The Molenes pack bluegrass and twang into new disc

The album begins with an instrumental bluegrass jam titled “Redemption.” The introductory track weaves strains of banjo and mandolin into a driving, rockabilly drumbeat, knitting together a timeless sound that follows the roots of American music. As the tune begins to fade, amplified feedback drowns out the jam, making way for the country-rock guitar riff of “There’s a Sufferin’.”

It’s a striking transition, and one that might surprise fans of The Molenes’ first album, “This Car Is Big.” Emerging more than 18 months after the debut disc, “Songs of Sin and Redemption” wraps together all the rootsy elements that define The Molenes’ style, from blues to bluegrass, rock to rockabilly. The band will unveil its new effort with a CD release show at The Press Room on Saturday, May 3.

Film School joins Tiny Whales and Mosfet at Bourbon’s

When The Wire first caught up with Film School guitarist Dave Dupuis last week, he was in Baton Rouge, where he had been snacking on alligator meat prior to a show at a club called Spanish Moon. The next day, he and his four band mates were packed into their E350 Ford Super Duty van, on their way to New Orleans for another gig at a place called One Eyed Jacks. It was business as usual for Dupuis, who has been gigging and touring with various bands since the late 1990s. But this tour has a special twist: it will allow Dupuis to play a live show in his native New Hampshire for the first time in about 12 years. Film School will be at Bourbon’s in Portsmouth on Tuesday, April 29, along with local bands Mosfet and Tiny Whales.  

The RPM Jukebox is home to more than 16,000 songs from independent musicians all around the world. The music spans every genre and style imaginable, and anyone can log on, browse, and listen at www.rpmchallenge.com/jukebox. To give you a head start in your exploration of this new world of music, here are a handful of tracks that have caught our ear!

“Don’t make fun of Marty Mcfly, Rush Limbaugh” by ieatpants, Astoria, NY—A man and his guitar going on an incredibly funny rant about when Limbaugh accused Michael J. Fox of faking his Parkinson’s tremors. Gets funnier with repeated listen or when drunk.

“Salazar” by The Licks, New York City, NY—Great punk tune with a driving bass line … and an organ. Lead singer complements the song with his Modest Mouse vocal styling.

a roundup of the most recent local releases

‘Sunlight in Architecture’
by Sunlight in Architecture

The project hatched in 2005, when singer-songwriter Garrett Soucy began filtering his minimal indie folk tunes through the practiced ear of producer Andrew Luckless. For over a decade, Soucy has served as front man for Maine-based band Tree by Leaf, and he brings a similar style to Sunlight in Architecture’s self-titled debut. Luckless, himself a singer-songwriter best known for his 1999 album, “Laundryfish,” fine-tunes the sound, and the two combine for a refreshingly original and stimulating disc.

Roger Rudenstein unveils his latest chamber work

The composition “Hail to the Chief” was first used to announce the entrance of a president during James K. Polk’s inauguration in 1845. More than a century later, it had become the official anthem of the president, playing at high volumes whenever the commander in chief arrived at a public event. But the composition itself is nearly two centuries old. Local classical composer Roger Rudenstein decided it was time to create an anthem appropriate to our current president.

Far from the sounds of glory and triumph that normally herald the president’s approach, Rudenstein’s “Cello and Piano Sonata No. 2” reflects his wholehearted disgust with George W. Bush.

“This piece was composed as a substitute for the ‘Hail to the Chief’ that’s normally played,” Rudenstein said in a recent interview. “I was thinking pretty much of circus music when I composed that.”

MJ-XII bombards the Seacoast

MJ-XII’s synth player, Jonathan Truman, has all the necessary qualifications to play heavy music. He’s got a big amp, a beard and long, flowing hair that is perfectly suitable for all-night head-banging. His band mates have many of the same qualities, including even bigger amps. Truman also has a Rachmaninoff songbook resting on his Oberheim synthesizer, just in case the mood strikes him.

Truman’s collection of classical songbooks reflects the surprisingly diverse musical palette of MJ-XII, Dover’s fiercely interesting neo-classical stoner metal band. The group consists of Truman, who previously played synth and sang in Birth Rites, along with drummer Kyle George and guitarist Tim Lang-Grannan, who played together or separately in bands like Pray for a Plague, Grrrls Out of Hell and, most recently, Khartoum. The trio began playing as the mysteriously named MJ-XII at the end of 2006, when some of those other bands dissolved. The formation was not entirely haphazard.

