Around Concord Summer 2024

SUMMER 2024 VOLUME 17, NO. 2 $4.95

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CONTENTS

Around

CONCORD

Get more >> aroundconcord.com

22

Meet the people, and the feline stars, behind the city’s annual cat show

34

A world-class recording studio tucked away on a North Sutton back road

40

Concord celebrates 50 years of annual Market Days event – a look back

48

When the lights go out, the neon takes over at Boutwell’s Bowling Center

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28

Food and flair at N’awlins Grille

Cover photo of N’awlins Grille

by Geoff Forester

Everyone in your family should have a healthy smile!

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Market Days is practically a right of passage for summer to officially begin in the Capital City.

In its 50th year, Market Days has ballooned past its meager beginnings as Old Fashion Bargain Days into a full-blown downtown extravaganza.

The three-day festival offers a lot to love: It’s a great place to peoplewatch, tons of musical acts play across three different stages, a growing international selection of food simmers at the ready, while crafts and goods of all sorts are looking for new homes.

Market Days is meant to mirror the values of the Concord community. By its own stated expectations, Market Days is intended to be a friendly, safe, supportive and harassment-free environment for all event attendees. Admittedly, it’s a lot more fun when the weather is nice, but so isn’t everything during the summer months.

Inside this edition of Around Concord magazine, find your way around the Highland Mountain Bike Park in Northfield as reporter Jeremy Margolis pedals his way around this former ski area-turn biking Mecca that’s just 20 minutes north of Concord.

If you’re into your own exploration, heed some tips about the AllTrails app – which points out both extremely popular and often-overlooked trails – so you’re able to enjoy the woods safely without your loved ones calling a rescue party.

Discover new and amazing Creole flavors served at one of Concord’s newest restaurants – N’awlins Grille – including frog legs, alligator and the Cajun classic, crawfish etouffee.

For those rainy days, consider a night of glow bowling, which is exactly as it sounds – bowling under blacklights so everything takes on a groovy neon glow, which is fun for kids and parents looking for a night out with a little electricity.

For the animal lovers among us, learn more about Concord’s annual cat show held at the Everett Arena where everything feline becomes fabulous.

Like always, we hope you enjoy this edition’s selection of stories and photos that help you explore and enjoy everything Around Concord.

P.S. A personal recommendation to music fans heading to Market Days who like something a little different, check out Supernothing at the Eagle Square stage from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Jonathan Van Fleet Editor

Contact us >> editor@aroundconcord.com

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Around Concord is published quarterly by Monitor Publishing Company copyright 2024. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is stricly prohibited. Around Concord accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, artwork or photographs.

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THE TIP LIST

Fast faves When Patrick Tompkins moved from Virginia to Concord last year, it was in the midst of a snowstorm. But that didn’t deter him from enthusiastically making the Granite State his new home. Along with his husband John, son Amaree, and their dog Axsul, Tompkins came to the capital to take up the helm of president at NHTI. He was inspired by a mentor who thought Concord’s community college would be a good fit for Tompkin’s service and Concord a good place to raise a family.

Turns out, he was right on both points. In his first year in the Capital Region, Tompkins has sought out some favorite spots for fantastic food. Since his family cooks good food at home, the expectations for dining out were high. Thankfully, Concord delivered. Here are some of his top recommendations to try for dinner.

Feeling Philly at Chief’s I’m from Philly, so pizza, cheesesteaks, and hoagies are my three main food groups. Chief’s Place in Penacook is the closest I’ve found to Dalessandro’s in the City of Brotherly Love.

Something sweet at True Confections Everyone knows chocolate is as necessary as oxygen.

True Confections serves it sweet and dainty.

Editor ’s note!

Kate Fleming, True Confections Aaron Jones

This wasn’t listed in Tompkin’s list because he probably hasn’t tried it yet since it’s so new. But we have a feeling he’d love the food and the vibe at N’Awlins Grille in Concord.

Read all about it on Page 28.

Great Indian at Curry Leaf

Cevapi and pita at Nina’s

The food at Tandy’s

Concord does not have a lot of ethnic cuisine, but I haven’t had Indian food this good since NYC.

It’s tucked away on a side street, but where else can you get cevapi (beef links) and fresh pita?

I love the chicken Caprese sandwich, steak tips, and specials. NHTI pride for alum Greg Tandy!

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TRY IT

FIND YOUR WAY The AllTrails app helps with safety and discovery. Some tips.

