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Vermont Fall 2007 Music Preview
Getting an Early Jump on Autumn;  or,
Why Wait for Harvest-Time To Celebrate the Harvest

Brattleboro, Vt,  September 1  -  When is the first day of autumn not the first day of autumn?   Labor Day of course.  And the folks who book Vermont's nighclubs, listening rooms, music halls, and theaters have given us a lot of great events and excellent variety to think about and look forward to, starting this long holiday weekend.

Getting an early jump on autumn and on the harvest season is the Middle Earth Music Hall's First Annual Bradford Harvest Festival at Bradford, Vermont on Saturday, September 1, featuring Jimmy Ryan and Hayride, Josh Lederman Y Los Diablos, and Bow Thayer and the Perfect Train Wreck.  Ex-Vermonter Jimmy Ryan's latest CD, the full-length Fun With Music, is quite simply his best.  As usual, the leader's mandolin is sweet, rhythmic, and brilliantly played.  But his releases are mostly vocal recordings.  Jimmy Ryan writes songs.  So it is heartening that, like on the previous Gospel Shirt, Ryan's voice has been captured better than on past band and solo discs.  Fun With Music is just the right place to catch on to, or catch up with, mandolin ace Jimmy Ryan.

Sadly, Ryan's label, Hi-N-Dry Records, is moving out of the old Cambridge, Mass. apartment of Mark Sandman (Treat Her Right, Morphine).  It was just such a (Jim) fitting location for a studio and label featuring many, many artists who were long connected with Sandman.  The new studio will be at the Somerville Art Center.

George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic is about as classic as it gets.  These funksters ought to have a lot of folks on their feet at Higher Ground in South Burlington on Wednesday, September 5.

The variety of bookings at Higher Ground remains positively dizzying.  After Parliament Funkadelic comes singer-songwriter Martin Sexton on Friday, September 7; the sounds of the United States Gulf Coast with Marcia Ball on Saturday, September 8; and All That Remains and Shadows Fall, out of the modern metal stronghold of western Mass., on Wednesday, September 12.   The capsule biographies of these Massachusetts metal bands, posted at the Higher Ground website, say that the Fall of Ideals CD contains "some of the most aggressive, and some of the most friendly, pieces of music All That Remains has ever written."   Now there is an interesting combination and juxtaposition:  aggressive tunes and friendly tunes.   Those same Web biographies call Shadows Fall "One of the original forces behind the New Wave of American Heavy Metal and undisputed leaders in that scene. . . . "

Jeffrey Foucault mixes folk-roots music genres in an attractive way, while putting his own stamp firmly on these sounds.  No one has ever done anything quite like this before.  He is at Brattleboro's Hooker-Dunham Theater on Friday, September 14.

Session Americana plays the Middle Earth Music Hall, Friday, September 14.   I asked if it may be kind of a long drive from Boston to Bradford, Vermont to play a room the size of the Middle Earth.  I recall hearing Johnny Carson ask much the same of a pre-Woodstock Richie Havens in the 1960s.  Ry Cavanaugh of Session Americana responded to my version of this time-tested question with one of the best from-the-heart answers I have ever gotten.  "If we weren't playing little clubs who want us," he said, "we wouldn't be playing anywhere at all.

"As long as it's fun and we keep putting one foot in front of the other, we'll keep moving along this little path we're on.  If we could tour regionally doing maybe two to three weekends a month and make a little cash, that would be fine with us.  Gotta start where the love is."

This Middle Earth show is going to feature an interesting shift in Session Americana membership.  "At the Middle Earth this time, we're bringing Jeremy Curtis on bass as a sub for Kimon [Kirk]," reported Cavanaugh.  "Jeremy has a whole load of great songs, a great voice, and we can't say enough good about him.  He and Sean [Staples] were in the original 'Rock City' acoustic roots band, Jethro, with Bow Thayer.  That may be where it all started for our little clan that became The Benders, The Resophonics, Vinal Avenue String Band . . . all the way down to Session Americana.  That should be fun."  Sounds it.

Higher Ground takes over Burlington's Flynn Center for a Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals show, Wednesday, September 19.