‘Guitar Trio Is My Life’
by Rhys Chatham & His Guitar Trio All-Stars, Radium Records

Written amid the punk breakout of 1977, Rhys Chatham’s “Guitar Trio” is what happened when a band geek (Chatham) somewhat reluctantly went to a seminal but probably rather smelly club (CBGB) to see an incredible, enormously influential band that was probably a bit beneath him musically (The Ramones). The band geek’s mind was blown, and, shortly thereafter, he composed “Guitar Trio,” a seven-plus minute exploration of punk fury fused with minimal composition that could not be more relevant 30 years later.

750-plus new CDs and a brand new jukebox unveiled to the world

Holding a CD release party for more than 750 new albums is a serious undertaking. When the RPM Global Listening Party kicked off on March 28, 10 cities around the world united to unleash the prolific results of the 2008 RPM Challenge. Whether attending at The Illicit Still in Edinburgh, Scotland, The Ship Pub in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Bella Dubby in Lakewood, Ohio, or the Lowrider Room in Brooklyn, N.Y., listeners were exposed to fresh tracks laid down during a creative frenzy in February.

Andrews Lane Recording Company taps into the Seacoast music scene

"Hit it with some balls, dude,” requests Ryan Stack, the young man behind the mixing board. It’s Saturday afternoon and the boyish proprietor of Andrews Lane Recording Company in Eliot, Maine, is working out levels inside his control room. He is about to record a drum track for Massachusetts straight-edge hardcore band The Effort. On a couch behind Stack, the rest of the band members sit relaxed, as if lounging in a friend’s basement. They’re discussing music, playing songs unplugged and waiting for their turn to lay it down while drummer Alex Carmona continues hitting his bass drum—this time with balls.

The renowned American Boychoir will fill St. John’s Church in Portsmouth on Wednesday, April 2, and the group is encouraging local boys in grades 3-7 to stick around for an audition after the concert. No preparation or experience is necessary for the audition, but auditioners should love to sing.

The American Boychoir’s performance will celebrate with music from each of the choir’s seven decades, works highlighting contemporary American composers, and selections from its new CD. 

by The Fiery Furnaces
2003, Rough Trade Records

Two upcoming shows at The Press Room in Portsmouth are the focus for this edition of The Jazz Universe. On Sunday, March 30, vocalist Chris Humphrey will host a release event for his excellent debut recording, “Nothing but Blue Sky,” accompanied by The Press Room Trio led by Ryan Parker. The following Sunday, April 6, one of Boston’s legendary jazz groups, The Fringe, will make its Press Room debut. Both shows begin at 6 p.m. and cost $10.

Chris Humphrey has long been one of the hidden gems of the greater Seacoast music scene. A talented musician who could have gone in a variety of directions, he chose to focus on being a jazz vocalist. But he’s not the kind of vocalist who is content to sit back, sing the lyrics and let the other musicians do all the work. Instead, Humphrey strives to be an integral part of the ensemble, interacting with his fellow players. It was this approach that led him to go with the quartet format for his debut album.

Biddy Mulligan’s Wednesday night series ends after 11-year run

The evening’s lineup began shortly before 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12, with vocalist Kathleen Soldati and guitarist Curt Bessette executing a lusty performance of a Nina Simone classic.

“Do I move you, are you willin’ / Do I groove you, is it thrillin,’” Soldati crooned.

The red-headed singer, who later offered renditions of The Beatles’ “When I’m 64” and Janis Joplin’s “Turtle Blues,” had never sung publicly until she stepped up to the mike at Biddy Mulligan’s two years ago, according to Bessette. Since then, she has become a regular fixture of the Wednesday night open mikes in Dover. Judging from the way she belted out the lyrics, it seems her confidence has grown.

a more experienced  As Fast As unveils its second album

When Portland, Maine-based rock band As Fast As signed with Octone Records to release its first album, front man Spencer Albee saw it as a tremendous opportunity. The label was already home to Maroon 5, and Albee thought the contract would help him market his unique artistic vision. But the resulting release, “Open Letter to the Damned,” fell short of Albee’s high expectations.