By JONANTHAN VAN FLEET The greatest map on the planet is already in your pocket. Whether hiking and biking in the summer or cross country skiing or snowshoeing in the winter, AllTrails can get you where you want to go. For those who don’t know, it’s a website and an app, which can be downloaded on your phone.

With more than 400,000 trails and 65 million users, it reaffirms popular places in your area or hidden gems you never knew existed. Remember not all trails on AllTrails are marked the same as the White Mountains and some degree of navigation, especially if you are on unfamiliar terrain, may be necessary. Check out some of the recommended spots in an area to make sure you stay on the path.

Here are three tips: ■ Read the reviews and look at photos: Check out what other people have to say about the hike.

Is there a sharp turn that’s hard to follow? Does it have a steep, slippery incline? Was it poorly marked? Familiarize yourself with landmarks along the way to make sure you are on the right track. You can get good information from other users at different times of the year if you are ex14 aroundconcord.com

ploring new terrain, which can help you with trail selection and preparation.

■ Print a map: Don’t be the dork walking through the woods with your phone in your hand. Before you go, use the app to print a map.

Highlight your route in yellow highlighter and then stick the map inside a resealable plastic bag to make it waterproof. In fact, make one for everyone in your hiking group. (More on that

Franklin Pierce University ’s Jocelyn Gagnon celebrated her 2022 graduation with a hike up Mount Monadnock in her cap and gown.

Courtesy

later.) Even if you think this won’t be necessary, it will help you preserve your phone battery, which could be crucial in an emergency situation to make calls or use it as a flashlight.

■ Share your itinerary with someone else: With the touch of a button you can share the map with your hiking companions and someone back home. Think safety first. If you and your hiking companions get separated, everyone will have the same tools to follow the trail. In

the event that you become lost, it’s always a good idea to tell someone back home where you intend to go so rescuers know where to look if anything goes wrong.

Remember, AllTrails works in your hometown as a way to explore new places the locals keep secret and across the country when you go on vacation where you are REALLY unfamiliar with the trails. All these tips are to make sure you have a safe and enjoyable time in the woods. Happy Trails!

Summer 2024 | Around Concord 15

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OUTDOORS

DOWNHILL

THRILL For the novice or the experienced, adventures await at Highland Park in Northfield.

Come along for a test ride.

By JEREMY MARGOLIS I arrived at Highland Mountain Bike Park on an overcast springtime Thursday afternoon with images of flying over berms and crashing into trees flashing through my mind. On my only other mountain biking escapade to date, a few summers ago, I had toppled off the trail minutes into my ride and still have the elbow scar to prove it.

My first stop was the bike shop, where I was outfitted with a full-sided, ear-squishing helmet and elbow and knee pads, which did little to quell my nerves. Nor did the tale of a broken leg that my instructor, Quinn Renaud, regaled me with on the several-minute ride up the chair and bike lift.

Much like a ski resort, Highland Mountain Bike Park in Northwood offers equipment rentals for those new to the sport.

Highland Mountain Bike Park

Summer 2024 | Around Concord 17

But once we got going down Freedom Trail – the easiest of the Northfield mountain’s 32 trails – I began to settle down. As I rounded the manicured corners of the trail (called “berms”) – trying and often failing to brake first and then coast, as Renaud had taught me earlier – I caught a hint of the thrill a fully in-control ride might bring.

But my afternoon at Highland was less an experience of “It’s just like riding a bike” and more one of “It’s just like heading to the slopes.”

Olivia Martinson, its marketing manager, insists the bike park does not want to adopt the culture of a ski resort, but she admits that the operation – from its trail map to its bike school to its “après-bike” pub – has closely followed the ski mountain model.

That’s partly because when owner Mark Hayes opened Highland in 2006, more than a decade after it had shuttered as a skiing destination, it was the first of its kind. At the time,

The 32 trails give riders all sorts of options.

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There are many paths down the mountain, but first, you’ll have to get up.

no other lift-operated mountain in the world catered solely to bikers.

Over nearly two decades, as the sport has grown and ski resorts in the Northeast have devoted more resources to their summer mountain biking operations, Highland has retained a certain degree of superiority for its biking purity.

The trails tend to be narrower and the season is longer than mountains with skiing seasons, according to Martinson. Highland opened on April 25 this year and will not close until Nov. 17, while Killington didn’t open until Memorial Day weekend and will close in October.

But Highland has only ditched the skiers, not the ski slope model. From the moment you turn onto Ski Hill Drive (a vestige from Highland’s past life), the sequence of the day will feel familiar to skiers.

