experience. Costumes encouraged. $30 and up at themusichall.org.

New Nan King (222 Central St., Hudson, 882-1911) 7 p.m. Maestro’s Music Karaoke and a costume party.

Newfound Lake Inn (1030 Mayhew Turnpike, Bridgewater, 744-0911) 6 p.m. BOOOOOs Fest featuring DJ music and “horror d’oeuvres” along with specialty cocktails. Costume contest. $25 at eventbrite.com.

Par 28 (23 South Broadway, Salem, 458-7078) 8 p.m. DJ Styles spins with a costume contest and specialty cocktails.

Peddler’s Daughter (48 Main St., Nashua, 821-7535) 9:30 p.m. Magnificent Bastards play high-energy rock covers at this event promising ghosts, ghouls and questionable costumes.

Pembroke City Limits (134 Main St., Pembroke, 210-2409) 7 p.m. Haunted by Humans performs with a costume contest.

Polish American Club (15 School St., Nashua, 889-9819) 8 p.m. Karaoke with Kelly, private club, guests need to be signed in.

Porkbarrel Productions (107 Moose Mountain Road, Brookfield, eventbrite.com) 6 p.m. Backyard Boulderdash with The Boneheads. Costume ball and contest with cash prizes, 15 and under free admission, $20.

Portsmouth Gas Light (64 Market St., Portsmouth, 430-9122) 8 p.m. Halloween party in the third-floor nightclub with costume contest, prizes and music from DJ Koko P, and a Day of the Dead party the following night.

Press Room (77 Daniel St., Portsmouth, 431-5186) 9 p.m. Dan Blakeslee’s alter ego Doctor Gasp performs with his band the Eeks, the 23rd Annual Halloween Special begins directly after the Portsmouth Halloween parade.

Red’s Kitchen & Tavern (530 Lafayette Road, Seabrook, 760-0030) 6 p.m. Ignite Band rocks at this party, with a $500 gift card for the costume contest winner.

Reed’s North (2 E. Main St., Warner, 456-2143) 7 p.m. Spooky Halloween Party with music by Randy Hawkes. Costumes encouraged but not required. Ghoulish cocktails and pub menu.

Rooftop at The Artisan (19 Via Toscana, No. 550, Salem, 458-3028) 7 p.m. Boos & Brews at The Rooftop offers DJ dancing, spooky sips and more, $15

Saddle Up Saloon (92 Route 125, Kingston, 347-1313) 8 p.m. Bite the Bullet plays rock covers, with costume contests and specials.

Salona (128 Maple St., Manchester, 624-4020) 7 p.m. DJ, karaoke, raffles, and a prize for best costume.

Salt hill Pub Lebanon (2 W. Park St., Lebanon, 448-4532) 8 p.m. Local rockers the Conniption Fits provide the music for this party, with prizes for best costumes.

San Francisco Kitchen (133 Main St., Nashua, 885-8833) 8 p.m. DJ Triana spins with a costume contest, $100 cash for first place, $50 gift card for second, two complimentary drinks for third place.

Shaskeen (909 Elm St., Manchester, 625-0246) 9 p.m. Annual bash with DJ Myth spinning, costume contest and Guinness promo.

Spice Restaurant & Bar (300 Main St., Nashua, 417-7972) 8 p.m. DJ Daryl spins with a costume contest, $100 cash for first place, $50 gift card for second, $25 gift card for third place. Drink specials and giveaways.

Stark Brewing Company (500 Commercial St., Manchester, 625-4444) 9 p.m. The Cats — Andre LeClair and Jimmy Croons — perform at this party.

Stone Church (5 Granite St., Newmarket, 659-7700) 7 p.m. Two-day Grateful Dead party with Stone Dead, a collaboration of New England musicians with roots and associations going back to the Stone Church scene of the ’80s and ’90s, from acts such as Percy Hill, Groove Child, Thanks to Gravity, Trade and others. $25 advance, $30 day of show, $45 two-day pass.

Strange Brew (88 Market St., Manchester, 666-4292) 6:30 p.m. Lisa Marie offers blues rock and boogie.

Sun Bar & Grill (586 Nashua St., Milford, 633-6012) 8 p.m. DJ John spins with a costume contest, $100 cash for first place, $50 gift card for second, $25 gift card for third place. Drink specials and giveaways.

Village Trestle (25 Main St., Goffstown, 497-8230) 8 p.m. Halloween costume party with Bob Pratte.

Wally’s Pub (144 Ashworth Ave., Hampton, 926-6954) 6 p.m. Prospect Hill 16th annual Halloween party with Above Snakes and Major Moment. 21+, tickets $25 at ticketmaster.com.

