Ryan Montbleau preaches to a packed house at the Stone Church

By Cara Murphy

Published: Friday, December 10, 2004

Updated: Sunday, September 6, 2009

Fans of the Ryan Montbleau Band do not lie: they really are THAT good! The band opened up Friday night's co-headlining bill with the Seth Yacovone Band at nine-thirty to a room full of very excited people. This was my first time seeing them live and because we got to the Stone Church early enough to enjoy sound check and the most amazing chocolate chip cheesecake I've ever experienced, I, too, was smiling like an idiot while I was waiting for them to start.

Now let's set the scene; you're sitting in a small, intimate club, there's artwork hanging on the left wall, and directly across from it is the bar. But the only thing anyone is looking at is the stage. The rest of the band has taken their places as Ryan walks out from the back room in a black hoodie and dark grey old man hat, picks up his guitar and sits down on the stool. Tonight's set starts off with "Variety," and let me tell you, when the strings kicked in, I was in heaven; this really is a beautiful song. "And sadness and pleasure so close together / I can't seem to tell the difference / Better take it all, I guess" (from "Variety"); "Stretch;" "Sour Grapes," one of my personal favorites; "I'm Around;" "L.I.D.S," and "A Way with Women" followed, causing more and more of the audience to leave their seats and fill up the remaining space between the stage and tables and dance to the music.

"I sing them my song / and I hope they sing along / I know they always sing along / in my imagination" (from "Stretch"). Not only were people, including myself, singing along with every word, but by the time "Quickie" started there wasn't a person in the house who wasn't head-bobbing, toe-tapping or just full out dancing! There's just something about Ryan's voice, a style similar to Jason Mraz', that gets me every time I listen, even if it's only off one of the three albums I now own, "Begin," "Stages," and "The Friends of Mine Compilation," but at least my money is going to something good; who needs to buy school books anyway!

"Ryan Montbleau could well be the love child of Ben Harper, Martin Sexton and Stevie Wonder. If John Mayer could jazz up his pansy rock and extend his range, he'd still envy Ryan's songs."-from Boston's Weekly Dig (January 2003)

The two covers for tonight were Stevie Wonder's "I Love Every Little Thing About You," and Sly and the Family Stone's "If You Want Me to Stay," both of which had Ryan without his guitar and looking for something to do with his hands, leading to some very amusing dance moves. The rest of the set included "Inspired By No One," "Shuffling Paper," and "Any Blues," closed the show.

"I just love them," said Kim Kenny, when asked about the band. "I'm stumped every time I'm asked to explain their style to someone who's never been to a show - it's like blues meets rock, kisses soul, runs into R&B, bonds with big band and flirts with folk. The lyrics always compliment the music, from sentimental to funky feel-good, and are sure to have you yearning to learn the words so you can sing along, too. And the fact that it's all they really seem to want makes it all that more worth the experience."

The Ryan Montbleau Band is: James P. Cohen on drums; Jason Cohen on electric piano, organ and clarinet; Aaron Gelb on tenor and alto sax, bass clarinet, percussion, etc.; Matt Giannaros on acoustic and electric bass; Laurence Scudder on Viola; and Ryan Montbleau on acoustic and electric guitar, and vocals. All of the guys hung around after the show to watch the Seth Yacovone band, and talk to friends and fans. And Ryan, not only will you never have to worry about lint again but I'll make sure my friends can do cartwheels by the next time they come to a show! Also thanks to Trader Dan, I appreciate everything you do; and Paul from the Stone Church, your venue is amazing and I can't wait to go back. Thank you both for helping get me to this show.

Jealous? Check out past live shows at archive.org and when you're done finals and need some really good music, come out to:

12/30 and 12/31 The Paradise Rock Club, Boston, Mass.

(617) 562-8800 30th Solo-acoustic * 9:00 p.m. * 31st FULL BAND SHOW! * 10:00 p.m. * 18 and over * $20 * opening for Assembly of Dust

Look for future dates, music and videos on his Web site: ryanmontbleau.com. And I'll hopefully see all of you in Boston at the Dec. 30 show!

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Scavengers steal Scan TV sign Saturday

If you read on their facebook page for the stolen sign they accuse them of taking it. I just think that the blame game has gone too far on this campus and people see fraternities as a good scape goat. Yes some do some shady stuff, but at the same time one cannot instantly blame them. "They think it was maybe a fraternity stunt or scavenger hunt of some kind." - taken directly from their facebook page. I do hope that your sign does get returned because I understand how iconic it is for the university and the MUB.

posted by: UNHAlum
Faculty members need a wake-up call

It is time the faculity sucked it up like the rest of us on campus. This year staff over $40,000 received no raise, faculity received 5.5%. Take the 1.5% and be happy.
Do You remember why you became a professor? I hope, to pass your knowledge on to the next generation.
Some of you look like greedy individuals who can only think of the God almighty dollar and not the students you teach and mentor. If we keep increasing out tuition to pay for salaries students will look at other schools and then where will you be, on the street.

