Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Michael Witthaus
The Music Roundup 26/10/29
By Michael Witthaus mwitthaus@hippopress.com • Towering: Canadian singer-songwriter Garnet Rogers brings his deep baritone, deft finger picking and rich storytelling to a venerable folk music series. Rogers began as a duo partner with his late brother Stan in the early ’70s, going solo after his older sibling died in a plane crash. He’d later write a wild memoir about him, Night Drives: Travels With My Brother. Thursday, Oct.
Candy Corn
A lively defense of this singular seasonal treat Candy corn is still with us. For 350 days a year, candy corn plays no role in our lives. And then, for a week or so surrounding Halloween, candy corn is everywhere — the candy itself, of course, but also candy corn-colored sweaters, and candy corn decorations, candy corn candles, and candy corn iconography. Krista Fisher, the bar manager for Local Street Eats in Nashua, finds herself defending candy corn surprisingly often.
The Music Roundup 26/10/22
By Michael Witthaus mwitthaus@hippopress.com • Jerry’s man: After joining the Jerry Garcia Band in 1980, Melvin Seals spent 15 years with the Grateful Dead guitarist. Upon Garcia’s passing in 1995, he carried on JGB’s tradition, while moving it forward and putting his own stamp on the sound. Thirty years on, the Hammond B-3 wizard is still doing it, with sets mixing “Cats Under the Stars,” “Sugaree” and Motown covers. Thursday, Oct.
Time traveling
He Is Legend bring career-spanning show to Jewel For more than two decades, He Is Legend has been one of active rock’s best-kept secrets. The Wilmington, N.C., band’s mix of metalcore crunch, Southern-rock swagger and psychedelic groove has earned it a devoted, almost cultish following. On Thursday, Oct. 22, the band brings its Time Travel tour to Jewel Music Venue in Manchester. Justin Marcotte is a veteran booker who began working with Jewel earlier this year. He has a good feeling about this show.
Rooted in place
Ethan Tapper brings The Forest Year to Gibson’s When Ethan Tapper began the follow-up to his New England Book Award winner, How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World, he was aiming for something lighter, like an almanac. His 2024 debut made the case that cutting trees, spraying invasive plants and hunting deer can be acts of devotion. This one, he decided, should go down easier.
Granite State Ghost Hunters
A look at NH’s paranormal investigators Up a slope called Mystery Hill, amidst stone tunnels and megaliths with eerie names like Oracle Chamber, Tomb of Lost Souls, and a flat rock that most call The Sacrificial Table, on a site carbon-dated to 4,000 years old, a group of dedicated spirit hunters are on a quest to speak with the dead. America’s Stonehenge in Salem has a history of visitors from beyond.
Beach laughs
Kathleen Madigan returns to Casino Ballroom Like a lot of people, Kathleen Madigan spends her autumn Sundays parked in front of the TV, watching the NFL from first kickoff to the last. Unlike most fans, she is not rooting for any team in particular. If the Lions win, that’s great, since Detroit’s a favorite city, but otherwise Madigan’s only there for a schadenfreude fix. “I have no team, I am filled with hate on Sundays,” the comedian said by phone from her home in Nashville.
The Music Roundup 26/10/15
By Michael Witthaus mwitthaus@hippopress.com • Marking ten: Neptune, the debut disc from indie-folk duo Tall Heights, was released at the same time a listening room in Exeter launched, and they were its first act. A decade later, the two are back to celebrate both anniversaries. Cellist Paul Wright and guitar player Tim Harrington’s set will include cuts from their 2024 album Softly Softly, described as a “risky” live in the studio effort. Thursday, Oct.
Break the rope
Cirque Kalabanté brings kinetic World of Words to Concord As Cirque Kalabanté’s new show begins, a thick rope splits the stage down the middle. On one side are performers dressed in orange; on the other is a tribe in blue. In a blur of tumbling, drumming and dance, they battle over territory throughout the evening, with the dividing line a central theme of their performance.
The Music Roundup 26/10/08
By Michael Witthaus mwitthaus@hippopress.com • Capitol girl: When she was a Washington, D.C., teenager, Midge — the stage name of Megan Clancy — made her first single, the dreamy “Drunk Voicemail.” A few years ago she moved north and began performing around the region while releasing new music. Her latest, the upbeat “Funny If I Try,” fits well in the pop landscape, as does her previous release, “I Want You (Hum My Tune).” Thursday, Oct. 8, at 5 p.m., The Local, 15 E.
