Brooklyn-based pianist Marco Benevento set the crowd roaring during his February show at The Red Door in Portsmouth, offering an eclectic set of circuit-bent sounds topped off with a titillating cover of “Bennie and the Jets.” So thoroughly enjoyable was the gig for artist and audience alike that Benevento will return to The Red Door for a weekly residency later this month. He’ll play three consecutive Thursday nights on Oct. 20, Oct. 27 and Nov. 3.

Slower and more atmospheric than The Gaslight Anthem, The Horrible Crowes could be seen as Brian Fallon’s outlet for impulses deemed too dark for his main project. The record is most magical when Fallon challenges himself, as he does on “Go Tell Everybody,” which features a Tom Waits growl verging on an Otis Redding-style head explosion as the song builds intensity to the closing line.

Sunday Jazz celebrates 30 years of music at The Press Room

“One of the great things is what the musicians call the ‘vibe,’” Ryan Parker said. “It consists of everything from the bandstand to the pictures on the wall to the people listening. And the people who come to a Sunday night show really listen. People want to come and be focused on what’s going on with the music. The musicians feel that and generate energy and creativity from it.”

UNH launches the 33rd season of its Traditional Jazz Series with renowned saxophonists Jeff Coffin and Dave Pietro

For the past 32 years, the UNH Traditional Jazz Series has been an outlet for some of the region’s finest performances from many of the best in jazz, both locally and nationally. The new season opens Sept. 19, and it may very well be the best season to date, with an extraordinary lineup that covers an array of jazz styles that all comfortably fit under the traditional umbrella.

The 12th annual Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival celebrates songs of the sea; the Pawtuckaway Music Festival celebrates songs of the Seacoast.

Traditional sea songs have been blowing across the oceans for at least the last six centuries, and probably much longer. “It’s very difficult to pinpoint,” said local musician and folk collector Tom Hall. “We know sailors were singing while they worked as far back as the late 1400s.”

The debut release from Tan Vampires cements their status as a Seacoast icon.

The band members deliberately confined themselves to a single week in the studio, thereby avoiding months of meticulous overdubbing and re-tracking. They wound up recording most of the material in just three days. “We limited the time intentionally to prevent us from dithering about it for years, like we are prone to do,” Effenberger said. Their first CD emerged in June, but the band is celebrating its official release this month and will soon offer the record on vinyl.

Twelve years after The Elvis Room closed, owner Dawn-Marie Pierre reflects on the famed Portsmouth music club.

Locals still lament the loss of the iconic café that once served as Portsmouth’s all-ages hangout and punk-rock haven. The Elvis Room has now been closed for twice as long as it was open. But locals harbor very real memories of the downtown Portsmouth venue, and many insist the Seacoast music scene has never been the same without it.

Truffle celebrates 25 years of rocking the Seacoast

Local rock and R&B band Truffle played its first live show in 1986 during a festival at the University of New Hampshire’s Mini Dorms, where front man Dave Gerard and bassist Dave Bailey lived. Gerard remembers the show well. Truffle took the stage with an arsenal of old soul songs, along with some Grateful Dead and Little Feat covers. Twenty-five years later, Truffle is still grooving. The band will play a 25th anniversary show on Sept. 9, at Three Chimneys Inn in Durham.

At a brisk 18 minutes, the debut album from Portsmouth-based band The Connection offers eight delectable nuggets of rock ’n’ roll ear candy that beckon memories of chasing girls around the pool at the local rec center.

The Rockingham Choral Society is launching its 54th season. New and returning members are invited to participate at the Forrestal-Bowld Music Center at Phillips Exeter Academy.

Seacoast Guitar Society will return to action this fall with monthly shows at the Remick Barn in York, Maine. The series kicks off with a performance from Cajun musician Yvette Landry, a Creole Cajun bass and accordion player from a musical family in Louisiana. She’s also a singer-songwriter and guitarist who’s been making waves with her new country album, “Should Have Known.”

Chris Collingwood, front man of 3S Fest headliners Fountains of Wayne, discusses the group's new CD, his somber reflections on life, and why having a big radio hit can be more of a curse than a blessing.

