Local Rhythms – Oddball Christmas Records

After descending into 5 A.M. shopping madness last Black Friday and witnessing Amazon’s server meltdown during the Internet’s own Black Monday, I need something innocuous and soothing for the dawn of December.  
Unsurprisingly, I’m one of those who turns the cable box to “Sounds of the Season” and leaves it there until the 26th.  Well, [...]

Jazz On A Sunday Afternoon Returns December 1

“Jazz on a Sunday Afternoon,” one of the area’s longest-running traditions, returns to Grantham’s Center at Eastman this Sunday for its fifteenth season. This year’s lineup features ten performers as musically far-ranging as jazz itself.
Vocalist Al Alessi seems a perfect choice for the kick-off show December 1. He handles [...]

Local Rhythms – My Thanksgiving

Tonight at the dinner table, I’ll give thanks for my family, and after, antacid.  Right now, I want to be a little more public in my display of gratitude.  Here’s an honor roll of the people and things that sustained me over the past year.
Thanks to  Claremont’s  restaurateurs for making my hometown a destination, and [...]

David Mallett – Still In Search of the New

David Mallett brings folk music with a northern perspective to the Claremont Opera House this Saturday, but listeners would be surprised at where the Maine native goes for inspiration.
“I don’t have time to listen to anything I’ve already heard, I just want to hear new stuff,” he says.  He’s a big fan of  the Link, [...]

Local Rhythms – Happy Birthday Bistro Nouveau

There was a time not so long ago when a fine dining experience inevitably required a trip across the river. Oh, you could find a decent steak or a piece of fish in Claremont, but if you craved a dish that deserved to be photographed as well as eaten, you had to leave [...]

Joan Osborne Successfully Switches Gears

Joan Osborne’s latest CD is equal parts  homage to the canon of Americana songwriters and an old pro courting a stunning new muse; it’s also one of the year’s best records.  Conceived in New York and executed, with the help of ace producer Steve Buckingham (Dolly Parton, Shania Twain), in Nashville, “Pretty Little Stranger” walks [...]

Local Rhythms – Tuohy Twofer at Eagle Block

The local region’s live music pedigree really intrigued me when I moved here in 1980. I got first hand exposure to it when a convalescing Steven Tyler limped into the radio station where I worked one Saturday in 1981, a stack of reel-to-reel tapes in tow, looking to use our studio.
Aerosmith got their start [...]

“The Perfect Thing” – Steven Levy’s Gushy iPod History

Not many gadgets are worthy of their own book, but the iconic iPod is no ordinary gadget.   Apple didn’t make the first MP3 player, but by transforming a good idea into what author Steven Levy calls “the perfect thing,” the computer company helped foster a revolution that is creating new industries as it disrupts and [...]

Local Rhythms – For Love Or Money

Adapted from an earlier post:
If I were a decent guitarist (not even close), I’d probably be like a friend of mine, who spends his every spare minute playing in a band. Most of the time, though, he can be found providing counsel on paint and caulk selection at an area building supply store.
That’s his day [...]

Regina Carter – Guerrilla Promotion

Yesterday I made my monthly pilgrimage to Newbury Comics, mainly to purchase Van Morrison’s first official DVD. It contains his 1974 and 1980 performances at the Montreaux Jazz Festival.
While there, I also snagged a copy of “Live Your Life With Verve: Fall Into The Groove,” a sampler of the latest releases from the legendary [...]