Finale, finally
Pop-punk band Promise Game plays last show at Shaskeen A few weeks ago the members of Promise Game met in a rehearsal room for the first time in nearly two years. Guitarist Adam Elverson went in a little bit nervous. “I haven’t picked up my guitar in a year and a half,” he warned his bandmates. “I don’t know how this will go.” He needn’t have worried. “That was the best practice,” he said in a recent Zoom interview, accompanied by singer Colin VanDenBerghe.
Found a home
Arts Build Community moves to Queen City Center After 17 years as a perpetual pop-up, Arts Build Community now has a permanent address. Founder James Chase has run his Manchester nonprofit in borrowed storefronts, out of a U-Haul truck he dubbed the Drift Gallery and, more recently, in classroom space at New England College, where he also teaches. Now ABC is moving into its first real home, at the ever-growing Queen City Center.
Mapping it out
Concord Arts Market wraps Arts in the Park season The other day someone asked Jessica Livingston if she planned weddings. “Absolutely not,” was her smiling reply. However, as leader of the Concord Arts Market, Livingston achieves something close to it when, before each event, she maps out where a gathering of art vendors will share space. It’s something she’ll do Oct. 10 in Rollins Park, at the season-ending Arts in the Park.
Game Day Goodness
Cheesy dips and tasty accompaniments to make any snack session a party In October, the MLB post-season, NBA pre-season and season start and WNBA playoffs share the airways with NFL and college football, professional and college soccer and the NHL. Game days are a great excuse for a game-day spread of eats — not quite a meal but still hearty and delicious. CHEESY DIP It’s hard to go wrong with cheese, and that theory extends to dips.
Victory lap
Feat’s Last Farewell hits New Hampshire Though they’re still at the top of their game musically, Little Feat’s Oct. 2 appearance at Portsmouth’s Music Hall is likely their final one in the region. Their Last Farewell tour isn’t a hard stop, but cruises and residencies in hubs like Los Angeles, New York City and Nashville will be the only way to see the legendary band after this run ends. “There’s an end point to jumping on the bus,” founding member Bill Payne said by phone recently.
The Music Roundup 26/10/01
By Michael Witthaus mwitthaus@hippopress.com • Red Band: Two very different interpretations of Americana are on display as Matt Litzinger performs three songs each from The Band’s eponymous second album and Taylor Swift’s Red, followed by a few of his own original tunes. It’s part of an ongoing series called Live From The Countertop, where a local musician picks a pair of albums from the Billboard 100 to showcase. Thursday, Oct.
Welcome to the Dream House
Pepe Mar makes his New England debut at the Currier When Pepe Mar toured the Currier Museum of Art’s galleries last summer, he was looking out for a spark. He found it inside a piece with two tiny cabinet-like doors from the museum’s collection, the 33rd work from Dream Houses, Louise Nevelson’s series of roughly 37 human-sized wooden sculptures. “I was like, oh my God, this is what I want the exhibition to be,” Mar said in a recent Zoom interview.
All the Fall Things
Pick your own pumpkins and apples, find adventure in a corn maze and raise a glass to Oktoberfest Bushel and a peck Where to pick your own apples “We raise over 100 varieties of apple this year,” said Tim Bassett of Gould Hill Farm in Contoocook, “though not all of them are for pick-your-own, of course. We started picking in late July for fruit for the store, and we’ll go right through the first or second week of November with fruit.
The Music Roundup 26/09/17
• High time: With an uncanny resemblance in both looks and voice, Remembering John Denver features singer-guitarist Ted Vigil paying tribute to the folksinger. His act has earned praise from members of Denver’s own band. Vigil’s lively set runs through classic songs like “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” “Rocky Mountain High” and “Calypso.” Thursday, Sept. 17, 7:30 p.m., Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester, $40 and up, palacetheatre.org.
Comicon comedy
Jay Chanoine headlines Queen City Center afterparty As his comedy special Chanoinigans hit YouTube on Halloween Day last year, Jay Chanoine already had enough new material for a follow-up. A week later he flew south to do a half hour of it at the Altercation Comedy Festival in Austin. His headlining set got a standing ovation. Chanoine will debut the full special Sept. 19 at Queen City Center.
