Brian Calhoon’s New Musical Knock on Wood at the Provincetown Theater
by Steve Desroches
Throughout much of the year there is a soundtrack to Commercial Street. Live music spills out of the bars and nightclubs of Provincetown, while the buskers bring a variety of melodic offerings. Disco beats, the strum of a guitar, and the plink of pianos are all very familiar. But during the pandemic, a new sound, at least for Provincetown, emerged: the percussive notes of the marimba. A percussion instrument with wide roots in a variety of cultures throughout the African continent, the marimba consists of wooden bars that are struck by padded mallets with resonator pipes below each bar to amplify the sound. Brian Calhoon, who along with his husband Tom Westmoreland owns the Brasswood Inn, studied the instrument both as an undergraduate in California and then as a graduate student at the Boston Conservatory. When the Covid pandemic protocols shuttered indoor entertainment venues, Calhoon brought the marimba, usually parked in the Inn’s lobby, out onto the porch with a Commercial Street perch, and thus began “Marimba Mondays,” a free concert that has continued to this day.
In a town that is open to all kinds of art forms, Provincetown became enchanted by the sounds of the marimba. And that was music to Calhoon’s ear quite literally. After completing his master’s degree he worked for the admissions office at the Boston Conservatory while his husband was a high school music teacher. Tiring of life in Boston and in their respective jobs, it was on their honeymoon in Provincetown that they fantasized about moving to the Cape tip. Sitting in their rented cottage at the corner of Hancock and Bradford streets they spent hours mapping out plans that eventually would smack into reality only to be revived again. But not long after having said “I do” to each other, they said the same to their dream and bought the White Wind Inn, changing it to the Brasswood Inn, with the express desire to make it a “musical” guesthouse.
“My marimba usually is right over there,” says Calhoon pointing to a spot in the Brasswood Inn’s lobby. “When there’s a down moment I sometimes just start playing, and guests will sit for a while and just enjoy the music.”
At the moment his marimba is at his home as he’s rehearsing for a workshop performance of Knock on Wood, a new one-man musical in which Calhoon portrays himself, which will be at the Provincetown Theater this Monday night. At roughly 90 minutes with no intermission and featuring seven original songs, Knock on Wood is a bit of a musical autobiography. Diagnosed with ADHD at 40, Calhoon says this new work isn’t a “coming of age story” but a “coming of ADHD story.” He also put in stories of his musical career, his life as a gay man, as well as moving to Provincetown, a place that he says has reinvigorated him as a musician in every way. While summer is solely dedicated to running the Inn, it’s the off-season, and in particular winter, in which he can focus on music. The Brasswood hosts annual songwriting retreats in January as well as a songwriting circle that meets regularly throughout the winter. It was in that group that Knock on Wood took shape as Calhoon had a consistent deadline to meet and the valuable input of his fellow members.
“This never would have happened in Boston,” says Calhoon. “It just wouldn’t have. Here, I don’t know, it’s just that the creativity here just lends itself to inspire your own creative work. We’re all learning from each other and supporting each other. If I told people in Boston my idea for a new, one-man musical about the marimba I’d get silence. Here, people say, ‘Yes! Do it!’”
While live music has always been a part of Provincetown’s artistic and cultural life, over the past decade it has received an infusion of lots of new talent, and in particular musicians under 45, a rarity on Cape Cod with its lop-sided age gap leaning heavily toward Baby Boomers. From the Dirty Rotten Vipers to Jon Richardson’s The Jack of Hearts Club to the powerhouse that is Tori McClain and partnerships like Peter Toto and Paige O’Conner or solo works from Brittany Rolfs, Marissa Miller, Parker Ousley, and Clint Morris and more, there is a musical renaissance afoot in Provincetown, of which Calhoon has gleefully joined. And what’s more is that in Provincetown generational differences are rarely obstacles as musicians of any age are working together on all kinds of projects. With its severe housing crisis and an intense twin affordability crisis it seems counterintuitive that should be happening at all. But those problems are national and much of what is happening in Provincetown is a local symptom of a national disease. However, what remains here, no matter the pressures, is a dedicated community, committed to each other and to art.
“Show me where the full-time jobs are where the graduates of a conservatory can go join an orchestra or a symphony or play music, where someone who just spent $60,000 on a degree in dance, performance, or whatever can then go and do that for a job,” says Calhoon. “They don’t exist. No, Provincetown isn’t easy, but you can come here ,work in music, art, and so on. You can do it here.”
The workshop performance of Knock on Wood will be performed on Monday, October 19 at the Provincetown Theater, 238 Bradford St. at 7 p.m. An audience talkback will follow the show. The performance is free, but registration is required. To do so visit provincetowntheater.org. For more information call 508.487.7487.