“I was under the impression … that the artist made the records and decided the direction of the band, and the record label would then decide the best way to market that. But what Octone likes to do instead was to be a little too active in the shaping of the sound, which never works,” Albee said. “Executives have no business shaping music.”

music comes to York library and Portsmouth bookstore

Is there anything better than curling up with a good book and listening to a live rock band? Now you can do both at once. York Public Library, in York, Maine, and RiverRun Bookstore, in Portsmouth, are each hosting separate live music series. Both venues will hold their next shows on Sunday, March 16, with performances from multiple acts. (You might be best off picking up a book before the show and waiting to read it when the music’s over.)

‘Live at the Library’ at
York Public Library

by Barry Louis Polisar
1982 Rainbow Morning Music

The auspicious date of Feb. 29, 2008, was more than Ja Rule’s 32nd birthday. As if that weren’t enough reason to celebrate, Leap Day also marked the final 24 hours of the 2008 RPM Challenge. Luckily, it fell on a Friday, enabling musicians to work all night putting finishing touches on their RPM albums.

CDs had been trickling into RPM headquarters in Portsmouth’s Vaughan Mall throughout much of the month. But the floodgates opened on Friday afternoon and spilled over into Saturday morning, March 1, when hand-delivered CDs were accepted until noon. By that time, close to 200 new albums had arrived.

On Monday, March 3, the mailman delivered eight cardboard crates to the office, each brimming with variously sized packages. The exact number of albums contained in the crates was difficult to estimate by press time, but our loyal postal worker Buddy concluded that it was “way too many packages for an old guy to be taking up to the second floor.”

As RPM organizers tally the final numbers, the 2,433 artists who registered for this year’s challenge can finally exhale. After a dizzying 29 days of music creation, they can finally listen to their finished projects—and maybe even get a few winks of sleep. 

You can feel it getting down to the wire. With only days remaining in February, musicians around the world have been scrambling to put together the best 10 songs or 35 minutes of original music they can muster in a single month, thereby fulfilling the sole criteria of the RPM Challenge. The chatter on the RPM discussion board at www.rpmchallenge.com has approached a feverish climax. What follows is The Wire’s fourth and final round of unedited RPM blog entries. Feel the pressure mounting.

California’s Monterey Peninsula is considered one of the most beautiful locations in the United States, offering spectacular views of the California coast in a lush and tranquil setting. Each fall since 1958, this stunning location has hosted one of the nation’s longest running annual jazz events, the Monterey Jazz Festival. On Thursday, Feb. 28, the festival’s 50th anniversary tour comes to The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Featured performers include recent Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Terence Blanchard, saxophone legend James Moody, pianist and group music director Benny Green and guest vocalist Nnenna Freelon. Rounding out the band will be bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Kendrick Scott, both longtime members of Blanchard’s working quintet.

MJF’s marketing associate Tim Orr said the idea for the anniversary tour emerged last year.

editor’s note: St. John’s, Newfoundland, is home to The Scope, a biweekly publication that stepped up this year to help host the RPM Challenge from its neck of the woods in the North Atlantic. The Wire decided to take a look into the music scene in St. John’s and see how it compares to that of the Seacoast. The Scope will run a parallel article about Portsmouth’s music scene in its next issue.

Taking a stroll down George Street in St. John’s, Newfoundland, just about any music fan is likely to find something worth checking out. The street is purported to have the most bars per square inch of any road in the world, and live music is a regular feature at most of those establishments. According to local musicians, George Street includes venues geared toward folk, blues, jazz, hard rock, reggae and beyond.

“People here are really musical,” said Elling Lein, editor of St. John’s weekly publication The Scope. “They live it, they breath it and, of course, there’s no chance they’re ever gonna make any money at it.”

Bill Frisell isn’t just a top jazz guitarist. He’s often regarded as one of the top axemen in American music writ large. While he got his start improvising in New York City’s noise-skronk scene, he broke through thanks to his explorations of American music and pop culture, including covers of John Hiatt and Madonna; scores for Buster Keaton films; and “Nashville,” the 1997 bluegrass/improv fusion record for which he borrowed Alison Krauss’ band. Frisell has a gift for running the nation’s culture through the blender of his unique and instantly recognizable guitar sound, which veers from a gorgeous, sustained tone to a piercing, distorted squall.