For those without a bike, the first stop is the

Highland Mountain Bike Park

Bike Shop, where you are fitted with a bike and the aforementioned helmet and pads. And then for the novices, it is off to a Park Ready lesson, a twice-daily session where you learn to stand (always stand, no sitting) on the bike, maneuver it around turns (“It’s kind of like spearing a fish,” Renaud told me), and, yes, even how to load your bike onto the alternating lift cars that hold bikes (front wheel up!).

After about 30 minutes of practice, Renaud and I headed up the mountain – though only after I completely butchered the bike-loading process, which is slightly harder than getting onto a lift with skis. At the top, a trail map displays the options down, employing the familiar green, blue, black, double-black difficulty system, except with a wrinkle: Freeride trails, which are manicured and often wider are deSummer 2024 | Around Concord 19

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The park can accommodate the youngest riders, above, and the most daring, left.

noted with an orange oval, whereas Technical trails, which are rockier and rootier, are left alone – both from a maintenance perspective and on the map.

The trip down Freedom Trail took 10 to 15 minutes, with some stops along the way. It felt a good combination of manageable and fun for a total novice like me. On the neighboring trails that at times came into view, I watched bikers whiz around corners and go over jumps, giving me a taste of what I could perhaps aspire to. But mostly, the ride down was fairly peaceful as we traversed the tree-covered trail.

At the base of the mountain I was struck by the many really young kids enjoying the sport. At $29 for a midweek junior (ages 7-14) pass, it is a far more affordable family pastime than skiing. An adult weekend day pass is $72, while an adult allaccess season pass is $599.

One reason, perhaps, that Highland isn’t aiming to emulate ski culture is because skiing is often criticized as being an elite and inaccessible sport.

“We’re making a concentrated effort to show every identity of person and every level of riding

Highland Mountain Bike Park

Highland offers, because there really is something for everyone here, we just need to make sure that everyone sees that,” said Martinson, who grew up across the pond from the mountain.

Two weekends per season, Highland hosts women-centric events: a mountain biking clinic called Women’s Gravity Weekend on June 22 and 23 this year, and the Women’s Freeride Festival on September 14 and 15.

In addition to focusing on training beginners and intermediate riders, Highland also hosts the region’s top riders for a three-day Ultimate Freerider Series, which is free for spectators.

A variety of summer camps cater to children.

Highland also maintains a terrain park of sorts called Central Park, and for those who want more exercise, a free XC 17-trail network.

And, when your day comes to an end, Highland, as like any ski slope, has a lodge to relax and replenish in. The Highland Pub offers traditional pub grub, including pizza and a dozen local beers.

After an afternoon mountain biking with nary a battle scar to show, a vegetable burrito was a yummy conclusion to the day. ◆ Summer 2024 | Around Concord 21

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Dozens of pet contests took place inside Concord’s Everett Arena at the annual Seacoast Cat Club’s show

By CATHERINE McLAUGHLIN Fifteen-year veteran cat judge Vicky Merrill held a petite, tawny cat before the crowd to explain her score, remarking on his “wonderful profile” and “nice, heart-shaped face” as she turned his head to the side.

As she complimented his tail, he stretched his neck up to nuzzle her dangling earring, winning a hearty “Awww” from onlookers.

His personality was, as the crowd could see, quite charming. But, Merrill was resigned to say, that doesn’t fully matter from a scoring standpoint.

He lost points because of his pear-shaped body, she explained. The way his weight was

Summer 2024 | Around Concord 23

Geoff Forester photos

Carrie Bechard grooms Chippy, the 16-pound retired Persian champion at the New Hampshire Cat Show and Agility Event on Sunday, May 5 at Everett Arena in Concord.

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distributed toward his hind was “nontraditional” for the Exotic Shorthair breed.

Even as the crowd cooed, Merrill placed him back in his cage, sanitized her hands, neck and judging table, and moved along in her scoring.

One by one, she unpacked her rankings of 10 cats to the onlookers: a nervous and vocal Bengal, an alert, playful Abyssinian who she caught mid-air in an attempted escape, an Occicat with perfectly uniform spots and bright, round eyes and a bluepoint Siamese — who she could tell was an experienced show cat because of how she could move it around like putty, stretching it calmly down her arm to show off its length.

