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“It actually sparkled,” said Nelson, who, along with Ritcher, fronts the Burlington-based, blues-inspired trio Dwight & Nicole. “There was so much quartz in the ground that I was finding chunks of it sticking out of the grass. To me, it just felt like a natural extension of that beautiful, present energy we found there, and the people who lived and grew up in that place who are so special.”
So when their friend from Strafford, Jake Albee, called them up to tell them about the plight of the Town House, Ritcher was moved.
Built in 1799, the Town House is one of the oldest meetinghouses in Vermont. Strafford’s annual Town Meeting has taken place there since 1801, but it also functions as a community space where weddings, recitals, lectures and exhibitions are held. The structure itself has remained mostly unchanged over the years, which means it’s retained its old-timey charm, but also means that it needs more than a little work: The entire steeple — everything from the clock up — needs to be removed for repairs, then re-installed, an expensive process that is roughly $40,000 short of its goal.
Upon learning this news, Ritcher and Nelson said it felt right to offer their services.
“One thing led to another,” Ritcher said. “Before we knew it, we were doing a benefit concert.”
Dwight & Nicole will bring its soulful, floor-shaking rhythms to the Town House this Saturday night at 6:30 in a preview of the band’s forthcoming album, Electric Lights, due out this fall. The Burlington-based band Thunderbolt Research will serve as the opening act, and a beer tasting from Tunbridge’s Brocklebank Craft Brewing will start at 5 p.m. All proceeds from the concert will go toward the Town House steeple’s restoration.
For Nelson and Ritcher, returning to Strafford is of a piece with their ongoing love affair with Vermont. The two had played on the Boston blues scene for several years — first independently, then together — prior to moving to Brooklyn, N.Y., where Nelson grew up. They bounced around New England for a while after that, but every time they visited friends in the Lake Champlain region, it got harder and harder to leave.
“Life there seemed to hold true to the ideology I had always believed in,” Nelson said. “Things like be kind to each other, take care of your neighbors, shop locally. Be conscious of health on a higher level.”
Putting down roots in Burlington helped their sound grow into new territory, they said.
“Things really kicked into higher gear after we moved to Vermont,” said Ritcher. “I think we really got our sound together here.”
Since its Boston days, Dwight & Nicole has come to defy categorization. Though the band remains true to its bluesy origins, it’s grown into an expansive amalgam of soul, rock, reggae, R&B, jazz and gospel. Ritcher and Nelson named among their influences — which shine through in their latest albums — Cream, Janis Joplin and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, as well as pop, country and the big bands of the 1940s.
“Inside of myself, it’s always been more than just the blues,” Nelson said. “That was one part of me as an artist, but I always felt I was missing something. I wasn’t expressing my whole self.”
Ritcher plays electric guitar, and Nelson lays down the basslines. They also both sing lead vocals, a stylistic twist that allows them to weave their voices together in a number of ways: Depending on what they feel the song calls for, Ritcher and Nelson may harmonize with each other, or play around with different octaves, or alternate parts, or both sing lead the whole way through. Each variation builds on the way Ritcher’s stark, sinewy voice blends with Nelson’s sweet but powerful vibrato.
“(Having two lead singers) just gives us a lot of different colors to work with, like a painter’s palette,” Nelson said. “We don’t just have white and black and the primary colors. We also have green and purple and orange and all those other shades.”
They’ve also recently brought a drummer into the fold, Ezra Oklan, who the two singers said has helped complete their sound.
“It happened really naturally,” Nelson said. “There’s this extrasensory thing that happens with playing music where … the culmination of the experience is bigger than the individual people and their instruments. It’s rare to find that kind of chemistry, but that’s what happens when we play with Ezra.”
As Dwight & Nicole evolved into their current style, that style found a steadily growing audience. When Nelson performed on Season 3 of the NBC singing competition The Voice, her rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah soared to No. 24 on the iTunes pop chart.
Since then, the New England Music Awards named Dwight & Nicole the 2016 band of the year, and their single, I Need Love, was named a song of the year by the Boston Herald. For Electric Lights, Nelson, Ritcher and Oklan worked with the major producer Joel Hamilton, whose past clients include the likes of Aaron Neville and the Black Keys.
But despite these professional accolades, Nelson and Ritcher said they are most proud of their personal growth.
