When sitting down to dinner at Canoe Club Restaurant, don’t be surprised if someone with a guitar case plugs his instrument into the bass behind you or sits down at a piano bench nearby. Many local venues like restaurants, bars and clubs host various live music acts throughout the week and weekend. In town, musicians play at the Salt Hill Pub, Canoe Club and Jesse’s Restaurant and Tavern, while around the Upper Valley, popular venues include the Tupelo Music Hall in White River Junction, the Lebanon Opera House, Quechee’s River Stones Tavern and Flying Goose Brew Pub in New London.
In Hanover, musicians usually play at restaurants with bars. Salt Hill Pub often features local upbeat rock acts like the Squids, Baldilocks! and the Wheelers. Canoe Club has featured live entertainment 363 days a year since it opened 11 years ago and typically hosts musicians who play jazz on the piano or guitar.
A handful of these venues’ regular artists are affiliated with the College, including undergraduates, graduate students and faculty.
Tyné Freeman ’17, a member of X.ado and Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble as well as a recent Dartmouth Idol finalist, said she was surprised to see a piano at Canoe Club. She asked the manager about performance opportunities and has played there since.
“I didn’t realize that there was much of a music scene here, but there definitely is,” Freeman said. “You just kind of have to look for it, but it’s pretty varied and pretty interesting once you start looking a little deeper.”
John Wheelock Tu’15 said he enjoyed playing two recent evening gigs at Canoe Club with classmate Matt Prescottano Tu’15 as a way to do something different in town.
He said the crowds at such events range from small groups of friends to diners and large bar crowds. Dinner crowds tend to be the smallest and most subdued, Wheelock said.
“There are so many people at Tuck who are really musically talented — a lot of people have tremendous singing voices,” Wheelock said. “This is another venue to get a bunch of people together in a small, intimate setting and play some good music.”
Rowland Hazard, a guitarist and professor of orthopaedics at the Geisel School of Medicine, recently played a solo jazz show at Salt Hill Pub. He said he enjoys the variety in the local music scene, since shows change night to night, depending on the audience and its responsiveness.
“I’ve played for a thousand people, and I’ve played for six people,” Hazard said. “The amazing part is that you actually don’t know who is listening and at what level when you play at a club.”
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center section chief of ophthalmology and Geisel professor of surgery Billy Rosen, a guitarist who often plays at Canoe Club, said audiences surprise him with their attentiveness. Although he typically plays for a dinner crowd, many patrons do not regard his playing as simply background music. He has had people approach him to compliment his performance, Rosen said.
Since Hanover is a small town and most local artists have day jobs, acquaintances from shows sometimes run into each other in humorous circumstances.
“It’s always fun when patients will come up to me and see me in a different venue and have a whole new take on me,” Rosen said.