Citywide convention
At 24th Granite State Comicon, downtown’s role grows Chris Proulx is already planning next year’s Granite State Comicon, even though this year’s doors haven’t opened yet. “It’s a lot of work, and sometimes a lot of crazy coordinating,” Proulx, who opened Double Midnight Comics in 2003 and held the inaugural Granitecon that year as a one-room comic book show, said in a recent Zoom interview. It’s grown into its 24th edition, happening in Manchester Sept. 18 through Sept.
The Music Roundup 26/09/10
• SNL Pals: John Mulaney plays the Lakes Region with a bill includes Fred Armisen, who was on hand the night Mulaney became the first comic to sell out Wrigley Field, along with SNL star James Austin Johnson. Mike Birbiglia and Nick Kroll were with the tour early on but later bowed out. Thursday, Sept. 10, 7:30 p.m., BankNH Pavilion, 108 Kimball Road, Gilford, $25 and up, ticketmaster.com.
Bollywood music
Din Check performs for India rural school charity Many members of the Boston-based Bollywood band Din Check come from a generation born around 1947, India’s first year of independence from the British Empire. Rebuilding the country from scratch, they looked to education as the best gift to give their children. Their bet paid off. “That was our ticket to come to America,” Din Check co-founder and singer Jolly Bhatia said in a recent Zoom chat.
Present at the creation
Peter Asher tells stories ahead of The Fixx and Zombies singer Blunstone From lending Paul McCartney his family’s piano to write “I Want To Hold Your Hand” to discovering James Taylor and later staking his career on the future star, to later producing Linda Ronstadt and helping turn Laurel Canyon into a sound as well as a place, Peter Asher has earned a nickname in rock history: Everywhere Man.
They march to war
Wakeman is latest New London Barn NEST production New London Barn Playhouse has long staged revivals of Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma! and other classics in its 260-seat Main Street playhouse. Three years ago, it launched NEST, a program dedicated to new works. The latest opens Sept. 3, the world premiere of an original folk-rock musical set during the Civil War. Wakeman is the true story of a 19-year-old New York woman who cut her hair, took a new name, and joined the Union Army.
Elucidation of inflammatory-fibrotic microenvironment in human urethral stricture disease
Abstract Urethral stricture disease (USD) is marked by inflammation with subsequent tissue fibrosis that disrupts urinary flow. Recent studies suggest lower urinary tract biome dysbiosis increases proinflammatory cytokines, impeding tissue repair as well as promoting fibrotic scarring of the urethra. Despite these insights, the comprehensive molecular mechanisms underlying the formation, progression, and recurrence of the USD remain unclear.
Beautiful bombs
Songs from Broadway duds take center stage Every theater fan remembers a musical that closed early or got mauled by critics or simply never found its audience yet somehow left behind a handful of songs too good to disappear with it. That conundrum is the premise behind an upcoming cabaret-style show at Newmarket Millspace. Bangers From Bad Musicals is the brainchild of actress Karissa Vincent, who cited Wonderland, a Lewis Carroll-inspired 2011 flop, as an example of the genre.
The Music Roundup 26/08/20
• Big aughts: Though best known for their early 2000s hits, The Fray, currently on tour with Dashboard Confessional, are still making music, with a new album that arrived earlier this year. A Light That Waits, according to a tour press release, “ushers in a renewed creative chapter defined by emotional clarity, cinematic songwriting” and the band’s “timeless sound.” Thursday, Aug. 20, 7 p.m., BankNH Pavilion, 30 Meadowbrook Lane, Gilford, $40 and up, ticketmaster.com.
What’s the buzz?
Wildflower Festival returns with a louder sound and a bigger garden When Griff Comtois and two friends threw the first Wildflower Festival in 2023, it was three bands and a few dozen art vendors packed around the amphitheater at Milford’s Keyes Memorial Park. Four years later, the environmentally centered event is established enough that Comtois barely recalls the scramble of those early days. “It feels a lot easier,” he said recently.
The Music Roundup 26/08/13
• Free green: Enjoy traditional Celtic music in a bucolic setting as On The Lash performs a show courtesy of the Capitol Center for the Arts. The Michigan-based band has been praised by critics for blending “classical dexterity with the nuance and excitement of traditional music” while staying rooted in the Irish heritage sound. The quartet released Fireside, a debut EP, in April 2025. Thursday, Aug. 13, 6:30 p.m., Riverfront Park, 11 Canal St., Penacook, ontheleashband.com.