Wolfeboro Inn (90 N. Main St., Wolfeboro, 569-3016) 6 p.m. Drinks, games and music in Wolfe’s Tavern to benefit the Justin Hartford Scholarship Fund, $15 advance, $20 door.

Zorvino Vineyards (226 Main St., Sandown, 887-8463) 6 p.m. Hallowine with themed trivia 6-8 p.m., all-day costume contest on the final patio dining night of the season.

Saturday, Nov. 1

Capitol Center for the Arts (44 S. Main St., Concord, ccanh.com) 11 a.m. Mr. Aaron’s Halloween Bash, a kid-centric show.

Hare of the Dawg (3 E. Broadway, Derry, 552-3883) 7:30 p.m. DJ Dave the Rave provides the music, with prizes for most creative, funniest, worst and group costumes.

Loaded Question Brewing (909 Islington St., Suite 12, Portsmouth, 852-1396) 8 p.m. Halloweeen Party happens a day late, but it’s still the weekend.

Paddy’s American Grille (27 International Drive, Portsmouth, 430-9450) 8 p.m. Bad Breath Microphone performs with prizes for best costume.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 25/10/30

• Late showman: When he finished following David Letterman on CBS late night, Craig Ferguson returned to doing standup comedy and making specials. He’s still on television, though, hosting the game show Scrabble on the CW. He got an Emmy nomination for his 2015 special Just Being Honest and did a six-part standup/docuseries, Hobo Fabulous, for Amazon. Thursday, Oct. 30, at 8 p.m., Nashua Center for the Performing Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua, $75 and up, etix.com.

• Southern men: With a pair of guitarists sharing a long history in Southern rock, Once An Outlaw plays a Lakes Region show. Macon, Georgia, native Chris Hicks played with the Marshall Tucker Band for many years. Chris Anderson, born in Florida and raised in Spartanburg, South Carolina, spent time in the Outlaws. Traveler – The Chris Stapleton Experience also appears. Friday, Oct. 31, at 7 p.m., The Barn at The Inn on Main, 200 N. Main St., Wolfeboro, onceanoutlawband.com.

• Alt popping: Support the area underground scene at Alt Pop-Punk Night, a triple bill offering a Halloween vibe the day after. Included are GRIM the Acronym, a punk and hardcore trio, along with two female-fronted acts, Vices, Inc., from Portland, Maine, and Boston-based Island of Alaska, who just released the buoyant, energetic single “Holy Ghost.” Saturday, Nov. 1, at 7 p.m., Terminus Underground, 134 Haines St., Nashua, $15 and $20 at newhampshireunderground.org.

• Local hero: The New Hampshire music scene got some validation when Charlie Chronopoulos sold out BNH Stage late last year. A producer whose credits include Jelly Roll and Joyner Lucas, and writer of gritty songs about hardscrabble living in his home state, Chronopoulos returns to the venue on the heels of “Shot,” a tough new single from an album he’s working on in a historic mill studio. Saturday, Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m., BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord, $36 at ccanh.com.

• Story teller: Singer, songwriter and raconteur Vance Gilbert performs. His most recent album, 2023’s The Mother of Trouble, includes “Simple Things,” a song Gilbert described as “what happens when a Black kid from Philadelphia who grew up listening to Earth, Wind & Fire, and didn’t know the Average White Band was white, tries to write a song like John Prine.” Sunday, Nov. 2, at 7 p.m., The Word Barn, 66 Newfields Road, Exeter, $25 and up at thewordbarn.com.

More thrills than chills

A look at some new spooky season films

It’s hard to break away from your favorite scary or Halloweeny movies, but here are some recent-ish releases that you might look to add to your Halloween weekend viewing.

Shell (R)

I am really liking this recent, Glass Onion/Running Point-era Kate Hudson and I thoroughly enjoyed her performance here as ultra-rich wellness girlboss Zoe with an empire based on a quasi-medical rejuvenating but vague “Treatment.” Elisabeth Moss, an actress who can make a whole lotta something out of whatever slightly-more-than-nothing you give her, is Samantha, an actress trying to keep her career afloat in some slightly futuristic form of Los Angeles. But Samantha’s career is past its TV peak and her handlers suggest she try some Treatments to improve her castability, which Samantha reluctantly does. At first it’s all glowy skin and a movie offer, but soon Samantha starts to experience some of the freaky side effects. I could see how this movie could get written off as a lesser The Substance. But Moss and Hudson make this body horror a fun, compelling watch even when the going gets goofy. B+ Streaming on Paramount+ and available for rent or purchase.

