This Day in NLM History

2004 seems to be coming up a lot this week. Not surprising, since as I noted before, we were all on Martha's Vineyard for the week. The reason for the revisit: A fine musical discovery during an evening out.

After a hazy (but fun) day at Katama Beach, and then dropping our friend Erik off at the Oak Bluffs ferry, Gavin, Chris and I walked to Smoke'n Bones for a kick-ass barbecue dinner. They both had ribs, I got a smoked ½ chicken, and we all put away a ton of cornbread. Then after a quick stop at the house, we went down to Edgartown for a beer at The Wharf Pub. After a bit of drooling futilely over the hot brunette tending bar, we decided to let her do her job, and pay another of many visits that week to The Offshore Ale Company (the island's lone microbrewery/brewpub). We ordered a pitcher of their fantastic amber, and spent the next couple of hours listening to the voice and musical stylings of the lovely Marta Topferova. Born in Czechoslovakia, the multi-lingual Miz Topferova was actually heavily influenced by, and performs mostly Latin American music. We sat at our little table in the back of the dark pub, shelling peanuts on the floor, enjoying a great local beer, and listening to her sultry voice and exotic sound. I felt like I was in a European cafe, except I've never been to Europe, I wasn't drinking coffee, and the music was from South America ☺

After that wonderful performance, we went back to the house, had a few more beers, listened to her cd "Sueño Verde" (which Gavin had bought from her while chatting with her after the show), and finally went to bed at 3 am. For me, it was the most memorable day of the trip, and five years later I still have her songs on my iPod (and three of her albums). If you like Latin and South American music, I suggest you check her out!

Also of note on this oddly musical date: In 2001 my friend Scott & I saw Dave Matthews w/Macy Gray opening (yuck) at the old Foxboro Stadium. The Dave Matthews Band rocked as usual (back in my DMB phase, I saw them 3 times around the turn of the century), even though it rained nearly the entire show, and it was quite surreal to see the big hole in the ground off to the side where Gillette Stadium was being built.