Grace Potter has been singing since before she knew how to talk. It should come as no surprise, then, that the 24-year-old Vermont native is able to channel emotional extremes through her vocal cords. In today’s political climate, an emotion that commonly grips her spirit is anger.

“I think you have to get a little angry to say what you mean sometimes,” she said. “A lot of the songs that I’ve written have points of almost terror in them, and I would rather sing it like I’m actually experiencing those words, instead of just putting on a happy face and trying to deliver it gently, because that’s never worked for anybody.”

Steve Grover is one of Maine’s best kept jazz secrets. A remarkable drummer and prolific composer, Grover has been omnipresent on Maine’s music scene—both as a sideman and as a leader—for several years. Grover will assume the role of leader when he brings his quintet to The Press Room in Portsmouth on Sunday, Feb. 24, in support of his latest CD, “Between Now and After.”

Joining Grover will be saxophonist David Wells and guitarist Tony Gaboury, both of whom play on the disc, along with trumpeter Trent Austin and bassist Tim Webb.Grover describes the quintet’s music as “straight-ahead modern jazz, mostly originals in a kind of melodic style, with a heavy dose of harmony. But we also plan to play some bebop tunes, as well as a few surprises,” he said.

While it’s easier than ever before to record songs and post them on the Internet, it’s still as difficult as ever—if not more difficult—to get people to care. The old model of bands writing, recording in the studio and touring, frankly, seems outdated when running up against computer-based music and the DJ culture of today. But, with a new CD just about finished and a small tour planned this spring, Tiny Whales are giving it a serious shot.

‘For Emma, Forever Ago’
by Bon Iver, Jagjaguwar

Self-released last year, this terrific debut will get a wider release come Tuesday, Feb. 19 on Jagjaguwar. Bon Iver—French for “good winter,” though I hear it’s not spelled right—is the moniker of songwriter Justin Vernon (www.myspace.com/boniver). Legend has it that he retreated to a lonely cabin in northwestern Wisconsin to write and record the songs on “For Emma, Forever Ago.” According to the Jagjaguwar Web site, Vernon spent his downtime “wood splitting” and doing “other chores around the land.” If those hours of man-work were meant to increase his brawn, it didn’t work, because this is some sensitive music for sensitive dudes (and ladies).

There’s nothing wrong with that, though. “For Emma, Forever Ago” reminds me of Iron and Wine’s debut, “The Creek Drank the Cradle,” not so much in style—Vernon’s music is more like minimal soul than folk, and his mostly falsetto vocals are far more inventive—but in substance. Neither album blazes new ground, but somehow they both sound refreshing in their simplicity. There are literally billions of young men who play acoustic guitar and sing (if you listen close, there’s probably one practicing somewhere in your apartment building right now), so it’s truly special when that old formula produces something exciting. Vernon is playing the Middle East in Cambridge on Sunday, Feb. 24 with label mates Black Mountain.

Susie Burke and David Surette started playing music together 20 years ago, in 1988. At the time, the Seacoast folk scene was stirring with activity on a near nightly basis, revolving mainly around The Press Room in Portsmouth. A tightly knit group of regulars celebrated folk music with frequent hoots and collaborative jams, inviting participation from anyone with an instrument or a pair of vocal cords.

more than 2,000 bands accept the RPM Challenge

It’s February, and the RPM Challenge is officially underway. Musicians from at least 45 countries across the globe have been revving their artistic engines for weeks, making frantic preparations as the first of the month approached, and they finally took off roaring last Friday. Seacoast participants celebrated the eve of the challenge with a kick-off party on the second floor of The Press Room in Portsmouth on Jan. 31, and simultaneous celebrations were held in Minneapolis and St. John’s, Newfoundland. The RPM Challenge Web site, www.rpmchallenge.com, has generated a great deal of discussion from participants, some of whom are eager and excited, and others who seem filled with nervous anticipation, dread and desperation. What follows is a sampling of unedited statements recently posted on the RPM discussion board. And remember: It’s not too late to sign up. You can register for the challenge on the Web site as late as Feb. 29, as long as you have an album with at least 10 songs or 35 minutes of original music completed by the following day. For those about to rock, we at The Wire salute you.