Those only passingly familiar with Fountains of Wayne might expect lead singer Chris Collingwood to be a jaunty, effervescent personality with a penchant for witty banter. They'd be surprised to learn he's in fact a solemn and pensive guy who harbors a bit of a dark side.

Collingwood started Fountains of Wayne in New York with bassist and fellow songwriter Adam Schlesinger in the mid-1990s, naming the group after a well-known garden shop in nearby Wayne, N.J. (the store closed a couple of years ago). They released their self-titled debut in 1996 to modest success, but achieved mainstream stardom with their 2003 record "Welcome Interstate Managers," which featured the hit song and video "Stacy's Mom" (you know, "Stacy's mom has got it goin' on").

The Seacoast Irish Festival underwent a five-year hiatus before returning to downtown Dover last summer. The festival will resume again with more than a dozen performers on Saturday, Sept. 10.Hosted by the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce and Dover Main Street, the afternoon festival celebrates the Garrison City’s Irish heritage with live music, dancing, food vendors, art, jewelry and children’s activities.

Late New Hampshire native Kevin Michael Allin, better known as GG Allin, would have turned 55 on Monday, Aug. 29. The notoriously outrageous punk rock icon was born in Lancaster, grew up in Vermont, and is buried in Littleton.

Two renowned bands scheduled to play at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom this month have canceled their gigs.

Joey Belladonna, front man of legendary thrash metal band Anthrax, is on his way to Hampton Beach. But he’s not playing at the Casino Ballroom. Instead, Belladonna will rock Wally’s Pub.

The impulse to defy convention and brand oneself as something new, fresh and different is entirely understandable—admirable, even—although claims to absolute originality are often greatly exaggerated. Still, there’s something to be said for the loud, unrepentant rock ’n’ roll of the 1960s and ’70s, when musicians suffered no such identity crisis, instead proudly saluting under the banner of rock.

Singer-songwriter Eugene McDaniels, best known for a string of hits he authored in the early 1960s, died in his Kittery home on July 29 at age 76. McDaniels had an enduring impact on pop, soul, jazz and other genres.

Among this year’s headliners are Sam Kininger Band on Friday, John Brown’s Body on Saturday, and Zach Deputy on Sunday. Other acts include Ron Noyes Band, Dopapod, Nate Wilson Group, Goosepimp Orchestra, Dub Apocalypse, Richard James & the Name Changers, Truffle, The Amorphous Band, Brooks Young Band, Superfrog, Welcome to Florida, Ghost Dinner Band, Jeff Conley Band, Michael Bernier and The Uprising, Todo Bien, Sarah Blacker, Love in Stockholm, Among Criminals, Brother McCann, Otis Grove, The Cheddar Band, Soul Robot, and Seed.

New England-born David Wax did not expect to start playing Mexican music. But volunteering in Mexico one summer opened his eyes—and ears—to new musical opportunities. “I just became a fan and developed a passion as a listener,” he said. “That evolved over the years and kind of planted a seed in my brain that blossomed into this idea that I could go down there and actually study the music after I graduated from college.”

A new CD chronicles the impressive work of late local musician and luthier Chris Pearne, who died in June at age 66. “Parting Words,” a compilation of 13 songs recorded between 1967 and 2011, demonstrates Pearne’s proclivity for writing and performing beautiful folk melodies and bluesy rock numbers.

Morrissey was a revered folk musician known for his stirring melodies and sad lyrics, which often told hard-luck stories of blue collar life but also showcased his wry sense of humor. He released 10 albums between 1984 and 2007, two of which earned Grammy Award nominations. His work received glowing reviews in Rolling Stone magazine and many other publications.

Citizen Cope will headline Redhookfest this weekend, Aug. 6, which should tide you over until The Barnstormer tour arrives at Runnymede Farm on Aug. 26, with Deer Tick,  White Rabbits, We are Augustines, Blood Orange and Doug Paisley on board.

