Congratulations to Ed Gerhard, master of the six-string, 12-string and slide guitar and acoustic lap steel. Henry Mancini: Pink Guitar featuring Gerhard's arrangement of "Moon River" won a Grammy on Sunday for Best Pop Instrumental Album.

Last week the Harbor Arts Jazz Festival presented two checks, one to the Portsmouth School Department for $500 and another to Traip Academy in Kittery for $1,000, to help fund the schools' music and arts programs. These contributions were made possible by money raised through the local organization's annual Jazz Night concert, presented each year at The Music Hall (last year's program was held on June 19 and featured the Grammy-winning vocalist Cassandra Wilson). Since 1992, Harbor Arts has raised money for various local arts and music organizations while working towards their long-term goal of establishing a museum or arts center on the Seacoast. This year's show, scheduled for June 18 at The Music Hall, will benefit their Museum Fund.

On the rare nights when he's not sitting in with one local band or another, the ubiquitous Jon Nolan has been hard at work on his post-Say Zu Zu follow-up, a yet-to-be-named solo album recorded with his band Hokum. Nolan reports that the record is now mastered and the artwork is nearly complete. In all, it's just a few short weeks away from being sent to the press. He plans to do a short run of the album to start and release it locally (and through his Web site) on his own, while at the same time looking for a label to put it out into broader release. To this end, Nolan will be heading down to Austin, Texas, in March for the South-by-Southwest Music Conference, playing some shows along the way and, with any luck, doing some wheeling and dealing once he's in town.

Ex-Mondaymen Shawn Mitchell and Adam Wade have hooked up with bassist Brian Charles to form a new band, The Gray Davies. As before, Mitchell will man the drum kit, while Wade has changed things up a bit, switching over to guitar and lead vocals. The fledgling trio has wasted little time getting started-they've already recorded a four-song EP at Thumbprint Studios in Epping, with Stone Soup's Art Murphy behind the console. The album will be mixed later this month, and the band plans to start playing out this April.

Late last month The Stone Church announced the hiring of a new general manager, Matt Gordon. A Newmarket native, Gordon was most recently the head chef and floor manager of Libby's Bar and Grill in Durham. Prior to that he was sous-chef at the venerable Red Fez Restaurant in Boston. Since opening last summer, The Stone Church has quickly reestablished itself as one of the area's best music venues, and in his new position Gordon hopes to raise the reputation of the Church's surprisingly excellent Public Supper restaurant. His first task will be to spread the good word about chef Scott Wilder and the restaurant's inventive, church-inspired menu, which gives the humble public supper divine treatment.

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