So, here we are, almost one month into a new year with an inherent expectation of things to come. Some things are known, such as the election of a new president, the Patriots in the Super Bowl and the fact that winter’s cold weather will give way to the warm temperatures of spring and summer. This time of year, some folks ponder life issues with the goal of making their lives richer and more meaningful. Others contemplate pressing issues like the state of the economy or the environment. Sometimes it takes a single isolated incident to help crystallize one’s thinking.

Even for music fans, leaving the house on an icebound January night to catch a live show takes a certain amount of grit and determination. That and simple faith—the hope that after making your way through streets so cold that the sidewalks ring under your heels, you’ll hear something hot enough to justify the trip. A band that can turn up the heat acts as a steam valve, releasing the explosive pressure of a month or so of built-up cabin fever. Saturday night at the Press Room, King Memphis provided abundant BTUs with three solid sets of rockabilly rhythm.

by Spirit
1973, Epic Records

‘Late Nights on Washington’
by Tim McCoy

The interior album art on Tim McCoy’s new CD shows the musician seated in front of a graffiti-covered wall, tying the laces of his Converse sneakers while sporting a black pork pie hat and leather jacket. After spending years as a worthy figurehead in the Seacoast music scene—playing bass and guitar with a plethora of bands that includes Heavens to Murgatroid, Lemon Fresh Kids and Tim McCoy and the Papercuts—the photo seems to reassure everyone that McCoy is still rocking local, just like he’s always done.

RPM Challenge 2008 is right around the corner

When The Music Hall screened “Before the Music Dies” in October, guests saw a parade of popular musicians and critics gripe about the current state of the music industry. Major labels have crushed the creative spirit, they said, manufacturing squeaky-clean boy bands and no-talent Barbie dolls to rack in millions with their powder puff rip-offs. Meanwhile, talented and spirited songwriters dangle in the void of obscurity, deprived of an outlet for their diverse musical wares. The audience was left to ponder a grim question: Is there anything pure left in music?

Members of jazz-funk sextet Mac Tough seem very much at home within the familiar confines of The Barley Pub in Dover. Most of the musicians have played here regularly, in various contexts, over the past several years. The band’s comfort level and casual approach translate into a perfect fit for the pub’s Wednesday night funk series. Pub patrons can catch Mac Tough on three more nights, Jan. 16, 23 and 30, during the band’s month-long residency in January.

sign-ups are open!

The RPM Challenge is simple: record an album in 29 days, just because you can. That’s 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material, written and recorded during the month of February.

Johnny Winter is a man of few words. After about a half century playing the blues, he lets his music do most of the talking. In that sense, he is currently speaking as loudly as ever. At the age of 63, Winter’s touring schedule has never really slowed down, and he will head to the studio this spring to record a new album. Now free of the drugs that addled his career and hampered his playing for years, Winter feels like a new man, and he believes his guitar work shows it.

A notoriously late sleeper, Winter conducts all his interviews at night—9 p.m. eastern time. He gave The Wire a buzz late last week, in advance of his upcoming gig at The Stone Church in Newmarket. The show on Friday, Jan. 18, will not be Winter’s first appearance at The Church. Although he has shared stages with Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Janis Joplin and countless other legends, and has played a number of massive concerts (including a certain 1969 festival held in a little town called Woodstock), Winter enjoys the intimacy of smaller venues.

by The Monkees
1967, RCA Records

the background: In 1965, NBC brought together musicians Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith, Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork to act and perform on its new nightly sitcom, “The Monkees.” The show was a comic take on a hip, funny, struggling band with a look and sound somewhat similar to The Beatles. Based on the popularity of the first season in 1966 and the obvious talent of the actors, The Monkees began actually recording music, releasing albums and touring—and almost immediately butting heads with NBC. The band released three albums in 1967, and by the time “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.” was released in November of that year, it was obvious that the television producers had lost their control over the band. Trying hard to break free of its “pre-fab four” description, The Monkees injected the album with a more California-hippie influence, reflective of the band members’ surroundings and lifestyles. (Unlike The Beatles, The Monkees never hid the fact that they did drugs and loved to rock the paisley hard.)