Geoff Palmer, better known as Geoff Useless of The Guts and The Queers fame, has started a new outfit called The Connection. It’s a 1960s-style rock and roll quartet featuring four veterans of the local music scene.

In anticipation of a new album due out later this year, the Nate Wilson Group is re-branding itself as Ghosts of Jupiter. It’s the same formidable rock lineup as before, but with a new name, new material and new artwork.

The Stone Church is recovering from its latest temporary closure to reopen under new management. Guests can celebrate the reopening during a 10-band festival on Saturday, July 30, featuring local favorites like Tan Vampires, Mmoss, Gnarlemagne and others. The music will begin outside during the day and move inside for the evening.

Taj Mahal launched his performing career 50 years ago, serving as lead singer of R&B band The Elektras in 1961. Since then, he’s released roughly 50 studio albums, live recordings and compilations, won two Grammy Awards, and played the blues for thousands of fans.

Although 3S Artspace does not yet have a physical home, the organization is taking advantage by bringing the arts to open spaces around the Seacoast. The 3S team is partnering with several other local groups to present outdoor concerts, films, visual arts and more at various locations this summer. Perhaps the biggest highlight is 3S Fest, which will take place at Prescott Park on Saturday, Aug. 27. A partnership with the Prescott Parks Arts Festival, the event will include performances by Fountains of Wayne, Mike Doughty, Soft Swells and Tan Vampires.

It was 25 years ago that The Pixies first came together outside Boston. The quartet went on to help spearhead the alternative rock movement in the late ’80s and early ’90s, releasing five albums. Although they subsequently broke up for more than a decade, they have been touring sporadically since 2004, and they’ll perform at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom on the eve of Halloween.

“One of the reasons I opened Gary’s Guitars in 1989 is so Chris and I could work together,” said Gary Traversy, owner of Gary’s Guitars. “He was the man who kept all local guitars up and running with his wealth of skills and meticulous approach.”

Tommy Gallant Jazz Fest: This coming Sunday,  the 16th annual Tommy Gallant Jazz Festival will take place from noon to 6 p.m. in the beautiful setting of Prescott Park in Portsmouth. As in past festivals, the emphasis is placed on local and regional talent, and the lineup for 2011 is one of the strongest in years.

Performers at the show will include Guy Capecelatro III, Clem, Dave the Wave, Peter Duchesne, Mara Flynn, Asa Irons, Moses Irons, Northern, Offset Needle Radius, Jim Rioux, Ted Sink, Bob Sprankle and John Truth. There will also be a silent auction featuring arts and crafts from numerous artists, as well as gift certificates to restaurants, massage therapists, bookstores and music stores.

Dropkick Murphys, the Celtic punk band fronted by Portsmouth resident Al Barr, will perform two concerts at Fenway Park in Boston in September. Tickets to the shows on Sept. 8 and 9 go on sale on Thursday, July 7 at noon.

Fans who have heard Deer Tick’s impressive 2010 CD “The Black Dirt Sessions” might be taken aback by the entropic energy of the band’s live performances. While the studio album is folky and melodic, driven by band leader John McCauley’s endearingly scratchy vocals and balladic songwriting, the quintet’s live act is loud and raucous, filled with all the spunk and spontaneity of The Stooges or Sex Pistols.

“New York, everybody wanted to get matching shirts and go on the road. But Boston was just a mix of typewriter repairmen and psycho-pharmacologists and students who were all just playing for the fun of it,” says Tom Rush of his days launching the 1960s folk scene.

get “punched by the arts” withPortsmouth’s new Arts Alley Pass

Six nonprofit cultural institutions in Portsmouth are collaborating this summer to give people another reason to visit the city. The new Arts Alley Pass is free at participating locations or available to print online. Those who take the punch card to four or more of the venues on it are entered into a drawing for prizes. The best prizes go to the winners with all six holes punched at Prescott Park Arts Festival, Strawberry Banke Museum, Seacoast Repertory Theatre, The Players’ Ring, the Gundalow Company and the Portsmouth Museum of Art.

