Randy Miller
Harvey Tolman’s influence on local musicians, his recordings and compositions, and his regular 
appearances at the Monday night Nelson contra dance have all magically combined to help spread the compelling dance music of Cape Breton throughout the region and well beyond, across the country. It was indeed an occasion for great rejoicing when Harvey was honored by being selected to receive the Governors Arts Awards “New Hampshire Folk Heritage Award” in 2007. The Folk Heritage Award was presented to Harvey by the N.H. State Council on the Arts on April 24, 2008, before an enthusiastic audience at the Colonial Theater in Keene.
The Council on the Arts had contacted me in the fall of 2007, asking if I’d be interested in creating a work of art that could be presented to Harvey at the awards ceremony in the spring of 2008. I was deeply honored and thrilled to be given this opportunity to help honor Harvey, who I’ve known for many years. I’ve enjoyed dancing to Harvey’s music, and visiting him to listen to and play tunes. Continue Reading »
Harvey's Heritage Reel, played by Randy Miller and Hilliare Wilder:
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Dave Eisenstadter
I may have been the only person in the crowd of 80 at the Nelson Town Hall Wednesday who had not heard of the feature performer for the night: Jerry Holland. What I did know was this was a revered musician, respected throughout the Monadnock Region, and well beyond.
The afternoon before the performance, Monadnock Folklore Society veteran Gordon Peery told me he had first seen Jerry Holland 30 years ago, and the two of them stayed up all night playing music after a show at the Folkway. In a piano lesson with Bob McQuillen that same day, I told Bob about the concert that night. He told me he regretted very much that he would have to miss it, and scribbled a quick note to Jerry for me to deliver. Continue Reading »
Gordon Peery
There are undoubtedly more foolish things one could do than to rise before dawn, ascend Pack 
Monadnock wearing knickers, strap bells to your shins, and prance around waving, alternately, hankies and sticks at each other, with the temperature below freezing on the first May morning.
Perhaps it was the gorgeous sunrise, the briskness of the air, or maybe just the idea that anyone nutty enough to be up there was probably a good candidate for fun. In any case, the mountain was abundant with good cheer as the Harrisville Morris Women and The Jack-in-the-Green Morris danced, sang and joked (yes we must not forget the fool) in the spring. Camera’s were abundant as well. Go to MFS TV to see some video, or to this year’s May Day Morris Dance photo page. Continue Reading »
MFS
On Thursday, April 24, Nelson fiddler Harvey Tolman will join a distinguished group of honorees in receiving the Governor’s Arts Award at the Colonial Theatre in Keene, New Hampshire. Other recipients will include Marilyn Ziffrin of Bradford; The Bloomfield Family of Bow; Drika Overton of Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine; Phoebe Ann Neiswenter of Pembroke; and Ken Burns for Florentine Films of Walpole. Governor John Lynch and First Lady Susan Lynch will preside.
Although Harvey was born in Massachusetts, the extended Tolman family has lived in Nelson for generations. His immediate family returned to the homestead when he was twelve, Continue Reading »
Gordon Peery
It’s been a long winter. One of the companions that has nourished the endurance for me has been the Irish harper Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin, more commonly rendered today as Turlough O’Carolan. O’Carolan died 270 years ago last 
week (March 25th). Most folks who have been around the folk music and dance scene are probably familiar with O’Carolan’s greatest hits; “Planxty Fanny Power”, “Hewlett”, “Planxty Irwin”, “Sheebeg and Sheemore” (generally iterated with a guffaw as “She Begged for More”), and of course, “O’Carolan’s Concerto”. The complete list of his tunes numbers over 200, though the certainty of his being the composer is questionable in a number of cases.
The term “Planxty” appears to have been, if not invented, at least popularized by O’Carolan as a preface to the name of the individual he happened to be honoring with a new composition. Since he spent a fair amount of time traipsing about the countryside availing himself of the hospitality of rich folks, he ended up making extensive use of the word.
Biographers suggest that he was not really a stellar musician, but his mediocre renderings were offset by the beauty of his music, and his poetry which often accompanied it. Additionally, he was known as a fun-loving gregarious character. Continue Reading »
Gordon Peery
The Montville Project is a new recording of quintessential New England tunes, performed by four quintessential New 
England musicians: Art Bryan, George Fowler, Surya Mitchell, and Fred White. The project grew out of a workshop which the musicians presented at the 2007 Maine Fiddle Camp inMontville, Maine, called The Essential Dance Tune Repertoire. As explained in the liner notes, “Any musical tradition has a core repertoire which experienced players are expected to know.” Attendees of the aforementioned workshop encouraged the recording of the tunes – most of them have been recorded previously and in some cases frequently, but until now there has not been a definitive collection exclusively representing the classics. “Definitive” must be qualified: originally 200 tunes were identified as candidates, but practical considerations required editing the list down to 53. Most of the tunes are presented in sets of three or four, for a total of 22 tracks, making over an hour and seven minutes of music! Continue Reading »
Marches: Road to Boston/Jamie Allen/Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine:
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Jigs: Coleraine/ Irishman’s Heart to the Ladies / Top of Cork Road:
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Randy Miller
“Know all men by these presents, that I Samuel Shadwick of Newton in the County of Middlesex and Province of the Massachusetts Bay housewright am holden and stand firmly bound and obliged unto William Dudley of Roxbury, [there follows 10 additional names] … all of the Province aforesaid, in the full and just sum of forty pounds, to be paid to the said Dudley [and the 10 others] … a committee for the admitting settlers into the line of towns so called … which payment well and faithfully to be made I bind my self, my heirs, executors and administrators firmly by these presents. Sealed with my seal. Dated this seventh day of December 1736.”
Why was Samuel Shattuck pledging to pay members of a committee overseeing the settlement of new towns the sum of £40, equivalent in today’s economy to about $1,875? Continue Reading »
Gordon Peery
My first experiences of coffee were from my grandmothers percolator, and at various diners on Cape Cod, where I spent summers working for my grandfather on his cranberry bogs. Some years later I was privileged to do a bit of touring playing contra dance music, and I remember a trip to Seattle where coffee was just beginning to come out of the closet, as it were. What a revelation! It’s a mixed blessing to discover such things; after that whenever our band would go on the road, we decided it was worth the risk of offending our various hosts by bringing our own coffee kit – a good supply of French Roast, and our own French press, carried in a foam-lined metal box. Continue Reading »
MFS
Bob McQuillen, grandmaster of New England contra dance piano, and certainly the
most prolific living (or otherwise) composer of contra dance tunes, has arranged with Great Meadow Music to have them become the official publisher of his work. They will handle wholesale distribution of his 13 tune books, and six CD’s, as well as any subsequent books or recordings, or licensing of his music.
Conversing with Bob in his Peterborough, New Hampshire home, he expresses great pleasure in being relieved of managing the business details of his significant legacy, and he looks forward to concentrating on the creative side of future projects: a new recording project is underway, and the tunes have not stopped flowing. His most recent book brings his total published compositions to 1,300. Continue Reading »
Gordon Peery
Listen to a sampler
When Small Birds Sweetly Sing is the second album from the duo of Susie Burke and David Surette, though over their twenty-year collaboration they have each contributed to each other’s solo efforts. The album has been in progress for some time, and it has a pleasing unforced quality about it.
It opens with a majestic anthem of friendship, "I Will be Here". In advance of the first lyrics we hear Susie’s powerful hum riding over the chords, and we know she means business. Continue Reading »
