Local Rhythms – Mad Beach Band brings it back home

If you were looking for the face of Sunapee/Newport music, it would probably be Pete Merrigan.  As the saying goes, he’s been on the scene for as long as we’ve had one.
When opening a dry cleaner, tacking a dollar bill to the wall makes it official.  If it’s a bar or restaurant, booking Pete Merrigan [...]

Local Rhythms – It’s all here

Do you want to know a secret? It’s all here.

When I began writing about the local music scene five years ago, a part of me wondered if I could even find seven days of nightlife every week.

I half expected to end up talking about using the Internet to hear bands who’d never [...]

Jackson Browne does his thing @ Meadowbrook

For a guy who named his latest album “Time the Conqueror,” Jackson Browne has held up well.   Of course, the grey beard he sported on that record’s cover is shaved, and the white highlights of his straight pageboy haircut re-colored.  So perhaps time has conquered the California man-child, but as Browne played on a warm [...]

Local Rhythms – Greenerpalooza gets Browne

Most people look at the roofline of Meadowbrook U.S. Cellular Pavilion and see the Lakes Region’s premier live music venue. Chris Lockwood envisions a green energy future.

Its slope and location are perfect for photovoltaic panels. “We have the potential to be New Hampshire’s largest producer of solar power,” says Lockwood, the venue’s Marketing [...]

Same old story – publisher preoccupied by paper

A few months ago, “The Last Tycoon,”  T.J. Stiles’ biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, received several withering reviews on Amazon.com.  Most of the critics hadn’t even read it.  They were owners of Amazon’s ridiculously successful Kindle digital reader.  Their enmity stemmed from the book’s high price in digital format – well north of the typical $9.99 [...]

Going Digital

A little over five years ago, when Local Rhythms appeared in the Claremont Eagle Times for the first time, I received no money for my work.  The local music scene needed a voice to tell its story, and whether I was paid seemed less important than using my local paper to make that happen.
Now that [...]

Local Rhythms – Every Wednesday I Have the Blues @ ShP

One of my favorite topics is “Desert Island Discs.”  What are the 10 records I’d insist on having if I could have no others?
The list is always changing, but what’s constant is diversity.
This week includes “Quadrophenia,” Patty Griffin’s “1,000 Kisses,” the second Tom Petty album  and “Diana Krall Live in Paris.”
Oh, yeah, and Nickel Creek’s [...]

Vienna Teng talks about “Inland Territory”

What inspired you to get into music?
The shortest answer is that it’s the thing I felt like I was most useful for.  The whole time I was trying to figure out what to do for a living, as a career or job, I was always thinking what could I do that I do pretty well [...]

Don’t Miss Vienna Teng

All the pundits who have declared the album dead and gone haven’t heard Vienna Teng. Just as no self-respecting music fan would buy just a single track from “Blue,” “The Wall” or “Abbey Road” and leave it at that, Teng’s newest, “Inland Territory,” deserves a full 50 minute listen.
The sweep of history informs every note.  [...]

Diana Krall @ Meadowbrook

Though threatening skies didn’t open up, Diana Krall still had to contend with nature Friday night in Gilford.  Every bullfrog, cricket and critter in the Lakes Region seemed to stir during the quiet moments of her sublime, two-hour set.
Considering Krall’s appearance was in support of a new release called “Quiet Nights,” this occasionally proved problematic.
“I [...]