Keeping faith that the music will go on

Famed N.H. club faces foreclosure

NEWMARKET, N.H. - Call it the treasure on the hill. The Stone Church, located on Zion Hill in this small New England town, has a legacy quite rare for a compact, 192-capacity venue. Phish played here five times. Bonnie Raitt, Aerosmith, and Odetta gigged here. So did bluesmen Buddy Guy and Johnny Winter, jazzmen John Scofield and Bill Frisell, and many Boston acts from Sarah Borges to Chris Smither.

"People always say, 'I can't believe there's a place like this,' " says co-owner Paul Nessel.

The good cheer, however, may soon come to an abrupt end. Struggling with a tight economy and high gas prices that have cut crowds, the Stone Church is on life support. It's going up for auction next Friday unless extra investors can be found. Nessel is even auctioning off his condo on the same day.

"We've come up a little bit short every year for the last four years - and the club really didn't come back after last winter," says Nessel, who estimates that he and fellow owners John Pasquale and Chris Hislop need at least $200,000 to stop foreclosure. "We have some promising leads. We definitely want to keep the place," he adds.

The Stone Church, which has murals of Jerry Garcia and Bob Marley out front, was built in 1832. It began as a Unitarian Universalist meeting house and later became a Catholic church, a roller-skating rink, a shoe assembly plant, and, since the late '60s, a music club. It has a legendary reputation as a hippie enclave and jam-band launching pad. A sign on the wall reads "Terrapin Station" (a Grateful Dead song title), and the place is so mellow that dogs are allowed to amble about the room as if this were a private home.

Multi-age crowds have been comfortable here.

"I took my parents to see a Richie Havens concert here and they loved it," says Jay Stopas, a local dock builder who stopped in last week for the Wednesday residency of the Nate Wilson Group.

"I don't know what I'll do if this closes. Otherwise, Newmarket would be just another New England town," adds friend Jack O'Sullivan, who owns the Big Bear Cafe down the hill. (Newmarket is an hour-plus drive from Boston, 15 to 20 minutes from Portsmouth, and only 5 miles from the University of New Hampshire in Durham.)

Performers have often loved the place. "We've been headlining here for a few years and have had some great shows," says Boston-area singer Ryan Montbleau. "There's always an energy in here and I'm impressed with the lineup they get."

If this is the end, the Stone Church is finishing strongly. The Wood Brothers (past stars of the Newport Folk Festival) were set to play last night, followed by the Brew (a noted jam band that also plays tonight). And tomorrow is Cajun star Buckwheat Zydeco, followed by a bluegrass hoedown on Tuesday, the Nate Wilson Group on Wednesday, and the Sam Kininger Band on Thursday.

"We're still hopeful," says Nessel. "It would be a shame for this to end."

Steve Morse can be reached at spmorse@gmail.com.