\u201cIt\u2019s over, Johnny! It\u2019s over!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing is over!\u201d<\/p>\n
Rambo said that, and how right he was. Same goes for the music, Johnny.<\/p>\n
Nothing is over!<\/p>\n
At least not down at Bronstein Park in Manchester where the homeless and peddlers past their days just trying to stay alive. The park is really nice, dipped just under street level with cut grass, cast iron benches and full trees where people cool off under or just kiss with dirty teeth until the sun goes down.<\/p>\n
Last week I\u2019m down at Bronstein watching my daughter and the other members of the Central High School Marching Band practice for their first big half time show at Gill Stadium. I didn\u2019t realize how much I missed the sound of a marching band. How all the pipes blend as one, that thunderous beat of the drums, the bending flags, the energy fully built to capture a crowd.<\/p>\n
Their performance was spot on with the students snaking around in unison, centipede style, two hands on the blade, owning their parts. The entire park erupted in applause as they finished off \u201cI\u2019m a Believer.\u201d The sunburned stragglers filling out the corners of the park pounded their palms with wild appreciation for what they\u2019d heard.<\/p>\n
We all did.<\/p>\n
Then, after practice, the marching band hosted a cookout for everyone at the park. And I mean everyone! That\u2019s what a marching band will do to a mixed crowd sweating it out in the summer heat at Bronstein. It will get you a nice hot brownie at the end of the night if you promise to always love the music.<\/p>\n
Which reminds me. This coming Wednesday, the 14th of September, down at NEC on Main Street, there\u2019s a can\u2019t miss kind of show going on called \u201cSongs from the Last Waltz.\u201d The Last Waltz, for those that don\u2019t know, was this great rock documentary filmed in 1976 by Martin Scorsese about legendary rock band called The Band.<\/p>\n
The remarkable songs that came out of this particular evening were brought to life in film. Each song that was sung by various artists as big as Dylan and unsung as Ronnie Hawkins means something to somebody, it seems. Wild songs, deep ones, stoned ones, salty ones, raucous ones, rambling ones. On that night in San Francisco, every song was a stinger.<\/p>\n
Well, at 7:30pm next Wednesday at NEC, some of the very best musicians from around the state will be singing those songs. Matt Poirier, Jasmine Mann, The Cole Robbie Band, Kate West, Jenn Whitmore, Derek Rudzinski and Walker Smith will be putting their own spin on their favorite Waltz tunes.<\/p>\n
And making his return to the Granite State, the man himself, Dusty Gray, will also be performing at the show, marking out his own version of \u201cMystery Train.\u201d<\/p>\n
Free show. Great memories.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
The Grebes, the six piece folk rock band from Concord, have a new EP out called \u201cDark Days, Winter Nights\u201d and it\u2019s fantastic. Heartbreaking lyrics, like the ones on a song called \u201cColony\u201d about an estranged father and son (\u201cA stranger born a strangers son\/ At least act like you know me.\u201d) explodes with rich emotion on this harmonious gem. Definitely a band ready to take flight.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
The Baza Blues are, well, a blues infused duo from Nashua made up of Geoff Goodall on harp and Doug Philbrick on the guitar. I caught a set by Baza outside N\u2019awlins Grill on Elm Street in Manchester last weekend and they absolutely torched the folks on the patio with their deep south sweaty sound. At one point during the night, the patio crowd grew anxious when a couple took to the sidewalk just feet from where the guys were performing. The couple were saddled with backpacks and bags and looked to be living hand-to-mouth, yet, by all accounts, just enjoying the blues \u2014 and living it.<\/p>\n
At one point, someone in the audience became anxious and started saying, \u201cThose two over there are just waiting to do a grab-and run-with the bands equipment. Just look at them.\u201d<\/p>\n
I went and said hello to Chris, one of the would be robbers. Turns out, Chris was far from a street urchin looking to snatch up a portable speaker and retro microphone. Turns out Chris just loved the blues.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy step father raised me on this stuff down in Florida,\u201d said Chris as he cranked down on a cigarette and pulled a harmonica out of his backpack. \u201cHe gave me this harmonica.\u201d<\/p>\n
See, music has the ability to wash the dirt off us all and make us believers instead of skeptics in those that don\u2019t shine quite as bright as the rest of us.<\/p>\n
Maybe we all just need a hot brownie and some faith in the human race before we dash off silly assumptions without realizing the power within the music.<\/p>\n
Or maybe.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Rob Azevedo<\/strong><\/p>\n Rob Azevedo, from Manchester, has been hosting a weekly radio show called\u00a0\u201cGranite State of Mind\u201d<\/a>\u00a0for the past three and a half years which showcases musicians from around New Hampshire and beyond. \u00a0\u201cGranite State of Mind\u201d is an hour long program that features artists performing live in-studio\u00a0each week,\u00a0now exclusively on WKXL<\/strong>.\u00a0 Azevedo also writes a weekly music column called\u00a0\u201cSound Check\u201d for the Concord Monitor<\/a>\u00a0and hosts a monthly \u201cArtist in the Round\u201d style series at New England College in Concord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cIt\u2019s over, Johnny! It\u2019s over!\u201d \u201cNothing is over!\u201d Rambo said that, and how right he was. Same goes for the music, Johnny. Nothing is over! At least not down at Bronstein Park in Manchester where the homeless and peddlers past their days just trying to stay alive. The park is really nice, dipped just under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blog","7":"category-granite-state-of-mind"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9613,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9612\/revisions\/9613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}