With an expected arrival date in mid- or late-August, the former Newberry Room at the Muddy River Smokehouse will be reborn.

With the new name “Bourbon’s,” a stripped-down menu, new staff, renovated walls and carpeting, and local art showcased throughout, it will literally be a whole new music room. But this won’t just be a face lift. There will be a shift in thinking behind the scenes, as well.

New owners Gerri and Tony Scheena bought the first floor restaurant in January, and the lower-level music room came as part of the package. It wasn’t making the money they would like, and they found the room’s dual purpose as a function hall hard to manage, according to Anne Bryant, newly hired promoter for the room. It was not uncommon to see punk rock kids loading equipment into the room during a wedding rehearsal, she says. The Scheenas made it clear they wouldn’t book any more shows after July.

“No one ever had actually asked them how they felt about having live music in the place (prior to the sale), and they had been toying with a lot of ideas for a while. They were actually cornered by some of the booking arrangements (that had been made before the sale). They ended up with long-term contracts on major nights of the week, relying on the same clientele on the same nights of the week.” Referring to a handful of shows with low attendance, Bryant says, “The dwindling numbers made them think, ‘Maybe we just want to cash this in, maybe do a banquet hall, functions.’”

But the owners are more confident now. “We’re really excited about the music and arts scene in Portsmouth,” says Gerri Scheena. “We’re in the beginning stages of getting the music going again.”

Enter Bryant and Lori Nolan.

After a few well-placed suggestions that graduated into bigger discussions, the two were hired as promoter and talent booker, respectively. Bryant acknowledges that the owners are taking a chance. “We were asking ourselves, ‘Can we really do this? Can we be successful? Can you trust us with half of a building you’ve just leased, with all of our crazy ideas?’ And they bought into that.”

When the brief story “Muddy River unplugs” article appeared in The Wire on July 19, announcing a music hiatus for the venue, things were in fact still very much up in the air. According to Bryant, a quote from Michael Phillips, former booker of the series “The Spark,” made Gerri Scheena very concerned. In it, he referred to the Newberry Room as “a sinking ship,” and Scheena began to have second thoughts. But Bryant is quick to put things in perspective.

“I don’t think anyone was offering any real solutions prior to now. You have to identify that there’s a problem first. I don’t think it was a sinking ship at all. I think it was a very tiny hole in the bottom of the ship, maybe,” she says, pantomiming a squirt of water, “but everyone was looking this way,” pointing and looking in the other direction. “It was ignoring the problem.”

As for the misconception that live music was out of the picture for good, Bryant attributes it to miscommunication.
“We couldn’t go tell our friends (about the change of direction) because things still might not have gone through. … The staffers were all told, ‘This is our last booked show, and after that, we don’t know what’s going on,’” Bryant explains. “‘Last booked show’ is all they heard, which is huge on the psyche of a place. … And it’s hard when someone comes in and buys a restaurant. When some of your friends are losing jobs, then you put up a fight on behalf of the people who’ve been there forever, like (former manager) Chris Soucy and (former sound technician) Mike Marchand.”

Bryant also acknowledges that recent months haven’t been as successful as the room had been in the past. “Maybe they went down there for a few nights, maybe there wasn’t a great draw, bar sales were down, maybe a few other things. So they put the brakes on it for a while, but when the enthusiasm came about every so often, they knew there was something special going on, and that’s why they were so open to the idea of hiring an actual booker.”

Chris Soucy points to this, as well. As former booker for the Newberry Room and the general manager in charge of the wait staff and kitchen, he had a lot of things to juggle.

“The new owners didn’t know much about music,” he says. “They see a couple of bad nights, we’re not making a lot of money, so they look at me as the first thing to go.” He’s since separated with the Muddy River, but describes it as a mutual decision. “We’d discussed my leaving, and they knew I was in the market for my own restaurant.

I’ve been in the business 15, 17 years, and so the separation was no surprise to either party.”

However, he was surprised by the news of Bourbon’s and the change in direction. “No, I didn’t know anything about that. They just told me not to book anything else. I’ve had no input on that,” he says. “But I feel fine about it.” He’s looking forward to opening his own restaurant soon, in Portsmouth or the surrounding area, and is still “very much interested in doing live music.”

Hopefully, though, the people who weren’t thrilled about the change of hands can be won over by the revitalization plan.

“We’re gonna book everything from bluegrass to hardcore. There’s isn’t going to be any genre that isn’t touched,” Bryant says. “I want the downstairs to be fast and dirty.”

By September, though, she hopes to be less visible. “Once the ball gets rolling, Lori and I will be very much behind the scenes. We feel like the personality of the club needs to manifest itself,” Bryant says.

This sentiment is echoed by Nolan.

“I’m just a music enthusiast who is just happy to be here and wants to see live music and support local artists. I think there (are) a lot of great bands in the area and I want to support that community. This venture isn’t about me—I’m just an organizer. I really look forward to seeing even more live music in the area. Lucky us to live in such an amazing community of artists.”