Weapons (R)

Speaking of goofy, this strange and violent movie from the summer frequently tips over into laugh out loud goofiness. All children but one from the third grade class of teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) disappear one night, running into the dark from their homes, arms held creepily behind them. The movie is told from the viewpoint of several people involved, including Justine, sole remaining child Alex (Cary Christopher), Josh Brolin playing the father of a missing kid, Alden Ehrenreich as a police officer Justine is having an affair with, and others. Popping up into the story — and occasionally just into the frame — is Amy Madigan as Gladys, the terrifying orange-wigged powdered-white face that shows up in some of the movie’s trailers. Weapons didn’t quite wow me but it did have moments of scariness and a fun Big Bad and was frequently amusing. B+Streaming on HBO Max and available for rent or purchase.

The Hand the Rocks the Cradle (R)

This remake of the 1992 movie gets a bit of “this is a real movie” shine with its casting of Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Caitlin, the mom in this Evil Nanny tale. But as I dug in, the crime and the perpetrator, in this case Polly the Nanny as played by Maika Monroe, seemed a few notches too silly and operatic. I like that the movie ups the bonkers-ness on Polly’s backstory from the original even if it doesn’t really make a lot of sense. The movie also feels longer than it needs to be and could slice off some subplots to get us to the blonde-lady-smackdown faster. This one is perfectly OK if you want something new but also don’t want to have to pay close attention while you do house chores or pay bills. C- Streaming on Hulu.

M3gan 2.0 (PG-13)

Original M3gan, was a delightful surprise with its sentient, slaying (in both senses) robot. This sequel, like M3gan itself (voice by Jenna Davis, stunts by Amie Donald), is a lot more self-aware but still adequately fun. M3gan — who of course “survived” from the first movie, or whatever it’s called when a killer robot’s consciousness persists — spends a chunk of the movie as either a voice on the phone or a weird little toy robot, which is a nice bit of comedy business. This movie’s human tech bro villain is a different flavor of callow narcissist than last movie’s but still recognizable as the person whose comeuppance will be cheered. Gemma (Allison Williams) and Cady (Violet McGraw) return as flawed aunt-guardian and niece who seems to have absorbed a fair amount of M3gan sassiness. B- Streaming on Peacock and available for rent or purchase.

1929, by Andrew Ross Sorkin

(Viking, 449 pages)

Wall Street wasn’t always glamorous. Until the early 1900s, “The practice of buying and selling stock was disdained by polite society as a grubby endeavor, the handiwork of gamblers and social benefits,” writes Andrew Ross Sorkin in his new nonfiction book 1929.

But in a couple of decades that had changed, to the point where brokerages dotted New York City streets like Starbucks cafes do today, thanks in part to Americans’ new, lenient attitudes toward credit.

It was an ominous setup to the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression that followed. Most contemporary Americans know little about these events, says Sorkin, who has set out to change that and to convince us that there are alarming parallels today.

Sorkin is the business journalist and CNBC personality whose 2009 book Too Big to Fail chronicled the 2008 financial crisis and was made into an HBO movie. That book was the kind you call both exhaustive and exhausting, coming in at more than 600 pages. In comparison, 1929 is a mere 456, not including footnotes. It is, let’s be honest, a lot, and I didn’t have “refresh my knowledge of the Glass-Steagall Act” on my to-do list for 2025.

But Sorkin does his research and wants us (or the future writer of the film script) to know every detail of this story, largely written in narrative style, with the players’ dialogue, surroundings and daily life recreated from diaries, memos, oral histories and private letters — as well as court records, depositions and lawsuits.

The cast of characters is large: presidents and partners of major banks, assorted business leaders and politicians. Some of the major players are largely obscure today (apologies if you are a fan of Russell Cornell Leffingwell) but many are names we know well, if only by their business legacy: Walter Percy Chrysler, Charles M. Schwab and Louis-Joseph Chevrolet among them. There are also cameos by people such as Groucho Marx and Winston Churchill.

Sorkin opens his story with a prologue set just after the market closed 13 points down on Oct. 28, 1929. A 13-point drop is nothing today, but it was worrisome then, particularly after a turbulent week. We follow Charles Edwin Mitchell — a banker known to the press as “Sunshine Charlie” — back to his office after emergency meetings at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. At his office, he learns that in his absence, his colleagues at National City Bank had been purchasing shares trying to inflate the bank’s value despite the volatility. They’d purchased 71,000 shares, at a cost of about $32 million — a risky scheme that could take the bank out if the market continued to fall. Mitchell envisions people lining up at National Bank’s 58 branches: “A run on the country’s largest bank. There was nothing bankers feared more.”