This round of judging was one of dozens taking place inside the Everett Arena at the Seacoast Cat Club’s show on May 4 and 5. Most people’s experience with pet shows comes from hours on the couch in a Thanksgiving food-coma. But unlike dog shows, cats at this event were not separated by

group or placed in a bracket. In each round, judges evaluated all different types of cats based on the standards for their gender, color and breed. The cat best matching those expectations in its respective category would win top marks. Owners entered their cats in multiple rounds of judging, hoping to collect as many high rankings as possible.

“Every ring is its own show in itself,” said Andrea Hantz, a Seacoast Cat Club member and show organizer. “It could be totally different from one judge to the next.”

Show manager Tracy Roberts brought her white and gray Persian “Char-O’s Chip Off the Old Block” with her to the show, but he wasn’t competing. Chip, as he’s commonly known, is a national award-winner and — at a seasoned two-and-a-half years old — is recently retired.

Roberts fell in love with showing after she fell in love with Persian cats.

Her first Persian was a gift from fam-

Judge Vicky Merrill checks a cat inside Everett Arena.

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LEFT: Owner Tracy Roberts gets ready to kiss Chippy. RIGHT: Brad Dicenzo displays his cat tattoos.

ily after she completed cancer treatment, and it was the breed, and learning from friends how to properly care for and groom it, that got her hooked on the hobby.

“If you ever see a big cat going by and a little person peeking out from behind it, that’s me,” Roberts said. “That’s how I always am.”

Showing, and the friendships she built through the club, have brought her out of her shell, she said.

“I’m kind of a background person,” Roberts said.

“But Chip and all my friends drove me right to the top — because it takes a village to keep going at this level.”

The show, hosted in Concord for more than a decade, drew not only these feline aficionados but “cat people” of all stripes hoping to get their fill of furry friends.

For many attendees, it was their first time at a cat show. Some had heard about the event through friends, while others had seen judging clips on social media and turned out to see it in person.

Emilee Sirois and Trevor Bonk of Concord have two Ragdoll kittens at home, one of whom, Kelvin, joined them at the show — not in a crate, but printed on Bonk’s t-shirt with his name in marquis at the top. While Sirois has been around animal shows before, she’d never been to a cat show and had seen videos online. The pair were hoping to meet fellow Ragdoll owners.

“We came to see what we might be in for with fully grown Ragdolls,” Sirois said.

26 aroundconcord.com

Geoff Forester photos

Many in the crowd donned their favorite kitty garb as they wandered through the maze of carriers, judging rings and vendors. Some, like animal control officer Brad DiCenzo of Haverhill, Mass., took it to the next level: DiCenzo had a partial sleeve tattoo of Siamese cats, his favorite breed and what his family always had when he was a kid.

The hobbyist nature of cat shows fosters a culture of camaraderie, Roberts and other owners explained.

There are no professional handlers: unlike show dogs, cats are evaluated without the coaching and preening of anyone other than the judge.

Cat shows are also more approachable because they include a household pets category for any cat that doesn’t fit squarely in a breed. These cats, because they are not held to a breed standard, are judged on their overall appearance, health and, more so than pedigree cats, personality. All judging is subjective, but this one in particular plays to the judge’s preferences, Hantz said.

The household category can also be an on-ramp for the curious into the hobby, getting a chance to learn the show ropes without investing in an expensive and high-maintenance pure-bred pet.

For many, though, the show was simply a way to be around their favorite animals.

“It’s fun to imagine what she would say about our cats,” attendee Jill Murphy said as she watched Merrill’s judging. Her family has two diluted Calicos at home, but she was skeptical at the idea of showing them. “They’re troublemakers.”

Brandy Campbell holds out her arms as her family ’s cat Chase jumps to her inside the New Hampshire Cat Show on May 5.

Judge Vicky Merrill passes out the ribbons to the winners at the at the New Hampshire Cat Show and Agility Event.

RIGHT: Emily Campbell holds her family ’s cat Chase inside the New Hampshire Cat Show.

FAR RIGHT: Emily Siriois and Trevor Bonk of Concord wear their cat tops.

Summer 2024 | Around Concord 27

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Jambalaya with cornbread is among the staples at N’awlins Grille in downtown Concord.

SOME SOULFUL Grits, jambalaya and layers of trifle cake: The N’awlins Grille menu features Creole specials

Geoff Forester photos

By MICHAELA TOWFIGHI The lore of the Russian Trifle cake in New Orleans dates back decades.

Larissa Tenters read one story about bakers who wanted to make something different to surprise royalty who were on a visit to Louisiana. So they chopped up their leftover desserts and layered them between two sponge cakes with a berry puree.

