Portland, Maine’s Jason Spooner has been seen around Portsmouth’s Dolphin Striker, Press Room and Red Hook Brewery. Currently, he’s playing at the renowned Kerrville Folk festival in Texas, as one of 32 finalists out of 800 entrants for the New Folk Competition. The competition was started by Peter Yarrow (of Peter Paul & Mary fame) in 1972. Since then, several notable performers have participated, including Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin, Lucinda Williams, Martin Sexton, John Gorka, David Wilcox and Nancy Griffith. Mark another notch in Portland’s prodigious roots music scene.

The Seacoast Music Collaborative is an organization dedicated to marketing the region as a music destination. Recently, they debuted a new brochure in cooperation with Seacoast Chambers of Commerce that will be distributed extensively, including at the Seabrook Welcome Center on I-95, in the Boston and Portland markets and at hotels and other choice locations throughout the Seacoast. A kick-off celebration will be held on Tuesday, June 27, at the Press Room, 77 Daniel St., Portsmouth. It’ll be a mix of business and pleasure, with local music industry folk and the local press discussing the state of the music industry on the Seacoast and feedback on the brochure. Of course there will be food, drinks and tunes a’ plenty.

Pondering Judd and multi-instrumentalist Hank Decken have parted ways after two-plus years. In the band’s press release, frontman Marty England says the reasons are purely artistic. 

“We’re thankful for all that he brought to the table and wish him luck in all that he pursues at this point,” he said. “It was a purely musical decision.”

Decken owns and operates Rochester’s Dizzyland Recording Studio, where he and the band recorded both of their 2005 releases, “Succumb to Hell” and “Lonesome Heart Strangers.”“I don’t know very much about it actually, they just kind of gave me walking papers,” Decken said during a phone interview regarding his leaving the band. He currently has no plans for musical endeavors, but says he will in time. “I haven’t made a decision, (the parting) was so recent,” he says.

“Playing-wise I want to continue to play dobro and steel, so I’ll probably get some work as a sideman and start a new project on my own sometime.”Pondering Judd has no plans to add another member and will continue on as a four-piece, with members Mark Edgerly (guitar), Marty England (lead vocals and  acoustic guitar), Brian Gosselin (bass) and Steve Jacques (drums).

Writers in the Round Retreat on Star is the second annual creative retreat for songwriters and poets to be held on Star Island, one of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire. The Writers in the Round retreat runs for four days, Sept. 8-11, offering daily classes, unstructured time for composition and collaboration, small group workshops and nightly song and poetry swaps. Deidre Randall, singer/songwriter and owner of Blueline Publicity, is coordinating the conference with the help of representatives from the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program and the Club Passim School of Music. It’s a time for stretching boundaries, cross-genre inspiration and fresh salt air. Registration runs through June 21 for “early bird” rates. General registration runs from May 1 to Aug. 15. Room and board package prices begin at $339 and are all-inclusive.

A collaborative group of N.H. musicians, writers and arts supporters recently launched “NH Edge,” a weekly Internet radio show featuring local independent music interviews and reviews, irreverent observations of N.H. culture and history, opinion, events and more. The show, which will launch as a podcast, will be available as a free subscription from NHedge.com or from major podcast directories, including iTunes. The shows creators intend to “showcase the richness and variety of Granite State culture and counterculture and will pull no punches when dealing with fragile social mores,” according to NH Edge idea man and podcaster Tim Deal. The debut episode will feature an interview with Joe Queer, the controversial lead singer of the punk rock band, The Queers. It will also include a roundtable review of the new CD from local rockers Famous and a feature on NH’s Stonehenge. Lemon Fresh Kids, the area’s power pop trio, has decided to take a break. “The band is officially on hiatus right now and will be for at least a few months,” said bassist Tim McCoy in a recent e-mail. “Norm (Fuller, drums), Leo (Ganley, guitars/vocals) and I have been together for 10 years now, and jamming together even longer than that. It is time to take a break and work on some other endeavors right now.” Ganley is busy working on a new album, and McCoy has plans to release his first solo record by the fall.

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