Trium to perform free show in Exeter

Looking to relax and enjoy some sophisticated music after a long day of voting? A free vocal performance by a trio of sopranos at Phillips Exeter Academy might be just the thing. Trium will perform a show titled “Brief Is Life, but Love Is Long” inside Phillips Church at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 8—beginning an hour before the primary polls close down in Exeter.

Sopranos Gail Abbey, Margaret Johnson and Susan Trout sing compositions written by artists from a variety of eras, including Dunstable, Dufay, Rossi, Luzzaschi, Mendelsohn, Holst, Schumann and Bernstein. The singers will pull from 600 years worth of classical love songs, delving into both the torment and glory that love has evoked throughout the history of humankind.

Abbey, Johnson and Trout began singing together as members of Emmanuel Music’s soprano section and formed their own trio in 1997. Since then, they have premiered in Martin Boykan’s “Three Songs from Shakespeare” and, in 2006, performed a program of Schumann trios in Emmanuel Music’s Chamber Music Series. Trium has released one CD, called “Songs of Three.”
Phillips Church is located at the corner of Tan Lane and Front Street near downtown Exeter. The performance on Tuesday is part of the Academy’s concert series, which will feature faculty recitals on Jan. 29 and Feb. 5, and a student concert on Feb. 12. For a full schedule of music events, visit www.exeter.edu/news_and_events/news_events_2990.aspx. Trium’s show is free and open to the public.

at The Press Room, Dec. 28

Elsa Cross sipped from a shot glass before stepping onto the stage on the second floor of The Press Room in Portsmouth. Wearing a red dress that contrasted vividly with the all-black outfits of her band mates, her blond hair pulled back into a long ponytail, Cross picked up her guitar and played her first song of the evening alone. The rest of the band joined her on the second song, “Because of You,” and Cross’ elegant but authoritative voice quickly drowned out the noisy chatter in the packed bar. Within moments, everyone was paying attention.

‘Let Come What May’
by Skamasutra

The title track of Skamasutra’s new disc sounds very much like a Mighty Mighty Bosstones tune, except with more polished vocals replacing Dicky Barrett’s raucous growl. The Exeter indie band accurately replicates all the hyper reggae guitar riffs, New Orleans brass accompaniment and bouncing beats and rhythms of quintessential ska, rapidly shimmying through eight original songs and one cover.

It has been almost four years since Portsmouth rock ’n’ rollers One Hand Free released a new album. The group’s self-titled 2004 release established the band as an assemblage of classic rock purists, determined to deliver the type of 1960s and ’70s style rock that inspired them to take up their instruments. The latest disc, released on the record label ThunderTrauzer, cranks up the volume of the band’s musical mission.

Officially due out in January, “Quadraphonic” features eight original tunes that amount to “a hot slab of unrepentant Rock and Roll right between the ears,” according to the band’s promotional material. Apparently dissatisfied with the state of modern music, but holding dear to the bygone spirit of rock’s past pioneers, One Hand Free set out to restore the heart and soul of rock ’n’ roll. 

On Saturday, Dec. 29, two local power trios, both with equal parts talent, creativity and inanity, will join forces for an end-of-the-year rockathon at The Stone Church in Newmarket. Museum of Science and Dreadnaught have risen to the top of the Seacoast music food chain, devouring their rivals like plankton. Fortunately, they are friendly and have no rivals, so everyone can swim together happily.

It was a big year for both bands. Dreadnaught released a comprehensive, double-disc greatest hits album, called “High Heat & Chin Music,” and MOS completed its latest full-length studio disc, “CTRL+ALT+DLT.” The Stone Church gig will enable fans to catch both acts in their 2007 prime.

Well, it’s the end of another year in The Jazz Universe. Please pardon the cliché but, with a snap of the fingers, the year seems to have come and gone. The rush of time can make your memory hazy when it comes to recalling significant events, both locally and nationally, in a specialized music like jazz. With that in mind, this column is devoted to CDs and DVDs that hit the market and caught my attention this year. The next column will be more of a reflective piece on trends, both positive and negative, that are taking place in jazz.