To make matters worse, the market downturn was occurring on the heels of one of the most optimistic times in America. Ten years earlier, Sorkin explains, General Motors started letting Americans buy its cars on credit. Sears, Roebuck & Co. joined in, offering credit plans for appliances. And before long, Wall Street let people buy stock “on margin” — putting up a percentage of the stock’s value and paying the rest over time. “Borrowing became a habit, born along with optimism,” Sorkin writes. “… And individuals became spectacularly rich. The wealthiest in the nation amassed fortunes in excess of $100 million, which, in today’s dollars, would be nearly $2 billion.” For the first time, businessmen were becoming celebrities, like performers and athletes.

Sorkin then takes us back to February 1929 and leads us month-by-month through that fateful year, exploring the mindsets that kept most of the business leaders from seeing what now seems inevitable in hindsight. “Across the country, speculating in the stock market had become so widespread and profitable that it seemed almost as if everyone were leveraged, committed, and in on the action.”

One Philadelphia banker suggested that women should be prohibited from the market “as a way of keeping in check the public enthusiasm for speculation.”

“So many women had started investing that brokerages had installed specially designed lounges and galleries where they could watch the fluctuations of the market safe from the rowdiness of men buying and selling,” Sorkin writes.

When President Herbert Hoover was inaugurated, he told Americans, “In no nation are the fruits of accomplishment more secure … I have no fears for the future of our country.”

There were a few Cassandras, among them Roger Babson, an economist who started a college by his own name in Massachusetts. He had been predicting a market crash for two years. But the majority of New York bankers in their stately Upper East Side homes would not and could not see it, as they had too much riding on the market. Besides, the economy had been up and down over the past few decades — the country had, after all, recovered from the Panic of 1907 and other more recent volatility.

Sorkin recounts the clashes between Washington and Wall Street as the point of crisis neared. Hoover, becoming worried, was starting to listen to Babson, but the powerful bankers countered Babson’s warnings with relentless optimism. One banker, 10 days before the crash, sent the president an 18-page letter saying that the American future “appears brilliant” and that it would be folly for the president to interfere with the market with “corrective action.”

All too soon we arrive at the last week of October 1929 and see why Charles Mitchell was having such a meltdown in the prologue 200 pages ago. In the days to come, there will be those crowds lined up outside banks and brokerages (16 pages of photos and images of New York Times front pages are a nice addition), suicides (though not as many as have been reported) and eventually criminal charges against Mitchell. There would be “Hoovertowns” (homeless encampments named after the president), breadlines and periods when nearly a quarter of Americans were unemployed. This is a story, after all, that did not end in 1930, but affected many people throughout the next decade and resulted in changes that still govern banking today.

Could the crash have been avoided? Sorkin says yes, with caveats. He also believes Hoover deserves a better grade as president than history has given him. The lessons he offers to us are simple: “we need to remember how easily we forget,” he writes.

And also: “No matter how many warnings are issued or how many laws are written, people will find new ways to believe that the good times can last forever. They will dress up hope as certainty. And in that collective fever, humanity will again and again lose its head.” B

Featured Photo: 1929, by Andrew Ross Sorkin

Album Reviews 25/10/30

Mitski, The Land: The Live Album (Dead Oceans Records)

I’ve meant to delve into the work of this Japanese-American singer for a long time and always dreaded it. She’s been prime Pitchfork-bait for years now, targeting bougie audiences with random two-minute outbursts of overly artsy, poorly sung existentialism, often coming off like a cross between Ani DiFranco and Yoko Ono but more depressing. She does have her moments; in 2014 she provided evidence that she’s not a Martian with “Townie,” which, given its ultra-distorted Big Black guitar sound and noise-pop hook, is probably the only Mitski song I’d ever add to a Spotify list. That said, she’s happier in a live setting, which immediately lends these versions more attractiveness than their studio counterparts, but, as many people have commented — including on the r/Mitski subreddit — the most irritating thing about this lady is her fans. They’re “woke” of course, which isn’t cause for any grown-up to downright hate them, but these people way overdo it and behave in the meantime like they’ve never heard a verse of poetry in their lives. The rapturous weirdness starts right at the beginning of this set: “Everyone” is a decent-enough Patsy Cline-nicking tune, but suddenly, five seconds in, the crowd is going absolutely bonkers, making like pre-teens flipping out over Hannah Montana materializing in a latex tutu. I’m giving it an “A” grade only because I must be missing what her cult sees so vividly, but by the time you’re reading this I’ve assuredly dropped it to a B-, tops. A

Machine Gun Kelly, “home bittersweet home” / “no cell phones in rehab” (Interscope Records)

