Music Policy Snags on Sand Bar, Oak Bluffs Harbor Unplugged
Peter Brannen

It’s been an on-again, off-again summer for amplified music on the Oak Bluffs harbor and this weekend the bars on the water will go quiet after selectmen voted to reverse their music policy on Tuesday. Again.

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Kid Natured

Kid Natured

Mr. G. is coming. And who is Mr. G. you ask? He is the man your children want to see.

Performing songs like Sneaky Chihuahua, Lost Your Teach and Pizza for Breakfast, the man born Ben Gundersheimer is like a pied piper of sorts. He has won 10 ASCAP awards and toured internationally, appearing with Dan Zanes, Lunch Money and Secret Agent 23 Skiddoo. Don’t pretend you don’t know what those names mean and that you don’t sneak some listens even after the kids have gone to bed.

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Hot Tin Roof Fired Up Again, Next Generation Leads the Way
Remy Tumin

For musician Ben Taylor, the Hot Tin Roof legacy is an unfinished song. The lyrics tell a story — since 1979 so many rock and roll, blues, funk, hip-hop, bluegrass, and folk greats have walked through the doors of the Vineyard nightclub at the airport.

Now Mr. Taylor and the current owners of the nightclub, which is now named Nectar’s, say there is one more verse to write.

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String Strength

Quartet Rocks on all Four Cylinders

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All That Jazz on Martha’s Vineyard
Nick Moorhead

When jazz goes on vacation, it goes to Martha’s Vineyard. So trumpets the tag line of the inaugural 2011 Martha’s Vineyard Jazz Festival, which officially takes place August 6-13, but enjoyed an unofficial kickoff at Lola’s in Oak Bluffs this past weekend. Throughout the summer, you can find jazz all over the Island leading to the weeklong festival in August.

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Minnesingers Encore

Minnesingers Encore

In Paris the audiences screamed oui, oui. In Prague it was prosim, prosim prídavek (yes, yes, encore). And here on the Vineyard we begin by saying, Welcome back to the high school Minnesingers.

After taking Europe by storm, they perform for us this weekend at their annual spring show at the high school performing arts center. Bravo.

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Legendary Rocker Jorma Kaukonen Blazes Roots Music Trail to Vineyard
Peter Brannen

Baby boomers may shudder at the thought but Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna founding member Jorma Kaukonen is entering his sixth decade of performing. It may be somewhat reassuring, then, to know that Mr. Kaukonen, he of blistering licks and subtle fingerpicks, is still at the top of his game.

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Beatlemania at the Oak Bluffs School

Beatlemania at the Oak Bluffs School

It is billed as O.B.eatles, and when you get past the oddity of the name it is actually quite accurate. The kids at the Oak Bluffs school have been eating the Beatles.

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Art by Kids Speaks to Kids and More

Art by Kids Speaks to Kids and More

This Thursday, June 23 at 7 p.m. IMP for Kids, the YMCA dance program and Joanne Cassidy’s vocal students are coming together to present an evening of entertainment and importance entitled Assertions: Kids Speak Out Through the Arts.

One could argue that all art is important, but this performance lends itself to a category all its own.

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Always Thought That I’d See You Again
Holly Gleason

In the end, it came down to a shoe box full of microcassettes, 75 interviews, two years of research and a lifetime of listening to Let It Be, Déjà Vu, Bridge Over Troubled Water and Sweet Baby James.

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