For guitarist Tim Theriault, the best part of each performance is the hush just before an act takes the stage, and the crowd’s audible reaction when they realize the show is about to begin. It’s a moment that he’s savored at live concerts since he was a teenager, and one that he now gets to experience from the other side. The a long-time Seacoast musician is currently touring with Godsmack frontman Sully Erna in support of Erna’s solo album, “Avalon.” Also in the band is keyboardist Chris Decato, another active Seacoast alum. The group will perform at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom on Saturday, June 18.

One could argue endlessly about exactly when and where the punk movement began, but a seminal moment occurred 25 years ago at the Nashville Rooms in London. It was on April 23, 1976, that a young band called the Sex Pistols, fronted by a craggy-toothed, spiky-haired imp named Johnny Rotten, played its first notable gig. Seacoast resident Joe Stevens, a living legend of rock photography, was on hand at the show and snapped a number of memorable photos. 

The second annual Nateva Music and Camping Festival was canceled this summer, but another event will take its place in Oxford, Maine. The Camp Creek festival, headlined by jam titans Max Creek, will take place at the Oxford Fairgrounds from Friday to Sunday, Aug. 5 to 7.

The Seacoast air will be alive with the sound of music during several outdoor concert series this summer. Spread out a blanket and lie back, or plop down in a lawn chair and prop your feet on a loaded cooler, or kick off your shoes and hop around barefoot in the grass. How you enjoy your outdoor concerts is up to you.

PSC is back atop the Bull Moose sales charts with their latest release, “Axis IV,” featuring the new hit single “Count on Me.” They’ll play a CD release show with Waylon Speed at the Dover Brick House on Friday, June 10.

Remember the “Reading Rainbow” theme song? Of course you do: “Butterfly in the sky / I can go twice as high / Take a look / It’s in a book / A reading rainbow.” Now try getting that out of your head. Seacoast resident Dennis Neil Kleinman composed that memorable tune, which opened the PBS children’s series for some 25 years. Next week, Kleinman will perform a benefit show for the Arts in Reach program, where he promises to sing and play piano while joking and interacting with the audience.

Tickets to see the Stone Temple Pilots at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom on Aug. 2 sold out so quickly that the 1990s megastars have added a second night. The Ballroom announced the STP addition along with a spate of other prominent rock bands coming to the beach this summer.

Local musicians will celebrate the Bobfather’s 70th birthday during the ninth annual Bob Dylan Appreciation Night. Performers are invited to play a Dylan song or three. Dan Blakeslee, the veritable Dylan of the Seacoast, will MC the event.

An upcoming concert at St. Thomas Episcopal Church will benefit My Friend’s Place, a homeless shelter in Dover. The show on Sunday, June 12, will feature the Seacoast Men of Harmony, the Fourth Street Jazz Choir, and the Mac Daddy Quartet.

The Farthest Forests came together specifically to participate in the 2011 RPM Challenge and succeeded in churning out their debut CD in the 28 days of February. Since then, the Eliot, Maine-based duo has been discovered by a record label in Oregon, which will release their album at the end of May.

While the Portsmouth art scene continued to thrive in April, one annual event was conspicuously absent. That event was the Jazzmouth Festival, an annual celebration of poetry and improvised music that has enlivened the local arts community for the past six years. In what would have been the festival’s seventh year, Jazzmouth founder and artistic director Larry Simon and the Jazzmouth executive committee decided on a hiatus. Will it return next year? They hope so, with the help of willing volunteers.

Guests at The Dance Hall can indulge several senses and witness spontaneous art creation during a unique event at the new Kittery venue. “In Ears ’n’ Eyes,” a live, improvised evening of jazz music and painting, takes place on Friday, June 3.

In addition to both having names that combine several words and include anatomical features of animals, robotmonkeyarm and birdorgan both are based in New Hampshire and have a flair for sci-fi experimentation. Robotmonkeyarm, with members hailing from Portsmouth and Lowell, Mass., is just finishing up a new album. Birdorgan is an ambient, psychedelic band based in Manchester.

The Pretty Reckless is helmed by a national teen idol and backed by a trio of musicians with strong local ties. A year after playing around the U.S. on the Warped Tour bill and touring the UK, the band will offer an up-close show at the Dover Brick House on Saturday, May 28.

