Zach Nugent

Tristan Omand, a Manchester based singer-songwriter tells stories of America’s rough edges, his songs tend towards characters who’ve been kicked around by life, their surfaces hardened by  booze, women, and lives spent on the road. Last week Tristan came in to play a few songs in Studio D and talk about the characters and stories in his songs.

1.Vampire Weekend, Diane Young

New Album: Modern Vampires of the City

May 15, Agganis Arena, Boston, MA

2.Iron and Wine, Grace for Saints and Ramblers

VIDEO: The New England based band Darlingside has long been a favorite here at Word of Mouth, so on their recent visit to a song writing and music business summit at the Concord Community Music School, we invited them to play a few tunes live in Studio D. Afterwards producer Zach Nugent sat down to chat with guitarist Don Mitchell and drummer and Concord area native son Sam Kapala.

Production help from Logan Shannon and Taylor Quimby

"Blow the House Down"

Heather Maloney's music has been described as “adventurous folk", pushing the boundaries of the folk genre with lush, full-band arrangements and playful vocal runs. Heather visited the NHPR studios last week to play a few songs and chat with producer Zach Nugent about music, spirituality, and being partial to ramblers.  She will be playing at The Big Room in Barrington New Hampshire on April 20th and at The Music Hall in Portsmouth on May 17th.

1. Generationals, Ten-Twenty-Ten

April 24, State Theatre, Portland, ME

2. Alice Smith, Fool For You

April 9, Brighton Music Hall, Allston, MA

Word of Mouth is on break this week, but fret not, there's still plenty of compelling stories to enjoy. We've lined up some of our favorite shows to entertain you in our absence.

Monday, March 25th: A rebroadcast of Word of Mouth from January 5th, 2013.

Last week, we spoke to two contestants and the producer of Dartmouth's annual singing competition, Dartmouth Idol. One of our guests, Nathaniel Graves, was victorious, so we tracked him down on his spring break to see how it feels to be this year's champion.

Violin virtuoso Joshua Bell performs at The Music Hall in Portsmouth Friday night, accompanied by pianist Sam Haywood. 

If you’re feeling Shakespearean, the Keene State College Theatre Department performs The Tempest this weekend at the Redfern Arts Center

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre perform at the Hopkins Center in Dartmouth through the weekend; the San Francisco Chronicle referred to a company production as “spectacular dancing that thrills you to your marrow”.  The program includes Ailey’s signature work, “Revelations.”

And right here in Concord…jazz pianist and composer Pamela Hines will be playing at the Purple Pit.

It’s not often you get to hear authentic world music in New Hampshire, especially in the dead of winter. But on February 6th at the Spaulding Auditorium in Hanover, the southern Italian band Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino will be bringing their high energy pizzica tarantata music and dance.  Leading a new wave of young Italian artists reinventing and invigorating traditional Italian music, CGS includes six singers/musicians and a dancer.

I think it would be impossible not to have fun at a show like this:

Opening this weekend is the exhibition Lethal Beauty: Samurai Weapons and Armor. It features the work of over 30 different master craftsmen from as far back as the 1200s.

We start off the weekend with a critically acclaimed documentary that has no dialogue, narrative, or text. The film is Samsara, filmed over five years in twenty five different countries; it’s a combination of music and imagery full of life and culture from all over the world.  The film will be playing Friday, January 25 at Dartmouth’s Spaulding Theater.

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