NEWMARKET, NH – When it comes to music festivals, the majority of them take place in some sort of fairground or park with the landscape being vast, bands and musicians performing on various stages, and huge crowds of people. There are events like these that also occur on a way smaller scale at local clubs and venues. They usually last for either an entire day or an entire weekend with it being a more community-based experience. One of the many examples of this is the “Summer Cooker,” which is going down at The Stone Church in Newmarket on July 26. Presented by both singer-songwriter Jon Nolan and the venue, the second edition of this event will be starting outdoors at 6 p.m., then moving indoors after 9 p.m. with a bunch of acts performing while bringing a family-friendly vibe.
This includes Jon Nolan & Good Co., The Kenny Brothers Band, Todd Hearon Band, The Riverbeds and many others. I had a talk with Nolan ahead of the festivities about how this came together, a new album he’s putting out and what people can expect at the “Summer Cooker” when they attend.
TICKETS
The Stone Church Music Club
5 Granite Street, Newmarket
Rob Duguay: What initially sparked the idea for the “Summer Cooker” while having it be this family-friendly festival at The Stone Church? Did you have the idea for it or did the venue approach you about it?
Jon Nolan: In the middle of the pandemic, when we were washing our groceries and wondering if we would be able to spend time in the same space together, I was talking to a musician friend of mine. I conceived what now is called the “Slow Cooker Sessions”, which is a once-a-month wintertime series that happens from November to March. I asked my friend Jamie [Preston], who owned The Stone Church at the time, if I could do it there, and she said “Yes.” It’s a lovely cold weather show with soup, bread, music and fun that takes place one Sunday a month during the winter, and I’m happy to say that it has become everything that I hoped it would be. It’s community meets music meets a good hangout, there’s not a lot of pressure and it’s less of a concert and more of a happening, if you will.
People feel that and they’ve been responding, it’s been really special. When we do those sessions, we have special guests and it’s me and my friends where we have a little ensemble and we choose some of our other friends to come play some songs. Everybody loves it and they’ve wanted us to keep going, but we wanted to keep it a winter thing. Instead of continuing the “Slow Cooker Sessions” year-round, we have one day called the “Summer Cooker” that harvests the community with the same good thoughts and feelings that we put into the wintertime sessions. That’s what we will be doing on Saturday, most of the musicians that are playing have been guests during the wintertime sessions.
We’re pulling them in to have some fun together and certainly Newmarket is a great and tight knit community. We want it to feel like a family shindig, so it’s a little bit of that and a little bit of a music festival minus the $10 waters and crappy super expensive tent sites. We want to have it be a little bit of this and a little bit of that with the “Summer Cooker”. We did one two years ago and this is the second one, we didn’t do it last year.
RD: Was there any reason for not doing it last year or was it just because of your own schedule? What happened with that?
JN: That was the period when Jamie was selling her portion of the church and we were looking for a new partner, but it just didn’t work out. There wasn’t anything suitable.
RD: Ok, that makes sense. When it comes to this time around versus the first “Summer Cooker” that took place two years ago, is there anything that you’re doing differently to fine tune things or have things run more smoothly?
JN: The “Slow Cooker Sessions” aren’t about smoothness, and that’s part of the charm. It’s about the easy-going feel, but what’s different this time with the “Summer Cooker” is that Jack O’Sullivan, who is one of the owners of The Stone Church, is flexing his pig roasting skills. He’s going to be throwing down on the food side to bring that nostalgic and memorable summertime feel. One of the things we’re bringing back is a rock, paper, scissors tournament, which is hilarious. It requires no skill, so we want the barrier for entry to be very wide so all sorts of people can have a fun time.
There will be a prize, people can just raise their hand if they want to do it, we’ll pair them up for rock, paper, scissors until there’s a final tournament, and we’ll make it dramatic and hilarious. Then somebody will get to raise their arms in victory as the champion of the “Rock, Paper Scissors Summer Cooker Tournament”. We’ll have some other little family things and comedic bits that we’ll sprinkle throughout performances, which is part of the culture.
RD: That all sounds awesome. Going back to the name “Slow Cooker”, that’s actually the name of a new album you have coming out on September 19. What was the experience like making it? I know you recorded it in Newmarket, but you also worked with Ryan Ordway at The Studio Portland in Portland, Maine and co-produced it with Geoff Taylor while having Jonathan Wyman mix a few songs and bringing a bunch of different people into the fold.
JN: It’s called “Slow Cooker” for a few reasons. One is obviously the “Slow Cooker Sessions”, and the other is that the sessions during the wintertime happen in the upstairs ballroom of The Stone Church. It’s just this magical room, it’s perfect for the wintertime series and also because of the generosity of the people at The Stone Church, on some off-days, they allowed us to go up there and record the album in the same center of the room we do the “Slow Cooker Sessions”. It sort of started to feel like the clubhouse of this era. Everything has a season and this band and these batch of songs were nurtured and marinated in that space.
Also, the philosophy that underpinned the making of the record was us taking our time and making sure that the center of the record was emotionally what we wanted it to be. Not just be reactionary to any particular impulse to do this or that, just giving it a second to bloom. This band and this record is evidence of what we’re doing. Do I want to sell the record? Of course. Am I excited for people to hear it? Of course, but it’s literally a record of what we’re doing.
It’s something that people can experience at home before they come and experience us at The Stone Church.
RD: That’s a cool vision for it.
JN: Yeah, and I think when they listen to the record, they will feel what we were feeling in the room at that point and they’ll want to come and see us. Then they’ll come and bring that same experience into the room when we do it again. I can wax poetic if you want, but metaphorically, that’s the “slow cooking” of that musical experience. The sort of feedback loop between the artist and the audience. Ryan Ordway is an old friend of mine from way back, my other band Say Zuzu recorded up at his studio, so we reconnected and did some tracks up there.
Jonathan Wyman is an even older friend I’ve known since the ‘90s and he’s really come into his own as this real fierce talent while working with some big names and top 10 national artists. Happily, he’s still a guy who’s in my phone and as of right now I can afford. He just does an incredible job and after I was recording with Geoff, and afterwards it’s kind of like editing your own book. You don’t want to do it, so after we finished we were like, “Ok, Jon. It’s your turn now, do your magic.” He just crushed it, anything I send to Wyman I can sleep easy at night because that guy has magic ears and he sends whatever I send to him back twice as good.
RD: It’s great that you have that relationship. Say this Saturday, someone is looking for something to do in Newmarket, but they’re not really familiar with The Stone Church or the community around it, or maybe they’re not familiar with your music or anyone else at the festival, what would you say is the biggest selling point of the “Summer Cooker” to that person?
JN: If you’re looking for some easy warmth and connection to a community, that’s what we’re building there. There will be food and music, like I mentioned earlier, there’s going to be a big pig roast. You can make that as part of your ticket if you want, and we’ll have the indoor venue too. There will be some indie music, some Americana music, some rock music, a little jam influenced stuff and a variety of styles happening at the same time. There will be some surprise guests and a rock, paper scissors tourney with some random games.
If we’re doing it right, and we’re pretty good at it at this point, it should have all the feelings of your family and friends kind of gatherings with none of the pressure of needing to be entertained. You can dip in and dip out, chat with your friends and just have a good time. We want to create a don’t-miss-it summer memory, and that’s what we’re trying to do.