Now, Tenters is crafting the same cakes at N’awlins Grille off Eagle Square in Concord as the restaurant’s baker and assistant manager.

The Creole restaurant, which opened in February, is hidden behind the facade of a barbershop as a speakeasy. When diners arrive, they enter through a nondescript door into a lobby with a fire pit and phone on the wall.

Once they pick up the phone and

Summer 2024 | Around Concord 29

LEFT: One of N’awlins Grille dessert options.

RIGHT: Larissa Tenters of N’awlins Grille off Eagle Square in Concord has helped maintain the speakeasy atmosphere, combined with the authentic New Orleans cuisine and specialty drinks and desserts.

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share the code, “Who Dat,” they can enter the southern-style restaurant with murals of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on the walls. The menu, which rotates seasonally, features shrimp and grits and jambalaya.

But with unique desserts, like the Russian Trifle cake, Tenters hopes to draw customers back for these surprises.

“People would line up for them because you never knew what you were going to get,” she said.

The last trifle cake featured pieces of her black raspberry chocolate cake and vanilla cinnamon cake with a blackberry puree. She’s been saving recent desserts in hopes of concocting another soon.

But in the meantime, poached pears – soaked in red wine, orange juice and spices and boiled until the outside is a deep red, an ombre fade to the white center – and a rich chocolate flourless cake with mascarpone cream are on the dessert menu.

On Friday and Saturday nights they

Geoff Forester photos

The décor inside N’awlins Grille in downtown Concord includes murals and touches that evoke another place and era. But the food, especially the desserts, offer their own artistry.

Summer 2024 | Around Concord 31

will pause the jazz music that’s on repeat to host live bands. The fog machine will go to bring patrons into the “smokey, bayou vibe.”

But most of all, it’s fun.

“It’s just got a great vibe in here,” said Marybeth Marcellino, the manager. “We keep the music going all the time.”

And throughout the week they have other incentives to keep the place busy. On Tuesday, industry night means that anyone in the restaurant business gets 30 percent off their bill. On Wednesdays, diners are greeted with free beignets for every two entrees ordered.

“It’s fluffy, fried powdered sugar-coated donut, with a touch of fried dough to it,” said Tenters. “It’s amazing.”

Celebrating the Helio Big Year all summer long!

The Heliophysics Big Year is a global celebration of the Sun’s influence on Earth and the entire solar system.

Everything at N’awlins is made in-house from the syrups behind the bar to Tenter’s desserts.

“Homemade, from scratch,” she said.

The summer menu will trade the red wine poached pear for white wine, with peaches and strawberries. And some longtime customers, who ventured into the barbershop for Chucks, a speakeasy cocktail bar that used to occupy N’awlins space, may recognize her carrot cake.

Chucks’ fans may not have much longer to see the old bar back up and running. The hope for N’awlins is to host the bar again downstairs, with craft cocktails and music on the weekends to compliment the restaurant upstairs. ◆

Make Memories

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Explore our interactive exhibits for the whole family, see a planetarium show, and burn of some energy on our Science Playground!

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SOUND SANCTUARY Step inside a world-class recording studio tucked away on a North Sutton back road.

Photography by Geoff Forester

34 aroundconcord.com

Gerry Putnam sits at the mixing board of his one-man recording studio, Cedar House Sound & Mastering in Sutton.

By DAVID BROOKS Celtic music combos and authors recording spoken books. Twelve-piece R&B bands and actors improving movie dialog. Classical ensembles, folk musicians, people singing spirituals and even the occasional rapper.

The parade of customers that have come to a barn tucked away on a back road in Sutton for

the past two decades covers virtually every facet of modern recording. “Every style, every aspect,” is how Gerry Putnam puts it when talking of his one-man recording studio, Cedar House Sound & Mastering. It’s not just people who get his services, either: Putnam is also involved with projects to restore old recordings, from beaten-up 78s of Russian marching music

Summer 2024 | Around Concord 35

Gerry Putnam records overlay to a track at his one-man recording studio, Cedar House Sound & Mastering, in Sutton.

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to tapes of early Bob Dylan and Joan Baez at Harvard Square’s famous Club 47. “It’s like archeology without getting your hands dirty.”

So how did a world-class recording studio end up on Hominy Pot Road in North Sutton, in the shadow of the former King Ridge Ski Area? Simple, says Putnam: “I don’t want to be in the city. I need to see green and want to raise my kids in a place where they can run free.”