The latest installment of Burst & Bloom’s “Seasonal Disorder” series celebrates spring with original songs from a dozen regional artists. The compilation includes new songs by The Milkman’s Union (featuring Lady Lamb the Beekeeper), Cake on Cake, Tin Ceilings, Michael Holt, Mara Flynn, Lindsay Clark, Lina Tullgren, The Points North, Black Window Music, Eric Ott, Blake J. Seale Jr., and the Fruitless Trees.

A number of local artists, musicians, performers and restaurants will come together on Friday, May 20, at the Portsmouth Harbor Events and Conference Center for a show to benefit local artist Ali Goodwin, who is battling breast cancer.

Formed just last year, Diamond Doves consists of long-time friends and collaborators Nick Kinsey, Brigham Brough and Wyndham Garnett, all members of the quartet Elvis Perkins in Dearland. The band melds elements of funk and pop, echoing classic groups like Parliament Funkadelic and The Band, as well as contemporaries like The Walkmen and Animal Collective.

The Jazzmouth Festival was postponed this year, but there are other opportunities to see live music and poetry together. The seventh annual Writers in the Round benefit show for the organization’s Star Island Creative Retreat will feature seven local artists at The Press Room in Portsmouth on Thursday, May 12.

Among the highlights of Prescott Park’s summer concert series are New Hampshire hero Tom Rush on June 23, blues legend Taj Mahal on July 27, and folk icon Arlo Guthrie on Aug. 26, with several other prominent acts mixed in between.

The Stone Church recently closed its doors after the current venue managers opted not to renew their lease. Local musician Chris O’Neill, best known as lead guitarist for The Amorphous Band, is taking over and hopes to reopen within a couple of weeks. He also plans to open a new community music school on the second floor of the old church building.

Veteran local bluesman T.J. Wheeler has long advocated for music education for young people on the Seacoast. Now, he’s giving young musicians a chance to perform live in front of a crowd—a rare opportunity for those under 21.

Music fans can drop into the atmosphere of a 1940s New York jazz club on Friday, May 6, when the Portsmouth Music and Arts Center hosts its fourth annual Jazz Night. The lineup includes Nicole Hajj on vocals, Matt Langley on saxophone, Mike Effenberger on keyboards, Bryan Bergeron Killough on guitar, Nate Therrien on bass, Mike Walsh on drums, and PMAC director Russ Grazier on saxophone.

Ted Leo entered his teen years while the hardcore movement was at its peak in the mid 1980s. A New Jersey native, he dove headlong into New York’s scene, immersing himself completely in the bare-knuckled, underground subculture that swept through the city’s basements and garages. Performing in bands like Animal Crackers and Citizens Arrest, he embraced the anti-Reagan, anti-conformist, anti-mainstream ethos of the movement, with all its defiance and aggression.

Area high school bands have a chance to take the local rock ’n’ roll crown in the first ever Rock Right Tri-City Battle of the Bands. The competition includes opening rounds at the Dover Brick House on Mondays, May 2, 9 and 16, with finals taking place at the Rochester Opera House on May 21.

Young musicians will converge at Marshwood High School in South Berwick, Maine, for a teen concert to benefit the new town library. Sobopalooza for the Library, featuring two dozen local talents, takes place on Saturday, May 7.

It will be a homecoming of sorts for alternative rock band Jabe, a former Boston area staple and Barley Pub favorite. Former New Hampshire resident Jabe Beyer and his band will return to The Barley Pub in Dover on Saturday, April 30. Consisting of Beyer on guitar and vocals, Jay Aucella on bass, David Westner on drums, and Sean Staples on mandolin, Jabe released five albums between 1999 and 2008.

Vinyl enthusiasts had a couple of extra options to choose from on Record Store Day, April 16, as two new record stores recently opened on the Seacoast. SkeleTone Records and Alternative Fashion opened in downtown Portsmouth in February, and Spun opened its doors in Dover in April.