“The smallest things are where the real achievements are,” Nelson said. “Learning to prioritize the most important things in life was huge for me. … Number one, health. Number two, relationships. Number three, art. After that, you can take your pick for what comes next.”
Looking ahead to Saturday’s show, Ritcher is grateful for “the chance to be in the moment with all those beautiful people in that beautiful place,” he said. “It’s all about celebrating our lives and our artistic experiences together, and finding that special alchemy between the band and the audience.
“It’s a hard thing to quantify,” he said, “but everyone feels it when it’s there.”
Dwight & Nicole perform at the Strafford Town House on Saturday night at 6:30, in the next concert of a series benefiting the restoration of the venue’s spire. Admission is $20 in advance and $25 at the door. To reserve tickets (seating is limited to an audience of 200) and learn more, visit atthetownhouse.org.
Best Bets
The Parish Players open a production of Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias on Friday night at 7:30, at the Eclipse Grange Theater on Thetford Hill. The play follows the lives of the proprietor and customers of a Louisiana beauty salon. The show runs through June 18. To reserve tickets ($12 to $15) and learn more, visit parishplayers.org.
The Acadian trio Vishten performs traditional music of Canada’s Prince Edward Island and Magdalen Islands at Chandler Music Hall in Randolph on Friday night at 7:30. The concert was rescheduled from its original date of March 11. For tickets ($10 to $25) and more information, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
Pianist Miro Sprague joins the Michael Zsoldos Ensemble for a concert at the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre on Friday night at 8. The ensemble also includes trombonist Eric Miller, bassist Marty Jaffe and drummer Paul Wiltgen. General admission tickets cost $15. To learn more, visit pentanglearts.org.
On the theme of “Let Me Fly,” the Cantabile women’s chorus performs works of Bach, Debussy, DeCormier, Robert Schumann and Gwendolyn Walker at two venues over the weekend: Saturday afternoon at 4 at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon and Sunday afternoon at 4 at the Norwich Congregational Church. To reserve tickets ($5 to $15) and learn more, visit cantabilewomen.org.
The Tango Norte ensemble of pianist Bob Merrill, violinist Thal Aylward, bassist Peter Concilio and accordionist Jeremiah McLane plays milonga-style tango music for a lesson and a dance at ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret on Sunday afternoon. The lesson starts at 3, and costs $10 for attendees not planning to stay for the dance. The dance runs from 4 to 7, and costs $15 for dancers not taking the lesson. Dancers aiming to do both pay $22. To learn more, visit artistreevt.org.
The Seven Stars Arts Center in Sharon celebrates its 15th birthday with a “Star Party,” to which attendees are encouraged to dress as their favorite stars, on Sunday night at 5:30. Tom Joyce will perform magic, and activities include games and crafts. To learn more, visit sevenstarsarts.org.
Looking Ahead
The teen actors of the Newport-based Performer’s Playground troupe and of the Claremont-based Amplified Arts’ The Academy will collaborate on an adaptation of Hamlet at Amplified Arts’ theater at 31 Pleasant St. in Claremont on June 9 and 10. The modern retelling sets the Shakespearean tragedy in 2024, mixing in technology and current themes. Stagings are scheduled for 7 p.m. on June 9, and for 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on June 10. To reserve tickets ($13) and learn more, visit amplifiedartsnh.com or the Amplified Arts page on Facebook, or email amplifiedartsnh@gmail.com.
The Woodstock History Center is inviting aspiring actors to perform in period costume during its annual cemetery tour on July 15. Monologue and dialogue roles are available, with scripts running five to 10 minutes. To learn more, call 802-457-1822 or email education@woodstockhistorical.org.
Theater/Performance Art
The BarnArts Center for the Arts stages the Sarah Ruhl comedy Dead Man’s Cell Phone tonight and Friday night at 7, at 4:30 Saturday afternoon, at 7 Saturday night and at noon on Sunday, at the barn of the Barnard Inn. To reserve tickets ($10 to $15) and learn more, visit barnarts.org or call 802-234-1645.
Old Church Theater in Bradford premieres the Tony Sportiello mystery/comedy One Night in the Valley over the first two weekends of June, starting Friday night at 7:30. Subsequent staging of the play, which contains adult language, are scheduled for 7:30 on Saturday and Sunday nights and the nights of June 9 and 10, and for 2:30 on Sunday afternoon and the afternoon of June 11. For tickets ($6 to $12) and more information, visit oldchurchtheater.org or call 802-222-3322.