To do that, he said, “I had to have a studio that could attract people from all over the world. … Fortunately, the greater Lake Sunapee is a very artistic area, with so many authors, musicians, Hollywood people with houses on the lake. Throw in Route 89, people can get here from anywhere, and it’s a natural fit.”

Putnam, 68, grew up in New Jersey and Connecticut surrounded by music, including a father who sang in Princeton University’s famous Tiger Tones. He trained in music and played professionally and also became a chef,

moved to the Sunapee region in 1973 where he ran a restaurant, played in bands and eventually found that his mix of musical, technical and business experience was the right combination to help other musicians turn their talents and ideas into recordings.

He started a studio in 1979 that included a second facility in Manchester. When the kids came along – he has three who went through Kearsarge schools – he ditched the commute and “wanted to stay a oneman shop.” In 2000 he bought an 1850 home built by Moses Pillsbury, part of the clan of Pillsbury Co. food fame, with a barn that had previously held folk dances, then a hippy commune (“If only these walls could talk”) then a company making decoys for hunters. Considerable work, including lifting it up and installing a real foundation, turned it into a recording studio with exposed beams, angled ceilings to help direct sound, separated rooms for isolating singers, horn players, drummers or whoever will drown out everybody else.

Today it holds a full-sized Steinway grand piano, more guitars than you can count and a slew of other instruments including a pedal-operated pneumatic organ, plus enough recording and mixing equipment to satisfy any technophile. Included among them are a huge, two-inch, 24-track tape recorder to satisfy those dissatisfied with digital recording’s sample rate – “the 20’s and 30’s want analog” – plus microphones and pre-amps still powered by tubes. “Digital is great because you can work quickly and do so many things that were impossible before. For example, I don’t miss cutting tape. … But analog captures the sound, in a way that sampling can’t.”

Putnam’s website (cedarhousesound.com) lists hundreds of clients, from the Vermont attorney general’s office to Mighty Sam McLain. He does as much engineering and producing as the client needs and, if necessary, will send sound files remotely

Some of the guitars that are available to musicians at the recording studio.

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to get tracks from musicians who can’t make the trip.

He charges a flat $100 an hour and estimates that 70% of his business is doing live recordings in the studio “that I then escort through the entire process, right up through delivery,” while the rest is mixing and mastering for other recordings.

The key to success, he says, is putting egos aside, both his and the musicians’.

“If that relationship isn’t comfortable the music’s not going to be as good. My whole thing is to make them feel comfortable and I get it because I’m not just an engineer, I’m a musician. So much of it is psychology.

My time in the restaurant business trained me for that. You learn how to schmooze, you learn how to be sensitive to people, how to wind down their anxiety.”

Putnam’s wife, Frances, is an opera singer who also does some music teaching, while all his grown children

Gerry Putnam sits at the mixing board of his one-man recording studio, the recording area and some of the instruments available to use are seen in the background.

are relatively nearby. So they have no plans to go anywhere. As Putnam said, after pointing out the wild

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turkey trotting across the field behind the studio in the bright spring sunshine, “Why would I?” ◆

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Summer 2024 | Around Concord 39

A premier city event

TURNS

50 We turn to the Monitor archives in revisiting the past

By RAY DUCKLER It’s a milestone year for the downtown Market Days Festival, ringing in 50 years, and business owners were ready – all 160 spaces were rented seven weeks before the three-day festival, slated for June 20-22.

“It was somewhat unusual last year when we sold out before June,” said Jessica Martin, executive director of Intown Concord, a nonprofit created to promote the city. “That was good, but this year we had to pull out of the Early Bird Special, which actually ends (on May 1). We’ve been sold out for a couple of weeks, and that’s great.”

To celebrate the event’s 50th birthday, organizers have incorporated a 1970s theme into the festival, it became Market Days, the 1983 Before city ’s big downtown summer event

went by the name of Old Fashioned Bargain Days.

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Summer 2024 | Around Concord 41

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1992 ABOVE: Market Days on Main Street in July.

RIGHT: Clowns Shawn Radcliffe (left) and Ryan Mahoney.

meaning that a Queen cover band, The Ultimate Queen Celebration, will play on one of three stages on Friday June 21, at 8 p.m.

Martin sought an ABBA cover band.

“I didn’t win that vote,” she said.

The music is set to help visitors reminisce on the era of big hair for women and plaid sports jackets for men, and, of course, disco. Aside from the music, participants are encouraged to dress for the times in a parade set for 3:15 p.m. on Friday. The best two costumes will receive two free concert tickets.