Band on the rise
Mountain Grass Unit brings acoustic brilliance to The Range On Aug. 26, Mountain Grass Unit will make its Grand Ole Opry debut. The next night, they’ll do a release show at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville for Appalachian Smoke, their first for Dualtone Records. At midnight it arrives everywhere else. Three enormous nights, back to back, in the city that the Alabama-born bluegrass band now calls home.
Painting poems
Words inspire art at Kimball Jenkins An upcoming exhibition at the Kimball Jenkins Estate will pair works of art with poetry but flip the traditional ekphrastic approach. Since time immemorial, poets have written about paintings, but “Dwelling Places” instead has painters responding to poems. The effort, which opened Aug. 7, unites Kimball Jenkins-affiliated artists with a Concord-based poetry group.
Smoking Hot Comedy
A talk with comedians Jody Sloane and Jimmy Dunn plus a look at upcoming shows Last summer, the official story was that Jimmy Dunn skipped his own comedy festival due to a dream-come-true gig headlining at Casino Ballroom. That much was true. What didn’t make press reports was the bigger reason he was missing. Two days after that big show, Dunn checked into Massachusetts General Hospital to have his spine rebuilt.
With the machine
Making peace, and art, with AI When Elsie Kagan talks about painting, it sounds like a jazz player’s memory of hearing a standard for the first time. “I’m full of influences from other artists and from the history of the medium I work in,” she said by phone from Chicago, mid-residency with the artist collective Tiger Strikes Asteroid. “So I don’t feel like I take full ownership for whatever I’m making.
Kill or be killed
Aaron Berg brings his take-no-prisoners act to Moka Pot Watching Aaron Berg walk on stage at a comedy club, two thoughts compete for space in one’s head at the same time: he’s either going to make people laugh or totally destroy them. The truth, as Berg tells it, is that he’d really like to do both, metaphorically speaking. The second thought makes sense because Berg is a competitive bodybuilder, who created his physique the way he builds a set — obsessively, with no shortcuts.
The Music Roundup 26/07/30
• Threefer: A monthly gathering of original performances preceded by food and wine, the next Songwriter’s Roundup has Nashville-based Mary Moore, who released her latest EP, An Honest Thing, last year, along with singer-songwriter Caitlin Piper, whose diary-like debut LP In Cursive is getting good notices. As always, the event is hosted by Katie Dobbins. Thursday, July 30, 7 p.m., Hermit Woods Winery, 72 Main St., Meredith, $12 and up, hermitwoods.com.
Community art
Buy some works, meet the artists in Goffstown By Chelsea Spear listings@hippopress.com Uncommon Arts on the Common, the 16th annual arts and crafts festival organized by Goffstown Main Streets, lets attendees purchase art directly from artisans who live in the Goffstown area.
Artists in conversation
Two distinct styles join at Outer Space exhibition In mid-July, a small second-floor gallery in Concord opened a show called “Montages,” with two artists, Peter Cordova and Kyoko Idetsu, showing their work. It’s billed as an artistic conversation, and that’s the idea that led Roger Buttles to open Outer Space Arts in a well-lit space across the hall from his own studio in the former residence of a Civil War colonel. Pairing artists has been a constant at Outer Space since it opened in 2023.
Pump up the volume
Hell Beach / American Television mini-tour hits Shaskeen When their debut album Beachworld dropped in October 2024, Hell Beach celebrated with a local show at Shaskeen Pub. The big moment, though, came a week later with an appearance at Fest, a pop-punk rival to SXSW, spanning the Florida city of Gainesville.
The green’s a stage
Shakespeare al fresco returns to Saint Anselm College For the past two summers, Theatre Kapow’s Shakespeare on the Green has leaned dark. A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2024 was filled with shadowy fairy magic. With last year’s Romeo & Juliet, the dusk forming over Saint Anselm College and the following sunset offered a celestial comment on the tragic love story. With this year’s As You Like It, director Emma Cahoon is changing the weather, Shakespeare-wise.
