November can be a beast of a month, a gnarly hole of shrinking light capable of decapitating ones disposition. Like her cranky cousin February, November serves just one purpose: to annoy.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s simply no bloom in her step, no arch in her heel, just the desperate sound of human bloating, cutting northern winds and dark, cold mornings.<\/p>\n
But we aren\u2019t going to get anywhere with that kind of attitude, now will we?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why this year, instead of cowering in defeat to the month of November, I decided to push back on her by booking a steady diet of good music into the studio.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s really all I have in defense.<\/p>\n
A couple months ago, I was enjoying a few pints downtown in Manchester, not necessarily searching for any new music. That night was built for rampant exaggerations and spinning white lies with my compadres.<\/p>\n
Not introspection.<\/p>\n
A couple pulls later, I\u2019m thrust out of my juvenile tendencies by the voice of a 41 year old man from Nepal named Ramez Gurung, who lives in Manchester. I didn\u2019t come to the pub to be moved other than out the backdoor by a gracious host when my bell tolls. But Ramez had me in a headlock with his rendition of Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Me Babe.\u201d I never heard it covered so splendidly. This was angelic, this was magnetic, this was a performance that transcended even the cruelest of months.<\/p>\n
November\u2019s growl was coming, this I knew, but if I could convince Ramez to play my radio show week one of the month, at the start of her torment \u2014 while I\u2019m still strong \u2014 then maybe his voice would spare me a few restless hours.<\/p>\n
Later, I found Ramez in the crowd, congratulated him on a terrific set and he agreed to fight the good fight and sing on my radio show. Ramez arrives tonight and I\u2019ll close my eyes while he sings because he\u2019s just that good.<\/p>\n
But I would need more music in order to put November to the mat. Much more! I would need the sounds of the Grateful Dead! What? Did I just say that? I loathe the Grateful Dead! I\u2019ve never been able to jive with their beehive of loyal Heads. Terrific people, no doubt. But long jams frustrate me, makes me lethargic, bored, agitated. Like November.<\/p>\n
Still, the only saving grace in defeating November was to beat her at her own game. So, I got to me before she did and I booked a Grateful Dead cover band called Not Fade Away into the WMNH studio this Friday at 6pm, just before their show over at the Shaskeen.<\/p>\n
Take that!<\/p>\n
I will only ask of these talented musicians for a rebirth of sorts, something in the form of a staggering performance that not only protects me, but takes me, takes November, takes the entire studio high above Elm Street and makes the month disappear.<\/p>\n
I hear Not Fade Away is capable of such a feat. We shall see.<\/p>\n
So, with Ramez covering Bob and a hippy band playing hippy rock tunes, it sounds like enough to soften a majority of the blows November will land to my chin. But, no, it\u2019s not enough. Not even close.<\/p>\n
Time to call in the heavy hitters. Time to call in Elvis and Mighty Junior.<\/p>\n
This reincarnation of Elvis is named Addison Chase and he leads a band called Dressed for the Occasion. I saw the band, really, for the first time in October and I was blown away. Original rock, country vibe and a stage presence that was spot on.<\/p>\n
Chase, a Granite Stater lost to the Bay State, is a natural born band leader, like the King. He knows his strengths and bends them into a horseshoe for the bands growing audiences. His swagger and head flow is worth feeding off.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why I asked Chase to play my show mid-month while he supports his new CD \u201cPine Tree Riot.\u201d To put some fluff in my flow.<\/p>\n
Finally, if you\u2019re gonna go to war with November then you better call Mighty Junior. Junior is an old soul from Bristol, a harp blowing bluesman with the Delta on his side. Junior will deliver songs from his Holy Rolling Hymns project alongside his wife Amanda later in the month as he embarks on a new musical direction.<\/p>\n
With a roster like that, November doesn\u2019t stand a chance.<\/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":" November can be a beast of a month, a gnarly hole of shrinking light capable of decapitating ones disposition. Like her cranky cousin February, November serves just one purpose: to annoy. There\u2019s simply no bloom in her step, no arch in her heel, just the desperate sound of human bloating, cutting northern winds and dark, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9822,"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-9769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog","8":"category-granite-state-of-mind"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_4682.jpg?fit=5660%2C3773&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9769","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=9769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9770,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9769\/revisions\/9770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}