For those looking for slightly different musical entertainment, the Capitol Center for the Arts will be holding its “Silent Disco” celebration, featuring a “battle of the decades” with DJ73 from 7 to 11 p.m. on Satur-

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1988

ABOVE: Square Dancers on Main Street.

RIGHT: A CVS employee makes change during a sale.

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1994

rain storm catches 1982 AMelanie Seybold (left) Juggler and magician John Parisi.

day, June 22, at the Bank of NH stage.

The Market Days concept was born out of the Concord Chamber of Commerce’s Retail Trade Board debuting Old Fashion Bargain Days.

The RTB, composed mostly of downtown retailers, had a vision: “To enhance the vitality of the City and its downtown for the betterment of local businesses and the community.”

Various other governing bodies took the reins of what is considered one of the highlights of the summer in the city, which these days draws 50,000 people over the three days.

Beyond the music and parade, Berit Brown, Intown Concord’s events and marketing manager, is scanning microfilm at the State Library, piecing together a movie about Old Fashioned Bargain Days and the wild outfits from the ’70s.

Brown’s compilation will be shown in the evening on Thursday, June 20.

A mainstream movie will be shown once darkness sets in.

There will also be a special “Mar-

and her niece, Kathy Seybold on Main Street

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1985 LEFT: A man rides down Main Street on a bicycle during Old Fashioned Bargain Days.

ABOVE: Old Fashioned Bargain Days on Main Street.

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ket Haze” beer from Concord Craft Brewing. The brew is a “hazy New England-style IPA,” according to an event poster. A dollar from each purchase is set to go to Intown Concord.

It will be available at Concord Craft Brewing, the three beer tents at the festival, and participating merchants.

At the Intown beer tent, visitors will not only find adult beverages, but special 50th anniversary merchandise, including stickers and t-shirts for sale.

“I’d like to think that we made a really good effort to make this happen,” Martin said. “More businesses are participating downtown that had not been participating, so that is exciting.”◆

2023 Avariy Calley, 7, plays with the bubble machine in front of the State House at the beginning of Market Days

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SUPPORT@NNEDIGITAL.COM WWW. NNEDIGITAL .COM +1 (603) 369-3347 Concord Monitor, Concord Insider, Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, Valley News, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Greenfield Recorder, Athol Daily News, Valley Advocate Summer 2024 | Around Concord 47

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Summer 2024 | Around Concord 49

LEFT: Vivian Arnold grabs a candlepin bowling ball as she plays on her birthday weekend at Boutwell’s at Glow Bowling night in April.

BOTTOM LEFT: Vivian Arnold uses a dinosaur slide to roll her candlepin bowling ball as her brother, Andrew, watches.

BOTTOM RIGHT: The lanes at Boutwell’s are darkened and colored lights swirl around as people bowl on Glow Bowling night.

Andrew Arnold throws a candlepin bowling ball during his sister's birthday weekend party.

50 aroundconcord.com

The candle pins are the only lit places at the Glow Bowling night at Boutwell’s.

LEFT: The outdoor sign at Boutwell’s Bowling Center advertising Glow Bowling.

ABOVE: The rows of bowling shoes at Boutwell’s in Concord.

BELOW: One of many historical trophy glass cases.

Summer 2024 | Around Concord 51

HISTORY

Concord Public Library

The view of North Main Street in Concord in the early 1900s.

The challenges of growth At the dawn of the twentieth century, 19,632 people called Concord home. That number has since more than doubled. The story of Concord’s residential development in the twentieth century is one of persistent, at times explosive, growth. It is also a story of planning – sometimes far-

sighted, sometimes myopic, particularly in hindsight. With such a sharp rise in population density, particularly during the 1920s and especially between 1980 and 2000 when the population increased by a third, Concord was faced with a problem best phrased by Robert Frost: The city would have to “put its mind / On how to crowd but still be kind.”

Learn More

Doing so was easier said than done. Conservationists bemoaned the fragmentation of forests and fields as one subdivision followed another. Rifts opened between Concord’s Planning Department and city councilors whose constituents were skeptical of city zoning policies. Social divides came to the fore as middle-class homeowners resisted

‘Crosscurrents of Change” Concord, N.H. in the 20th Century’ This 400-plus page hardcover edition introduces you to the people who helped shape a city, and it takes you through tragedy and triumph with some of the defining moments in Concord history. To purchase a copy or to learn more, visit concordhistoricalsociety.org/store.

