It’s hard to believe that the holidays are right around the corner.  One of the best parts of the holidays for many of us is enjoying holiday traditions.  Whether it’s attending a local tree lighting, setting out cookies for Santa or seeing Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker each year, memories can last a lifetime.

Fortunately for those of us living in New England, we have an amazing resource to find out about all the great things happening throughout the holiday season.  Mayor’s Holiday Special offers more than 13,000 half-price tickets to over 70 of the region’s most beloved holiday performances, plus a full calendar of free and low cost festivities.  If you want to grab a bite while you are out enjoying the season, the site also has a $10-off voucher for dozens of restaurants.

Some of the fabulous performances that you get half-price tickets for include Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker, Holiday Pops, A Christmas Celtic Sojourn and Handel Messiah and many more.  

If you are looking for gift ideas, Mayor’s Holiday Special also has the perfect present.  Either grab a gift certificate to BosTix so your friends and family can choose the performance they’d like to attend, or help them start their own tradition by buying tickets for a particular performance.  Who needs more stuff anyway?  Help de-clutter the holidays with an experience they will never forget.

Opened in 1922, the Waterbury Place Theater has a glorious—and inglorious—history. Theatrical impresario Sylvester Poli hired period architect Thomas Lamb to build another in his string of movie palaces. Designed in what is described as a Renaissance Revival style, the Palace Theater featured an eclectic mix of Greek, Roman, Arabic and Federal motifs and boasted grand lobby spaces, and ornate dome ceilings, in a palatial setting fit for a king—but intended for the people of Waterbury.

In its heyday, stars of vaudeville, stage and screen made personal appearances.  The likes of Eddie Cantor, Rudolph Valentino, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason, the Andrew Sisters, Tommy Dorsey and Tony Bennett  were some of the greats who performed in front of packed houses.  It became the Loew’s Poli  in a corporate merger with Loew’s, and was the premier movie house in a city that boasted small theaters in most neighborhoods.

Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry, New Hampshire welcomes Signature Sounds recording artist, Eilen Jewell for a night of country, blues and jazz. Don’t miss your chance to win one of her latest CD's, Queen of the Minor Key or Sea of Tears and a pair of tickets to see Eilen and the band perform at Tupelo’s on Friday, November 16th, 2012 at 8:00pm.

It's easy to enter to win--Just tell us what your favorite New England music venue is by writing it in the comment section below and then e-mail it to us.

Contest ends Sunday, November 4th at 9:00pm. Two winners will be randomly selected, announced and notified on Monday, November 5th. Send entries to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Good Luck !!!

*Special thanks to Signature Sounds Recording Studios in Northampton, MA and Jason Beek of the Eilen Jewell band for their support and sponsorship. For information and directions to Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry visit www.tupelohalllondonderry.com.

I think Tupelo Music Hall is a magical place, and I have several reasons for feeling that way. The first is how I came to open Tupelo in the first place. Music had always been my passion but never my occupation until eight or so years ago. At the time I was a financial consultant and was looking for office space. There was an old farmhouse for sale in Londonderry, N.H., that housed a gift shop called the Gray Goose.  It looked like a great spot for my business.

Attached to it was a coffee house called the Muse, where the owners presented primarily traditional folk music. Since I was interested in the building, I decided to check out a show. As soon as I walked in, I can honestly say I had a vision. I knew the room had great potential, and I wanted to make it into something special. My dream was to open a room where people could hear top-name artists up close and personal, an intimate room with great acoustics and the best sound reinforcement system available, a room where people could hear music unhindered by cocktail servers pushing drinks, a room where both the artist and the audience would be met with respect and treated to a truly memorable concert experience.  As our slogan at Tupelo says, “it’s all about the music.”

The State Theatre is a real jewel in the Portland-area music scene and a legacy in New England. Originally constructed and opened on November 8, 1929, the State was designed in a semi-Atmospheric/Spanish style with an original seating capacity of 2,300. It operated as a first-run  movie house until the late 1960s, when it became a porn theatre.  In 1989, it was closed and fell into a state of disrepair. In the mid-1990s, the theatre was saved and restored, but closed again for a brief time after its restoration, reopening soon after as a performing arts and concert venue.  The State Theatre hosted such diverse acts as Wilco, Modest Mouse, Gillian Welch, David Byrne, Interpol, Snoop Dogg, Ray LaMontagne, Sonic Youth, John Hiatt and Kings of Leon before it closed again in early 2006.

The State Theatre reopened last year under the partnership of The Bowery Presents, an independent concert promoter based in New York City, and Alex Crothers, owner of Higher Ground in South Burlington, Vermont, and an independent concert promoter company and who produces more than 420 events a year in the New England region.  The partners hired me to serve as General Manager and Talent Buyer for the venue in June of 2010, and we soon underwent four months of extensive renovations that included raising the stage, installing new seats and carpet, painting, and building administrative offices and a new sound and light package.   This was in addition to the previous two years of work that our landlord, Stone Coast Properties, put into the space – including rewiring the room, building new fire escapes and totally restoring the ceiling.