Mike Rivard’s interest in Moroccan music developed in stages. In Club d’'Elf, he’s built a band that drapes elements of dub, funk, jazz, rock and hip-hop over a foundation of Moroccan trance, and their new album offers a psychedelic stew of music with ingredients from around the world, featuring guest appearances by John Medeski, DJ Logic, former David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels, and even the late Mark Sandman, among many others. Their upcoming show in Newmarket will include long-time d’Elf member Brahim Fribgane, a native of Casablanca who helped Rivard learn to play Moroccan rhythms.

John Coltrane looks pensive in the cover photo of his classic 1957 album “Blue Train.” With his eyes cast down, a finger across his lower lip, and his left hand stretched behind his head, the jazz giant appears to contemplate some weighty subject. The iconic image is one of many that helped promote Blue Note Records as the world’s predominant jazz label in the 1950s and ’60s. 

The 100 voices of Portsmouth-based chorus Con Tutti will sing music from Egypt, South Africa, Mozambique, Puerto Rico, and even New Jersey during their spring concert, coming up on Saturday, May 7, at South Church in Portsmouth.

The fourth annual Record Store Day celebration hits record stores around the globe on Saturday, April 16, highlighting the modern vinyl renaissance with live in-store performances. One of those shows will take place in Portsmouth when York-based musician Skyler releases his new EP at Bull Moose.

guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter hits Newmarket: Few active guitarists in the jazz genre are as consistently innovative and prolific as Charlie Hunter. Since emerging in the early 1990s, Hunter has released close to 20 albums, wowing audiences with his virtuosic style. He’s known to experiment on a custom seven-string guitar and simultaneously play bass and rhythm lines as he solos. He released “Public Domain,” a solo album consisting of 11 classic covers, last September.

The 2011 Jazzmouth Poetry and Jazz Festival will not return to the Seacoast this spring. Jazzmouth director Larry Simon recently announced he was pulling the plug due to a variety of issues.

Kids looking to become the next Bob Dylan—or maybe the next Justin Bieber—can fine-tune their skills with a new music pilot program this spring. Children ages 8 to 10 are invited to participate in a four-part workshop titled “Songwriting and the Creative Process” at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire in Dover.

Rebirth to party in Portsmouth: The Rebirth Brass Band will bring its funky New Orleans sound to The Music Hall in Portsmouth on Friday, April 8. Local favorite Gnarlemagne will open the show with their own soulful horn lines.

The Nateva Music and Camping Festival debuted in Oxford Maine in 2010, bringing dozens of local and national bands to the Oxford Fairgrounds for three days of music and camping. Although organizers had already announced a lineup of some 40 bands for 2011,  they've now canceled this year's event.

The Music Hall’s new venue opens its doors with alt-rockers Buffalo Tom

The Music Hall’s new venue in Portsmouth opened its doors to a sold-out crowd on April 2 with veteran alt-rockers Buffalo Tom. The Boston-based trio played a solid show that demonstrated their comfort with themselves, their instruments and their performance style, developed over a 25-year career.

Israeli-born saxophone and clarinet player Anat Cohen heads to UNH.

New York Times jazz writer Nate Chinen describes Cohen as “the real deal.” A remarkable clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, band leader and head of her own record label (Anzic Records), Cohen gives new meaning to the term “multi-tasking.” Her music is firmly rooted in jazz, but branches out to incorporate classical, Brazilian Choro, and Argentine tango, as well as a broad spectrum of Afro-Cuban styles. “I always like to mix in standards to give my shows more variety,” she says. “But, I also have a broader idea of what standards are.... So, there may be a Brazilian tune or something in the Afro-Cuban vein, or possibly a soul tune by Sam Cooke.”

The Music Hall had never seen anything quite like it. Dozens of musicians were invited to take the stage on March 26 to participate in a 35-minute improvised jam during the opening ceremonies of the 2011 RPM Challenge Listening Party in Portsmouth. Acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, microphones, numerous percussion instruments and even a Theremin were shared by an unrehearsed assemblage of musicians of all genres, while audience shook maracas and blew kazoos.