This isn’t meant to serve as a wildly instructive explainer for Gen Z kids, who’ve already made up their minds as to whether or not this dangerously gifted performer is worth a minute of their time, more of a gentle urging to older/less plugged-in folks who long ago abandoned figuring out which “new” rock stars they should be investigating in current_era. Normies know him as “Mrs. Megan Fox,” the kids know him as “mgk”; either way he’s a giant of today’s mashup-obsessed pop zeitgeist, especially after his last album, the August-released lost americana, which repackaged old melodies, from The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” to Alice Deejay’s 1999 Eurodance hit “Better Off Alone,” all done seemingly in an effort to tell Zillennials that they have a lot of catching up to do while simultaneously celebrating the generation’s trademark “vulnerable sincerity.” Anyway, these two just-released songs, along with one or three others, were left off mgk’s 2000 LP Tickets to My Downfall, a landmark record that bridged the gap between commercial hip-hop and power pop (which I still refer to as “emo,” because it’s my column). Like a fusion of Bruno Mars and Dashboard Confessional, these tunes would have been just as successful as the album’s hits, proving that this guy’s instincts in developing the formula were dead right. He, or, more likely, some team he’s got in place, could write this stuff in their sleep. A+

PLAYLIST

A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases

• Halloween is this Friday, Oct. 31, and since it’s a Friday there will be new CDs for you people to buy and cherish and keep under your car seat when you get sick of them. But first, I know I promised to leave the house and investigate the city’s music scene in more depth than I did a few weeks ago, but I honestly haven’t had the time. I plan to, though, because it’s fun to put a “press” identification card in the band of my fedora and watch local musicians squirm as I ask them why they didn’t respond to my last five emails, but there’s been Other Stuff to do. Today I spent a few hours investigating what’s happening in the Billboard magazine space, which is where you go if you want to find out what pop songs the top echelon of the music industry really really wants your grade-school children listening to on their TikToks and MySpaces, so that the rich dudes at the top can all dive into swimming pools full of cash, like Scrooge McDuck, all for rubber-stamping the release of albums that basically sound exactly like Britney Spears did during the Aughts but with more deep house and random world music sounds. A recent darling of the corporate-dance-pop crowd is Kali Uchis, a Latin techno singer who made Billboard’s cover recently; she’s been fighting in the trenches for a few years now and finally hit on the right formula with her fifth album, Sincerely, which features a mix of ’70s radio pop, reggaeton and (mostly) Lana Del Rey-style yacht-techno. What I heard of the LP was quite nice, but the tunes sounded too similar to each other, which is all too common nowadays. Of course, it’s understandable that the Scrooge McDucks of the music business don’t want to take chances on artists; as Shirley Manson of Garbage said in a viral onstage rant last month, the music business is becoming completely unsustainable, with everyone but musicians making any money. “The average musician makes $12 a month on Spotify,” she said, warning that a musicians union is long overdue. “This is an alarm call for all the young generations of musicians who are in our wake, and who we feel duty-bound to speak up for because there’s nobody speaking up for them.” Good on her, but gone equally viral recently is the backlash to Canadian band Rush’s handlers charging ridiculously high prices for tickets to their 2026 reunion tour’s shows (tickets for their Sept. 12 show at TD Garden currently range from $500 to $4,000). What does it all mean? It means that fans have to start supporting smaller bands, like for instance U.K.-based grunge-punkers Witch Fever, whose fast-approaching new album Fever Eaten is a fascinating study in messy loud-quiet-loud-ness! Leadoff single “Safe” is a good one, combining a New Order-ish rubber-band bass line, early Cure desolation and no-wave singing, it’s seriously great.

• In other non-stupid news, Florence + the Machine, aka this generation’s Siouxsie, is back, with an album titled Everybody Scream! The title track is actually kind of cringey, meant as a crowd-yell-along thing; hopefully the rest of the album is a lot better.

• It’s been a while, as in a month or whatever, so it is time for a new Guided by Voices album, because bandleader Robert Pollard is addicted to making albums! Thick Rich And Delicious is their second one this year and features “(You Can’t Go Back To) Oxford Talawanda,” a rugged but forgettable attempt at mid-tempo Brit-punk.

• To close out the week let’s discuss Iconoclasts, the new full-length from Swedish goth singer Anna von Hausswolff, who enjoys playing the pipe organ! “Stardust” is really neat, a cross between Massive Attack and Bjork in tribal mode.

Featured Photo: Mitski, The Land: The Live Album and Machine Gun Kelly, “home bittersweet home” / “no cell phones in rehab”

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!