UPCOMING SHOWS

The Stray Horses are back to take on a Jackson Browne classic.

Anything but Demure.

Swampy blues from some of Boston’s best musicians.

An exciting blend of the best Americana songs, musical styles, and songwriters! Inspired by musical heroes Tom Waits, JJ Cale, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Pops Staples, singer-songwriter Kevin Connolly (voted “Best of Boston”) has put together a powerful approach to playing their songs, along with several complimentary originals. Covering blues, pop, soul, and country, Mule Variations pays tribute and gets down to the serious business of having fun and features some of Boston’s best musicians! We call it LO-FI-SWAMP-GROOVE.

Jim Rioux is a multi-instrumentalist, playing with such acts as The Pomeroys, Tiger Saw, Guy Capecelatro III, Summer the Winter, and Jonathan Blakeselee and the Fronds. He has released three solo albums with Burst and Bloom records—Darlings of the Soil (2016), yes I will Yes (2018), and The Hook (2023). In addition, he released the EP Mercury with Forest Route Records in 2023, as well as the singles “Season of the Stranger” in 2022 and “Some Kind of Ghost—featuring Jolie Holland”  in 2021. He most recently published his second book of poems, Too Close To Be So Far Away, on the Burst and Bloom imprint. He teaches writing at the University of New Hampshire and lives in Kittery, ME with his wife Amanda and their dog Jimbo.

Get ready for an unforgettable night of R&B, soul, & hip hop w/ local powerhouse Adrienne Mack-Davis & Boston’s finest Najee Janey.

Adrienne Mack-Davis is easily one of our favorite local performers! Always bringing so much charisma and raw emotional delivery to her live set, you won’t want to miss her! A classically trained singer/songwriter from Rochester, NY she blends soul, R&B, hip hop, and reggae with a message of positivity and self-love. She’s shared stages with legends like Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, Raekwon and Chali 2na to name a few and her latest release, “HEALER,” is a must-listen.

Hailing from Boston, singer songwriter Najee Janey is trailblazing a new genre of “hip hop soul” and becoming a rising star in the music industry. A three time Boston Music Award nominee for Best R&B and Unsigned Artist of the Year, Najee has published songs for HBO’s sitcom “RAPSH!T “and Tyler Perry’s “SISTAS”, and has written and collaborated on projects for Atlantic Records’ own Sebastian Mikael. Both songs “EXIT” and“TIME” charted #13 and #26 on Billboard’s Adult R&B playlist.

We’ll be opening up the night with some of the deepest beats you’ll ever hear in Portsmouth, we got Teeba and 32French popping things off!

Summer is coming to an end NFT BOYZ are forever.

An evening of outlaw country music from a group of incredible musicians.

Waylon & Co is a 6-piece country western ensemble featuring pedal steel, harmonica, and Country guitarist, Kentuckian, Tristan New.

Waylon and Co specializes in upholding the classic Outlaw country sound of the 60s and 70s, exploring the catalog of Waylon Jennings paying homage to other independent country artists of that era, demonstrating and exploring the infamous question put forth by Waylon Jennings: Are You Sure Hank Done It This way?

Holy hell, what a bill!

Sheepskin is a band and recording project started by Sam Tiesworth & Molly Meehan. Complete with upright bass, drums, classical guitars and hushed harmonies, the group is from the little parts of the countryside and now resides in Northern Vermont. They graze in sun-dappled meadows, moonlit backyards and in the basins of sand dunes, playing parlor music for your liminal dive bar. The four piece births a delicate and sincere combination of folk, jazz, spooky-country, and gentle slacker rock.

Dead Gowns is the project of Portland-Maine singer-songwriter Geneviève Beaudoin. In her latest collection, the HOW EP, she pushes “expressive arrangements and raw melodies into a glowing spectacle” (Foxy Digitalis). Both urgent and sincere, it’s “the sound of a songwriter coming good on all her promises and then some” (For the Rabbits). Vinyl Me, Please named Dead Gowns a VMP Rising Artist in 2023 and with it, released an expanded version of HOW which is now available on vinyl and all streaming platforms.