posted by: Robert Pettigrew
Faculty members need a wake-up call

I don't think it's fair to compare UNH to UMass (Amherst, I assume) and UConn. Both those schools are considerably larger than UNH — 26,000 and 20,000 undergrads, respectively — while the other schools mentioned are closer to UNH's size, give or take 3,000 students. Massachusetts and Connecticut are also feeling the effects of the recession slightly more than NH is. I realize that UNH commonly uses those schools as comparators, but those two are just on a different level than our school.
There are two other things I'm going to look up before I decide how I feel about this.
First, how does the average UNH professor's salary compare to to other universities? It's probably in line with other schools, but if it's significantly lower, shouldn't UNH profs get that too?
As some have said, if the pay is lower here, professors can quit and go to other schools — if they can find an open position somewhere else. But, if a professor leaves, the school will be left in the position of trying to attract a new teacher with lower-than-average salaries. Enact the raises and UNH remains competitive in keeping and hiring the best professors.
Second, what percentage of UNH's budget goes toward paying the professors? Again, this could be that the professors are asking the university to dedicate an equal amount to paying educators at UNH as they are paid at other schools. If UNH only dedicates 15% of the budget to prof pay and the other schools all dedicate 20%, why shouldn't that be changed? Not to sound Beck-ian, but I don't know and that's something that should be looked at.
Neither of those questions deal with the larger problem of education funding from the state, which I think was something like 2 percent (and that's for all schools, not just colleges). California students staged huge protests yesterday because fee hikes raised they amount they pay per year for school to around $11,000. Meanwhile, that's close to what UNH students have been paying for tuition alone for years, and it continues to rise. If Governor Lynch and our state reps don't start working to increase education funding in the state, all the groups involved, students, professors and administration, need to start showing the kind of outrage that California showed yesterday.

posted by: Clark Kent
Faculty members need a wake-up call

The whiny, lazy, faculty all need to get fired. I haven't seen a more wanna-be-entitled bunch anywhere I have worked. They don't deserve any raises, but instead a pay cut. The rest of the staff had a mandatory salary freeze that will last probably 2 years at least. Faculty also get the bonus of cheaper benefits than the rest of the staff. To top it off they are whiners and complainers about anything not in their contract or if they feel the least bit slighted by the administration. They got out of taking mandatory sexual-harrassment training that everyone else on staff had to take, since somehow their union filed a grievance with the administration that it wasn't required in their contract. The entire training was online and took less than an hour but that's too much for those slackers.
Tenure indeed is the only thing that keeps many of them employed, and it's a concept that needs to get thrown out. Many of them are dead wood, not bringing new ideas to the table and too 'busy' to try anything new, despite having many grad assistants and others to do all their real work, and the most over the top support structure of any organization I have seen.
Yet their greed continues unchecked! Ugh!
Good riddance!

posted by: Your name
Faculty members need a wake-up call

How quickly things change.
Just last week, when editorializing about a group of campus perverts, the attitude of the editors was: "we also don’t think it’s any of our business to judge an organization just because their activities are a shock to our system." Seven days ago we were advised to "shackle our judgment" and told that the campus S&M crowd "deserves respect." Now, a mere week later, when the same editorial board concludes that the UNH faculty union's collective bargaining position is "shocking," what do the editors do? Take their own advice and "shackle their judgment?" Offer respect to the faculty? Conclude that the negotiations are none of their business?
No, none of these. Instead, the hypocritical editors tell "whining" and "greedy" faculty they are lucky to have a job, and should be satisfied with whatever the administration considers to be a fair offer -- because, presumably, the administration ALWAYS tells the truth about university finances, and ALWAYS treats the employees of the university fairly.
Why not spend some effort actually learning the facts regarding the financial situation of the university -- revenues from the state, tuition increases, higher enrollments, grant money? Why not report on the value of the faculty and the university as an economic engine for the state? Why not investigate both the enormous increase in administrative salaries and the bloated growth in new administrative positions over the last two decades? Why not write about the relative compensation of your faculty compared to those with similar education, training, and experience in other fields? I guess these tasks were too challenging. It's just easier to call faculty names.
Everybody loves free-market capitalism as long as the managers and administrators get to call the shots and the workers remain docile and content with whatever the bosses decide they deserve. But, when workers assert their rights and engage in labor negotiations as equals -- well, that is just unacceptable to our enlightened editorial masters. You're all doing a great job of learning how to be corporate lap dog journalists.
Oh, and you spelled "principal" incorrectly.

posted by: Prof. "Greedy," Ph.D.

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Ryan Montbleau preaches to a packed house at the Stone Church

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