Lindsay Mac is proof that when you have a song in your heart, you just can’t help but sing it. Trained as a cellist from an early age, she turned her back on the conservatories to walk the path of the singer-songwriter. But where most would trade in their classical instrument for a six-string, Lindsay […]
Quirky Portland siren Emilia Dahlin is back this month with Rattle Them Bones, a brand new album that has her up to her old tricks. Emilia takes to music the way trendy shoppers take to flea markets, picking through the discarded past and assembling a genre-bending ensemble that is both vintage and entirely new. What […]
Portsmouth is the artsy black sheep of New Hampshire. A tiny seaside enclave dotted with galleries and cafes, it doesn’t really fit the rugged alpine character of the rest of the Granite State. Both hip and historic, it’s an ideal getaway spot for anyone in search of a low-key weekend to indulge his or her […]
Providence’s unique identity is perhaps best experienced strolling along Benefit Street. Running along a ridge looking down on the capitol, it’s one of the oldest streets in Providence. The Rhode Island Historical Society offers tours throughout the summer that explore some of the historic buildings dotting the hill, such as the John Brown House and […]
Although it may be true that every musician is a dreamer, only the good ones can convince you to join in on their fantasies. Armed with a rhythm guitar, a songbook full of down-on-your-luck lyrics, and a seemingly endless supply of fancy hats, Miss Tess is reimagining the golden age of jazz in 21st-century Boston […]
While not actually a blues album, Mercuryhat’s Blinding Blues, Stinging Bees serves the same purpose. Composed by lead singer Eric Ott during a death-and-divorce-plagued period, the record treads into some pretty dark areas. Lonely nights, second thoughts, and sleeping pills are the common images that tie these songs together. But Mercuryhat’s sound isn’t indulgent or […]
Richard Stoltzman’s Phoenix in Flight is pretty much what you’d expect from the world’s foremost clarinet soloist: a solid hour of classical repertoire that reminds us why he won the two Grammys and we didn’t. A world away from the squawks and squeaks of our high school band memories, Stoltzman manages his instrument with the […]
Vermonters know snow. Most can trace their relationship with the substance along the shooting pains in their lower backs. That’s why Wilson A. “Snowflake” Bentley’s obsession was so unexpected. While his neighbors were cheering the coming of spring, he’d mourn each melting flake as “just that much beauty…gone, without leaving any record behind.” Home-schooled and […]
How often do we hear about another old farm being demolished and redeveloped as a subdivision or strip mall? And how often do we write off the fight to stop it with a sigh and a shrug? While studying animal biology at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Erica Wheeler discovered that being right didn’t necessarily […]
Could North Adams, Massachusetts, become an international pilgrimage site for modern-art lovers? It’s an idea being pushed by the minds behind Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective at MASS MoCA. Their optimism is easy to understand when you wander the halls of the custom-renovated, three-story industrial building (#7) that houses the exhibit. The imposing wall […]
For the past five years, this husband-and-wife duo has been enjoying a second honeymoon as one of the most folkier-than-thou acts on the road. Leaving behind the security of their clerical jobs at the United Nations, Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson settled in a small Vermont town, traded their pensions for a touring van, and […]
Is it worth one million dollars to have a library named in your honor? Liz Bedard certainly hopes so. After a full decade of spaghetti dinners, newsletters, and committee meetings, she’s just one miracle away from fulfilling her pledge to Gilmanton, New Hampshire: to build a year-round town library without ever resorting to taxes. Not […]