Out of speakers came noise and out of noise came RICK RUDE. Rick Rude feasts on mystical fungi, boredom, mushy guitar riffs, and the delicacy of the human soul.

The Clearwater Swimmers is the primary songwriting vehicle for Sumner Bright, a multi-instrumentalist based in NYC and Portland, ME. Joined by Timothy Graff on drums, Sander Casale on lead guitar, and Connor Kennedy on bass, the group takes the most-often acoustic, at-home demos of Bright and shifts them into wading, contemplative alternative rock. Split between NYC, ME, NH, and MA, when they come together, the group draws comparisons to Neil Young’s “On The Beach” era, Acetone, and other folk rock moguls from the 90s and early 2000s such as Jason Molina. Above all else, the group centers each member’s decades-long journeys in DIY musicianship, and operates with community and connection at the forefront, making for a warm listening and live experience. Formed initially in August of 2023 for a 6-day tour across New England, the band recognized they had something special and made plans to record, continue playing shows, and tour at length in the future. Having played only a dozen or so shows thus far, they have landed notable support slots for bands such as Trace Mountains, and Robber Robber, and have a full gigging schedule through spring of 2025.

Their debut, self-titled album, recorded in May of this year with Bradford Krieger at Big Nice Studio in Providence, RI, arrives at the end of this year, with roll out beginning in mid-to-late summer. Despite being a new group, they bring their stripes from numerous other touring groups to the table in The Clearwater Swimmers, and will be hitting the ground running in the latter half of 2024. You can access their IG via @theclearwaterswimmers and their Bandcamp, at https://theclearwaterswimmers.bandcamp.com

Part jazz, part rock, part psychedelic music…100% groovy. This band is as funky as they are far out.

Founded by Ed Durocher, Apollo Suns is a 7-piece instrumental collective from Winnipeg, Manitoba. The band fuses the influence of jazz, rock and psychedelic music, to create their own unique sounds with the dancefloor in mind. They have self-released three EPs: ‘Each Day a Different Sun’ (2017), ‘Dawn Offerings’ (2019), ‘A Relationship of Force’ (Color Red, 2021), and were awarded “Instrumental Artist of the Year” at Western Canadian Music Awards in both 2018/2020.

In 2022, Apollo Suns returned to the studio with Juno award-winning producer Ben Kaplan (Five Alarm Funk, Mother Mother, The Rare Americans) to record their latest album, ‘Departures’. The band is signed to the Canadian label Do Right Music, home to The Souljazz Orchestra, Soul Motivators, and Luvmenauts. ‘Departures’ was released in September 2023 and supported by a robust North American tour that included sold-out shows in several cities. The band returned to Winnipeg, MB to a two night stand at The Good Will Social Club to celebrate the release in their hometown.

Best known for their high-octane live shows, Apollo Suns have captivated audiences at Winnipeg Jazz Festival, Salmon Arm Roots and Blues, Kispiox Valley Music Festival, Vermont Jazz Fest, and Calgary Stampede. Some of their most notable shows include support slots for The Comet is Coming, Makaya McCraven, Anomalie, The Brooks, and Five Alarm Funk. The core group includes Ed Durocher (Guitar), Tim Iskierski (Drums), Aarin Lofstrand (Bass), Jordie Oulette (Trumpet), Benjamin James Hill (Trombone), Alex Maher (Alto Sax and pedals) and Anatol Rennie (Keyboards/Synths).

The gang takes on both The Beatles & Jay-Z at the same time. Hot damn!

“A true treat for the adventurous ear” -TimeOut NY

A modern guitar legend comes to the Press Room.

Open mic night for DJs. Do you have what it takes?

This great 4-time GRAMMY-nominated band is coming back to celebrate the release of their first new album in 8 years. Let’s get twangy!