Before I get to the lists, though, I’d like to offer some thoughts on one of the few recordings released this year that I feel shows the promise of what jazz can become when placed in the hands of a truly creative individual. Best of all, the album comes from a local musician.

Over the past several years, the organ combo has made a remarkable resurgence, as young musicians find the pared down format of keyboards, drums, sax and/or guitar conducive to exploring a variety of sonic grooves and textures. Groups such as Soulive; Medeski, Martin & Wood; Joshua Redman’s Elastic Band; and Chris Potter’s Underground all offer a contemporary spin on an approach originally popularized by such notables as Big John Patton, Brother Jack McDuff, Babyface Willette, Larry Young and the legendary Jimmy Smith.

“We’re a bunch of drunk assholes. It’s good to be back in Dover.”

With these warm words of introduction, Jonny Swagger launched his band into a frenetic set of Celtic punk rock at the Dover Brick House. Sandwiched between power punk trio Bugo and Boston rockabilly stars Dave Smith & The Country Rebels, The Swaggerin’ Growlers returned to their lead singer’s hometown to participate in the Brick House’s Wicked Wednesday festivities on the late evening of Dec. 12.

Swagger, the band’s lead singer and guitarist, was obviously amped up for the occasion. With a devilishly giddy grin on his sweat-caked face, little flecks of spittle occasionally cartwheeling off his lip, he crooned his first line of the set: “I sold my soul for a bottle of Bushmills.” Meanwhile, Swagger rapidly strummed an acoustic guitar, like an Irish folk musician in fast-forward.

how Seacoast music fans kick the winter blues

For some, winter is a time of joy and cheer, a time for putting on a goofy sweater and sitting by the fire with a cup of eggnog, watching snowflakes collect on the evergreen branches just outside the window. You can hear Tony Bennett, Mariah Carey or Kenny G play rosy versions of your favorite holiday classics. Carolers may even arrive at your doorstep to serenade you with live renditions of standard Christmas tunes (although I don’t think that really happens anymore).

For others, winter is a time of darkness, depression and loneliness. The lack of sunlight and frigid temperatures induce chemical imbalances that manifest themselves as a perennial pout that lasts until the first spring thaw. While blizzards once held the alluring promise of a day off from school filled with snow forts and snowball fights, they now just mean a rough morning commute and a backache from shoveling.

Regardless of which camp you belong to, thank heavens for music. A proper mood album can either validate your feelings of desperation or bolster your giddy holiday spirit. Or, you can try reverse musicology: listening to The Beach Boys during the heart of winter’s icy oppression or blasting the Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited” while you’re snowed into the claustrophobic confines of your apartment can have a remedial effect on your psyche. The Wire asked a number of Seacoast musicians, fans and critics to share what they’ve been listening to as the winter of 2007-’08 sets in for the season.

by Belly
1995, Warner Bros

Leon Russell heads to Newmarket

Leon Russell’s reclusive nature belies the fact that he has contributed, in one way or another, to many of the most important songs and records of the last five decades. Even if you are not familiar with any of his own rock or country albums, you will surely recognize some of the innumerable songs and records he has written, arranged, produced or played on as a pianist, organist or guitarist.

As a solo artist, Russell has released numerous gold records and top 40 singles. The singer and multi-instrumentalist has backed rock legends like Jerry Lee Lewis and Ronnie Hawkins, worked in studio sessions for Bob Dylan and Frank Sinatra, played piano on hit singles by The Beach Boys and Bobby Boris, and helped launch the careers of fellow stars like Elton John and Joe Cocker. 

Ryan Montbleau Band: ‘Patience on Friday’

Now a familiar face in the Boston area music scene, Ryan Montbleau has definitively established his voice with his second official full-band release, “Patience on Friday.” The 14-track album is an explosion of musical output, spouting forth with a seemingly inexhaustible fountain of rapid, rhyming lyrics and instrumental zest.

Unlike Montbleau’s earlier solo acoustic albums, “Patience” brings in a formidable cast of hired guns to heighten the instrumental craftsmanship surrounding the songwriter’s original compositions. At the heart of it all is Montbleau’s voice, a fresh confluence of urban and rural heritage, combining Stevie Wonder’s funky and soulful range with Ray LaMontagne’s folky, earthy tone.