Rebecca Marsh
Equinox Staff
As the music started, the crowd poured into the restaurant to hear the sounds of Fritz’s Live Music Friday. The loud chatter would die down to hear Joe Graveline and Dan Fyffe play the music they love to the audience.
The owner of Fritz is Jessica Fuller who said she has always had an interest in live music. Live Music Friday at Fritz has been going on since the restaurant switched locations.
Fuller said she thought it would be a good way to bring in customers if she had live musicians playing. There are two kinds of Live Music Friday. The first is a split night that showcases two different bands or musicians, and the second is a full set where only one band or musician is booked for a night.
Emily Fedorko / Photo Editor
On Friday Feb. 1 Dan Fyffe and Joe Graveline performed at Fritz the Place to Eat during live music Friday nights.
According to Fuller, she finds artists on YouTube or from music samples online. “If they don’t have that I’ll usually let them have a set on Acoustic Thursdays and then I’ll get some feedback from that,” Fuller said.
One of the performers at Live Music Friday, Feb. 1, was Fuller’s father, Joe Graveline. According to Graveline, he picked up the guitar because of an advertisement in a comic book saying that he would get girls and make friends.
Graveline began playing in 1961 and was on the road for 25 years playing at various venues. “About 6 months after I was fooling around with the guitar I was in a band … I spent 25 years on the road, played all over the United States.”
Graveline recalls his first time he played in front of a crowd, “like standing in front of a firing squad.” Graveline writes his own lyrics and music, and also does covers of songs such as “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen and “Blackbird” by The Beatles.
According to Graveline, his inspirations include Jeff Beck, George Harrison, and Jimi Hendrix. According to Graveline, one of his on-stage favorite memories is playing in Detroit at Cobo Hall in front of about 25,000 people.
“It was really exciting, but it wasn’t real,” Graveline said. He said this is because of the lights on stage not allowing him to see the people. Out in the audience, Graveline’s family came out to support him. “I really like having the grandkids get to hear it and all,” Graveline said.
According to Fuller, she enjoys seeing her father perform and remembers seeing him perform when she was a child. “It’s always fun to watch him perform … it’s really nice that I can give him a space to perform now,” Fuller said, “I find it really rewarding.”
Another performer on this past Live Music Friday is Dan Fyffe. Fyffe began playing the guitar at age 18 by self teaching, but didn’t really start to pick it up until about six or seven years ago.
“About six or seven years ago I started singing with a fellow at nursing homes and that went really well,” Fyffe said.
“I do well with the guitar, but it’s the voice and the singing that inspires me the very most,” Fyffe said.
Fyffe said that when he showed Lyons the recordings he made, Lyons invited him to open for a band at the Colonial Theater. Fyffe remembers his favorite memory of playing. “Opening at the Colonial Theater was quite the half hour of fame,” Fyffe said.
According to Fyffe, he receives his inspiration “solely” from John Denver. “Ever since I was a child I would practice his records,” Fyffe said. Fyffe’s wife, Maureen Fyffe, was part of the crowd at Live Music Friday. “I enjoy listening to him practice,” Maureen said.
Glenn Orkin said he felt very comfortable, also, and agreed that the crowd was “multi-generational.” Orkin also mentioned that he feels, “a connection to Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah.’ It’s one of my favorites.” Every night is different,” Graveline said. “It’s a snowflake. There’s no two snowflakes alike, there’s no two performance alike.”
Fuller said that her favorite part of Live Music Friday is that it supports and promotes the arts in the community.
“Being able to offer and promote live music is probably one of my favorite aspects of running this restaurant,” Fuller said, “I hope it’s something that I can do continuously for years to come.”
Rebecca Marsh can be contacted at
rmarsh@keene-equinox.com