You might expect a band that calls itself Yarn to, naturally, tend to spin a yarn or two. “That’s what we do, we tell stories, live and in the studio, truth and fiction”,singer/songwriter Blake Christiana insists. “We don’t always opt for consistency. There’s a different vibe onstage from what comes through in our recordings. There’s a difference in every show as well, you never know what you’re going to get.”

Yarn’s ability to persevere ought to come as no great surprise, especially for a band that spent two years honing their chops during a Monday night residency at the famed Kenny’s Castaway in New York’s Greenwich Village. In effect, it allowed them to rehearse onstage, mostly in front of audiences that often ranged in size from five to a hundred people on any given night. 10 studio albums followed — Yarn (2007), Empty Pockets (2008), Leftovers Part One (2009), Come On In (2010), Leftovers Part 2 (2011), Almost Home (2012), Shine the Light On (2013), This Is The Year (2016), and Lucky 13 parts 1 & 2 (2019). The band then took to the road, playing upwards of 170 shows a year and sharing stages with such superstars as Dwight Yoakam, Charlie Daniels,  Railroad Earth, Marty Stuart, Allison Krauss, Leon Russell, Jim Lauderdale, Leftover Salmon, Amos Lee, The Lumineers and many more. They performed at any number of prestigious venues — Mountain Stage, Daytrotter, the Orange Peel in Asheville, the Fox Theater in Boulder, the 9:30 Club in D.C, South by Southwest, the Strawberry Festival, Rhythm and Roots, Meadowgrass, Floydfest and so much more, eventually surpassing 1,000 shows, half a million miles and performances in nearly every state. They’ve driven nonstop, made countless radio station appearances, driven broken-down RVs and watched as their van caught fire. They’ve paid their dues and then some, looking forward even as they were forced to glance behind.

Indeed, the accolades piled up quickly along the way. They have landed on the Grammy ballot 4 times, garnered nods from the Americana Music Association, placed top five on both Radio and Records and the AMA album charts, garnered airplay on Sirius XM, iTunes, Pandora, CNN, and CMT, been streamed millions of times on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon, and also accorded the “Download of the Day” from Rolling Stone. Shine the Light On found shared songwriting credits with John Oates (the Oates of Hall & Oates fame), and when audiences expressed their admiration, it brought the band a populist cult following of diehard devotees, popularly known as “the Yarmy.”

It’s proof positive that the Brooklyn and Raleigh based band have made their mark, and in dealing with their emotions, scars and circumstances, they find themselves in a position to share those experiences with others who have juggled similar sentiments.

As Yarn look forward to their next 2 studio releases in 2023, Blake looks to establish himself more as the songwriter he’s always been, and not the pseudo bluegrass band, bar band or jam band, that Yarn often gets immediately lumped into.  Although all those elements of music exist in the Yarn catalogue and their live performances, Blake’s number one priority is and always has been “the song”.  These next 2 releases are without a doubt Blake’s most personal, polished, and best of Yarn’s career so far.

The beginning of the journey to these 2 albums began around April of 2022 when Blake booked a solo show at The Down Home in Johnson City, TN (a nod to Townes Van Zandt’s 1986 live show there and ultimate release) with the intention of making a live record.  But he wanted it to be songs none of the fans and attendees had ever heard before. The problem was he hadn’t written most of them yet.  He was at his crossroads, uninspired, bored, exhausted and fairly insecure about his entire career up to that point. But he got to work, and got more inspired with each new song he wrote.  These songs all tell a story individually but they also tell a story as a whole, a songwriter and musician ready to dive deeper into the music and the art for a greater result that he believes most anyone can appreciate, relate to and enjoy.

Get funked up.

A very special reading to get you in the mood for spooky season.

Big night for one of the best damn bands on the planet.

With his intricate, ambient fingerpicking guitar style and suede-soft baritone voice, Lyle de Vitry mesmerizes audiences into meditative serenity.

Portsmouth gets magical.

Two deliciously dark songwriters come to the Press Room for a devilishly enchanting evening.

Inspired by musical heroes like Buddy Miller & Guy Clark, Caleb Caudle mines both the brightest & murkiest corners of his imagination.