Projects & Presentations

Gordon authored and presented this at the Amos Fortune Forum in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, summer of 2024. 

Program Notes
When Widdie and Jonathan Hall opened The Folkway in 1975, its importance as an influence on the cultural and business environment in Peterborough and the region could not have been anticipated. Nor would folk musicians from around the country, and the world, have known what a unique performance venue it would become. 

For emerging musicians, it was an important boost to their careers, and a place they would always remember. For established and often prominent musicians, they welcomed an opportunity to play in such a cozy room for audiences unusually tuned-in to what they were doing. And for those audiences, the combined experience of music, food and camaraderie had a profound effect.

As we near the 50th anniversary of The Folkway’s opening, we also approach the 30th anniversary of its closing. In spite of this, The Folkway remains present in the memories of many and a frequent topic of conversation, including among those who arrived in the region after it had closed and, in fact, a generation of people who weren’t even born at that time. 

Gordon Peery is especially well-equipped to tell the story of The Folkway and how its impact continues. Gordon came to the area as a student at High Mowing School in Wilton. 

He connected with The Folkway as it was transformed from a 19th century residence into a home for music, fine food and crafts. He became The Folkway’s first chef and merry-maker, early on in what was to become a wide trajectory of occupations that included landscaping, driving a school bus, being a freelance writer, working in magazine publishing, business manager for a landscaping company, and then returning to the kitchen at the Harrisville General Store. 

It was while working at the Folkway that he met musicians who were playing contradance music, notably Rod and Randy Miller, Bob McQuillen, and Sarah Bauhan. By the mid-1980s he was in demand as a pianist for contradances throughout New England, and eventually traveling throughout the US with the band Fresh Fish, and other musical configurations. 

In the last decade Gordon has expanded his musical interests to include jazz, the American songbook, rock and roll, and Celtic music in concert settings. 

In preparation for tonight’s presentation, Gordon is especially grateful for recent conversations with Kitty Cloud, Ray and Beth Côté, Libby Haddock, Kit Henry, Niña Iselin, Danny Thibeault, Willard Williams, Joanna Morrissey, Sasha Hall DuVerlie, and Jonathan Hall. Michelle Stahl at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture provided information about Peterborough in the mid-1970s. 

Tonight’s narrative opens and is interspersed with lyrics from “A Delicate Balance” by Tom Dundee.

Folkway co-founder Jonathan Hall and two of The Folkway’s most loved and admired performers, Lui Collins and Garnet Rogers, are with us tonight to celebrate The Folkway – transporting us in time and exemplifying the continuing impact of The Folkway all these years later.

The Cultural Richness of the Monadnock Region

Gordon presented this Zoom program through the Historical Society of Cheshire County, for the Keene State College Center for Lifelong Learning.

The Music of John Taggart

This is a 1990 Documentary from NH Crossroads (public television) which recently became available, about the Music of John Taggart, a history and recording project led by Randy Miller, and including Gordon, Rodney Miller, and Skip Gorman.