52 aroundconcord.com

Concord Public Library photos

LEFT: Concord’s business district on a weekend morning in the early 1900s.

RIGHT: The proposed traffic rotary at McKee Square in the city’s South End in 1943.

apartment and condominium complexes in their neighborhoods.

No section of the city escaped development. Woods and farmland were lost irrevocably as agriculture declined and population rose. The character of neighborhoods such as the

Heights, so wooded and ominously remote in 1900 that it was often called “Burglar’s Island” and where only 120 households called it home, was forever altered. Class stratification did emerge as the city’s expansion separated upper-class and working-class

neighborhoods.

This except written by Geoffrey R. Kirsch and Elizabeth Durfee Hengen was part of “Chapter 2: Granite, Brick, Steel and Wood” in Crosscurrents of Change.

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THE SCENE

Geoff Forester photos

New Hampshire State Sen. Jeb Bradley holds up a copy of the Concord Monitor that was in the time capsule at the former DOJ building on North State Street on April 9.

Community reminisces

TOP: Chocolatier Jonathan Doherty uses the enrober to coat his base chocolate with another coating of chocolate at his home in Hopkinton. Doherty worked with the National Parks Service in conservation before retiring and pursuing chocolate-making full-time, which shines through in his creations.

LEFT: Concord Police Department social worker Nicole Petrin talks with police officer Alex Cronin.

54 aroundconcord.com

ABOVE: Merrimack Valley midfielder Ella Frink runs between two Kingswood players during a 14-3 win.

BELOW: Axel Laperle, right, 6, looks up at the eclipse in the middle of a soccer field on the campus of NHTI in Concord with his cousin, Logan Lavoie and his grandparents, Lynn and Douglas Laperle, as the light dimmed and it reached the maximum coverage on April 8.

ABOVE: Mindy Welch winds up at the axe throwing station at Smitty’s Cinema in Tilton. Welch drove from Vermont to spend time with her sons.

BELOW: Allenstown principal Shannon Kruger greets student Devonte Riveria at the school gymnasium on April 18. A group of students came to the school to get a tour of the new facility.

Summer 2024 | Around Concord 55

POETRY

Opinion It was a lean-to one could live in so long as it never rained. It was

undone. It only had one track and when it sped up it was sure to derail.

a grain of salt close up, looking like a crystal, growing from itself

It had a smile for a satellite or a smirk for a son. Everyone

like an outcrop of land. It was a sail opened in a storm. A memory lost.

thought they recognized its face, but, one by one, they were wrong.

A coin tossed at the wrong time, declaring heads or tails. It had the air

This poem by Jennifer Militello appeared in The Nation in January 2020. Militello is the Poet Laureate of New Hampshire.

She is the author of the hybrid collection Identifying the Pathogen (forthcoming, 2025), The Pact (Tupelo Press/Shearsman Books, 2021) and the memoir Knock Wood, winner of the Dzanc Nonfiction Prize (Dzanc Books, 2019), as well as four previous books of poetry. She is a member of the faculty at New England College.

of an aristocrat or the stench of a skunk.

No matter who bred it, it couldn’t be fair.

It wasn’t a buoy. It kept no one up.

It had the metallic notice of a gong.

Joanne Smith

New England College Prof. Jennifer Militello, will be New Hampshire's Poet Laureate. Her five-year term started in April 2024.

Share with us >> 56 aroundconcord.com

It was a thoroughbred raced too soon, or a setting moon, or a button lost or

Do you have poetry or scenic images you’d like to share?

Send them to editor@aroundconcord.com.

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A THOUSAND WORDS

Apple Hill Farm in Concord is one of the many pick-your-own options in the area.

Monitor file

Take your pick Long before the first apple tree bears fruit, pick-your-own enthusiasts turn to the smaller, sweeter rewards of midsummer. This is when berries capture the headlines and young pickers leave the fields with blue grins and stained shirts. Strawberries get the season started and are typically followed by blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.

And if you don’t want to put in the back-bending work but love to savor the burst of summer, head out to your local farmers market where you’ll be able to get a head-start on a fruit pie.

Contribute >> 58 aroundconcord.com

Welcome to ‘A Thousand Words,’ a quarterly feature that ends the magazine with an iconic photo. Share your image with us, and we may be able to use it in a coming issue.

Only high-resolution photos are accepted, and despite the intent of the feature, we will need to accompany your image with a few words. So please send your photo and a brief description to editor@aroundconcord.com.

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