The Music Roundup 26/07/16
• Get together: North and South join musical forces as April Cushman & Shelly Fairchild perform an intimate show in downtown Concord. Hometown girl Cushman regularly sings the national anthem at Patriots games. The Mississippi-born Fairchild has had success getting her songs on hit shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Riverdale and recorded by artists like Little Big Town. Thursday, July 16, 7 p.m., Cantin Room (BNH Stage), 16 S. Main St., Concord, $36, ccanh.com.
Joni’s jazz revisited
Hejira channels the spirit of beloved Mitchell period Guitarist and composer Pete Oxley spent decades building a solo catalog, along with a reputation as one of Britain’s most thoughtful jazz improvisers. A band dedicated to Joni Mitchell’s music wasn’t in his plans, nor a first-ever U.S. tour, yet that’s what’s happening. The story of how it came to be reads less like a career move than a series of improbable gifts.
The Music Roundup 26/0709
• Summer sounds: The Levitt AMP Manchester Music Series kicks off with Dyer Davis, a rocking singer-songwriter that Downbeat called “one of the most promising up and comers” in his genre. Upcoming at the free weekly outdoor event are Gentlemen Brawlers, Domenic Marte, Kyshona, Old Hat Stringband, Stephen Kellogg, Kuf Knotz & Christine Elise and The Soggy Po’ Boys. Thursday, July 9, at 5 p.m., Veterans Memorial Park, 723 Elm St., Manchester.
Dad and daughter save the world
Puppeteers for Fears return with AI-themed Robopocalypse The premise of Robopocalypse: The Musical! sounds, on paper, like a high-speed collision of several ideas. A tech billionaire invents a self-driving car that accidentally kills his wife, a tragedy that estranges him from his teenage daughter. Unable to communicate, each begins work on AI projects.
The Music Roundup 26/0702
• Swamp thing: Get a head start to the weekend with Louisiana Delta blues guitarist Tab Benoit performing in the Lakes Region. With ferocious fretwork and gritty, soulful singing, the four-time Grammy nominee’s latest studio album, his first in 13 years, hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts. Blues-rock power trio The Cold Stares, known for fuzzed-out guitars and classic riffs, open the show. Thursday, July 2, at 7 p.m., Colonial Theatre, 609 Main St., Laconia, $46 and up, etix.com.
Rockin’ the Fourth
Eclectic music slate precedes Nashua fireworks This Fourth of July will mark 250 years of U.S. independence, but Eleanor Luna’s American roots run deeper than that. Her ancestors came to Maine from Scotland in 1648, eventually making their way south to Nashua. A few centuries later, give or take, she followed them there. Upon arrival, Luna embraced her new community as a resident, and she became a force behind reshaping the city’s alternative arts scene.
Music as a movement
Martin Toe brings activism and Afrobeats to BNH Stage There’s no line between work and music for Martin Toe, the organizer and hip-hop artist behind albums like Civic Leader and last year’s Love Is Godly. Alongside fellow New Hampshire artists B. Snair, Vincent Tesoro and Marxo Phenix, Toe performs in Concord on June 27 in a show that’s both a homecoming and a statement about the state’s music scene.
The Music Roundup 26/06/25
• Chicken man: During the pandemic, when his business travel corporate job went to Zoom, Joe Fenti found the funny in a fake company he created called Fenti Fried Chicken, posting a series of increasingly popular TikToks. His Jeremy Allen White “Yes, Chef!” bit got 12 million hits. He left workaday life for standup comedy and hasn’t looked back. Partner, his first special, just came out on YouTube. Friday, June 26, 8 p.m., BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St, Concord, $39, ccanh.com.
Before the selfie
Snapshots and Harleys at Currier’s Summer of Photography Instagram didn’t invent self-curation, a point brought home by a pair of commingling exhibits currently at Manchester’s Currier Museum of Art. Long before “personal brand” was an everyday term, people arranged themselves for the lens, deciding which version got preserved. The platforms changed, but the impulse did not. “Together, Apart, Away: Snapshots from the Peter J.
Field Day
Northlands Festival returns As John Shields begins a phone interview, he’s also readying a jagged week of travel, a mini-tour that includes a quick show in Wisconsin, followed by his band’s first Bonnaroo, and concluding with the fifth annual Northlands Festival in Swanzey. “It’s wonky,” he allowed with a laugh, “but the money’s good.” A decade ago he co-founded the Charleston-based duo Little Stranger with Kevin Shields.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Michael
Contact Michael, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack