Around the end of October, the sun starts clocking out about the same time that I’m starting to think about a cocktail on a deck or by a woodstove somewhere, depending on the changeable weather that is characteristic of where I’ve chosen to call home. Clocks go back soon, and after that it’s dark by the time you’ve found your keys. This is when people ask me, with the careful casualness of someone asking about a breakup, what there is to do here after the leaves go.
Not nothing. You might just be surprised. A lot of those of us who live here year round have much more active social lives in the fall and winter; which makes sense when you consider that most of us spend the summers joyfully hosting guests. What fills our evenings and weekends once the summer crowd has gone and the boats have been pulled is a handful of rooms that keep the lights on all winter and a handful of bigger ones that book real acts. Here’s my map of both for Oct 15 through Dec 1.
The Regulars
These aren’t events. They’re standing appointments, the kind you don’t put in a calendar because eventually you just know. You’ll start to recognize the same folks if you go to these more than once, which is the universe telling you to make friends.
Wednesdays, 6 to 8, Mr. Sippy’s in Rochester. A bluegrass jam in a barbecue joint, with other artists by invitation on other evenings throughout the winter. You can sit and listen, which is the sensible choice. Or you can bring an instrument and learn exactly where you stand, which is a more educational one. Nobody is cruel about it. The banjo player will simply know. And if you’re lucky, Leanne will be working because she sings one song every Wednesday she’s on and it just might bring tears to your eyes in addition to the smile you’ll break out into.
Saturdays, 3 to 6, Twin Barns in Meredith. Afternoon music through the fall. I’m a fan of the 3 o’clock set, because you get an entire show and still make it home in time to make dinner. That feels like cheating. If they have on it tap when you’re there, don’t sleep on their IPA Palmer’s Town. I don’t even like IPAs and this one is my go to when I’m on that side of the lake.
Saturdays, 6 to 9, Knotty Pine in Sanbornville. Live music at a tavern on Pine River Pond Road. Dinner and a set, in whichever order your appetite votes for. Regulars here will tell you to get here early, because the bar fills up as soon as the sun starts setting. Everything on the menu is solid, but personally I get the baked haddock dinner.
Saturdays, 6 to 8, Hermit Woods in Meredith. Piano in the loft. Reserve a seat. Piano fans plan ahead, which tells you something about piano fans. But you can usually sneak in and still find a seat. Try a wine flight and enjoy an evening of culture and beauty crafted for your palate and for your ears.
Notice what these have in common: a single musician, a room that holds maybe sixty people, and nobody asking you to download anything.
The Bigger Rooms
Some nights call for a marquee, and there are real ones dotted throughout the area, though you will have to drive for these. Hot tip, in most of these towns there are airbnbs and small inns whose nightly rates are a fraction of what they command during the season. Book a room and make a mini-vacation of it.
At the Flying Monkey in Plymouth, a theater that’s was a regional draw way back during vaudeville and silent film and a very deliberate rescue, the fall runs deep. The Travelin’ McCourys are on Oct 15, Bruce Cockburn and Livingston Taylor on Oct 20, and Gaelic Storm on Oct 25. Later come the Slambovian Circus of Dreams (Nov 14), the James Hunter Six (Nov 19), and Nona’s Supper Club (Nov 21 and 22). One of those names is a band, one is a circus, and one is a dinner. Plymouth contains multitudes.
The Rochester Opera House is another under-appreciated resource that knows how to throw a party you won’t soon forget: Arrested Development on Oct 24, the Artimus Pyle Band on Halloween, an ABBA tribute on Nov 14, and a Billy Joel tribute on Nov 28. I think of Mamma Mania as a nice standing reminder that this region contains a lot of people who will absolutely dance if given the slightest invitation. So, come out dancing queens, and show us your moves.
The Colonial in Laconia has Girls Night: The Musical on Oct 17 and Bat Out of Helloween on Oct 23. Recycled Percussion plays the Cake Theatre in Laconia on Oct 17 and 24, with an afternoon show and an evening show each day. And on Oct 18, the Portland String Quartet is playing with pianist Laura Kargul in the Little White Church in Eaton, which is the sort of sentence that can’t be improved upon no matter the location. Check back later in the fall for The Colonial’s November and December schedule.
Where to go to make something
Something that has been coming up a lot in conversation as a friend gets The Writers of the Lakes Region up and running is just how much talent there is in this region. And that sentiment is spot on. There are wood workers, jewelry makers, fiber artists, photographers, potters, poets, and memoirists, storytellers, and ceramicists just a stones throw from wherever you find yourself. There’s probably a causal connection with the natural beauty and quiet of this region and how it draws creatives like a magnet, but for now we’ll just call it a correlation. And, most of these folks are really happy to share their talents with you.
Makers Mill in Wolfeboro runs classes nearly every week: printmaking, metalsmithing, mixed media, alcohol inks, leatherwork, sewing, rug braiding. There are free nights too. A Repair Café on the last Sunday of the month lets you bring a broken thing and watch a volunteer fix it, which is a form of theater I like to watch even when I don’t have an item to fix. A fiber arts mingle lets you bring a project and sit with strangers. October is posted. November is on its way, and makersmill.org has the calendar. They give free tours every Friday and the first Saturday of the month.
Hobbs in West Ossipee takes the Hayloft out of the beer-only business: macramé on Oct 22, fall calligraphy on Oct 29, comedy night on Nov 19. A craft class with a beer nearby is the single best idea I can imagine for a fall evening. Grab a friend, or plan to make some new ones, and pop in to learn a new skill.
Artistic Roots in Plymouth is a working gallery, open daily, with a potter, a silversmith, an oil painter, and a woodturner among this month’s featured artists. The Lakes Region Art Association in Tilton rotates exhibits all fall, including a photography show from the Camera Club Oct 15 to 25, and runs adult watercolor workshops on the second and fourth Wednesdays. The League of NH Craftsmen in Meredith teaches small classes, with stained glass candle holders on Oct 17 and 18. And in Campton, Dam Brewhouse has a juried fabric artist on the wall through November, with an artist reception on Monday, Oct 19, from 5 to 6:30.
For anything I’ve missed, lakesregion.org keeps a free events calendar with an arts and culture filter. I’d check a venue’s own page the week you plan to go, because schedules wander. Or, let us all know where you go by leaving a comment.
Balance is the goal
The marquee shows are fun, and I’ll be there for at least one of them. But the small rooms are the ones that give you something the summer version can’t: the sense that you’re a regular at a place you’ve only been to twice.
A Wednesday jam. A Saturday afternoon set. A printmaking class in a building where the person at the next table is learning too. These aren’t louder or bigger. They’re closer. And closer, it turns out, is what makes me feel like I’m part of something bigger. Community isn’t about an address, its about the conversations you have while learning to make earrings it would have been easier to buy.
If you’re thinking through what community means next, I’m always happy to talk. Even if you’re just thinking out loud.
Here’s to being in the room where the music is made.
🧭Jenn
Keys to the Lakes