Music
Singer-guitarist David Greenfield serenades the Lebanon Farmers Market this afternoon between 4 and 7 at Colburn Park.
The Pine Hill Singers celebrate their 20th year as a chorus by performing a concert at Alumni Hall in Haverhill on Friday night at 7. Songs will range across genres from classical to contemporary, Broadway numbers to pop and patriotic to global. While admission is free, donations are welcome to the chorus’ scholarship fund for college-bound high school from northern Vermont and New Hampshire. To learn more, visit courtstreetarts.org.
Lebanon-native soprano Mary Bonhag sings songs incorporating Russian, English and Persian poetry at three central Vermont venues over the weekend, starting at 7:30 Friday night at the Green Mountain Girls’ Farm in Northfield. Subsequent performances are scheduled for Saturday night at 7:30 at the Unitarian Church of Montpelier, and for Sunday afternoon at 4 at the Warren United Church. Admission to the concerts, during which Evan Premo, Bonhag’s husband and co-director of Scrag Mountain Music, will accompany her on double bass for two compositions, is by donation at the door. For the Northfield show, reservations are recommended because of limited seating; to order tickets and learn more, visit scragmountainmusic.org.
Guitarist Nobby Reed sets the rhythm for the First Friday Blues Party at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction, on Friday night at 8:30. For tickets ($20 plus processing fee) and more information about other First Friday events around town, visit yellowhousemedia.com.
Bar and Club Circuit
The Wild Roots perform Americana and traditional music in the tavern of the Lyme Inn tonight at 6. Singer-songwriter Doug Henry takes the microphone next Thursday night at 6.
Singer-songwriter Charlie Chronopulos plays Taverne on the Square in Claremont tonight at 7.
The Maine-based ensemble The Cosmonautz pull into Windsor Station tonight at 7:30 to play a set of Americana. Following them to the venue over the coming week are The Party Crashers at 9:30 Friday night, Freevolt at 10 on Saturday night and singer-songwriter Ana D’Leon on Tuesday night at 6.
The Skinny Pancake in Hanover hosts a “Cringe” session of comedy tonight starting at 8:30; admission costs $8 in advance, $10 at the door. The funk and soul ensemble Toast performs on Friday night at 8:30. Next up at the venue are the Milo White Band with a set of Americana on Saturday night at 8, bassist Dave Clark’s weekly pickin’ party on Sunday afternoon from 3 to 6 and Bow Thayer’s weekly session of Americana on Wednesday night at 7:30.
The Second Wind duo of Terry Ray Gould and Suzi Hastings plays rock and pop favorites in the tavern at Jesse’s on Friday evening at 5.
Guitarist David Rogers performs a mix of Spanish, flamenco, up-tempo Latin and works of Leonard Cohen, Roxy Music, the Beatles and Bach on Friday night at 7, during the Sunapee Community Coffeehouse, in the basement of the Methodist Church.
Bassist Peter Concilio leads saxophonist Ron Smith, keyboard player Bruce Sklar and drummer Tim Gilmore into the Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners for a Friday night of jazz, starting at 8. And on Tuesday night at 7 at Carpenter and Main in Norwich, Concilio joins forces with saxophonist Michael Parker and guitarist Billy Rosen.
Soulfix plays at Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee on Friday night from 8:30 to 11:30 and at the Farmer’s Table in Grantham starting at 7 on Saturday night.
Open Mics
Ramunto’s Brick & Brew Pizza in Bridgewater hosts an open mic starting at 7:30 on Thursday nights. Participants get a free large cheese pizza.
String players of all ages and abilities are welcome at the weekly acoustic jam session at South Royalton’s BALE Commons on Friday night from 6:30 to 10.
Joe Stallsmith leads a weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass at Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Monday nights at 6.
Bradford’s Colatina Exit holds an open mic, Tuesday nights at 8.
Jim Yeager hosts open mics at Hartland’s Skunk Hollow Tavern at 8:30 on Wednesday night, and next Thursday night at the ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret tonight at 7.
EmmaJean Holley can be reached at eholley@vnews.com and at 603-727-3216.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.