If you were to carry your guitar out of its case, start down a flight of stairs, lose your grip on your six-string which then goes flying down the stairs, the very last thought that would ever enter into your head would be, "Gee, I hope Richie Havens appears out of nowhere and catches my guitar."  But that is exactly what happened once to singer-songwriter Pamela Means.  Havens came around a turn, caught the instrument, and saved the day, giving new meaning to the phrase, "guitar hero."  When Richie Havens comes to the Vergennes Opera House, Friday, September 21, you can hear a guy whose '60s power-strumming made him one of the most influential folk guitarists of a generation.

Some may remember a young Bernice Johnson of the Freedom Singers at the Newport Folk Festival and elsewhere.  So it could be a little hard to picture that, after founding Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973 and then touring and recording with that acclaimed vocal group for over 30 years, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon retired in 2004.  But Sweet Honey keeps on with its characteristic mix of sweet sounds and strong sentiments against exploitation and oppression.  Sweet Honey in the Rock is at Burlington's Flynn Center on Saturday, September 22.

Suzanne Vega, who more than anyone revived the modern singer-songwriter category in the 1980s, makes a stop at Brattleboro's Latchis Theatre on Sunday, September 23.

Vermont singer-songwriter Lisa McCormick is at Latchis 4 (the former New England Youth Theater location) that same day, Sunday, September 23.  McCormick calls this occasion "a full evening of contemporary female singer/songwriter music, in two separate spaces, at different times  -  so people can easily attend either or both performances."

"I have a new CD coming out in September called Talisman Groove and will be having a larger CD-release concert later in the fall," said McCormick, "so this September 23rd event is a short-and-sweet 'unplugged' sneak preview of some of the new songs," explained McCormick.  "My show is free, but seating is limited so reservations are recommended. Reservations can be made by emailing LisaTickets at Gmail dot com."

Andrew Bird is at Higher Ground, Friday, September 28, Ember Swift rocks the Middle Earth Music Hall on Friday, October 5, and roots buzz artist Brandi Carlile does similar honors at Higher Ground, Sunday, October 7.

Josh Brooks is solo at the Bobcat Café in Bristol, Thursday, October 4, and plays with his nifty, compact band at the Watershed Tavern in Brandon on Saturday, October 6.  Brooks says both clubs "are part of a recent trend in small-town Vermont towards the past . . . meaning the return of the tavern or pub as a kind of community hub, where, yes, people come to drink (and sometimes too much) but there's also a real mix of folks, good music, locally-produced food and beer (the Bobcat brews their own and it's gooood) and in keeping with the 'creative economy' idea maybe even some local artwork or jewelry for sale.

"Because people can be otherwise occupied in places like the Bobcat or Watershed, a strong crowd response is one indication that a song has something.  So I have been playing a significant amount of new material.

"I've settled on ten new songs for the album, which is tentatively entitled The Hurting Kind and leans towards the darker side of love and living.  We'll be recording this fall at Big Orange Studios in Addison."

Very big doings are in Brattleboro on Friday, October 12, when the Vermont Jazz Center presents the Cameron Brown/Dave Ballou Quartet Featuring Sheila Jordan and Adam Nussbaum.

Happy days are here again for Yonder Mountain String Band fans.  This outfit has a two-night stand in South Burlington at Higher Ground on Monday, October 15 and Tuesday, October 16.

For over 30 years I have been an avid listener to independent record releases by New England country artists.  Makes You Strong, the latest by the Bluegrass Gospel Project, is one of the best of these I have ever heard.  BGP puts on a show at Brattleboro's big Latchis Theatre, Saturday, October 20, to benefit a favorite cause, the Vermont Foodbank.

October 20, incidentally, is likely the busiest date of the fall music season.  This preview includes many more listings for that date than for any other, and there are lots more shows that day than we are noting here.  We are not even picking up all the highlights.

Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson have long had a long-promised album in the works.  Now  -  finally, one might say  -  a Hungrytown CD-release event is set for Stone Church Arts in Bellows Falls on Saturday, October 20.  Hall has a creamy voice that would be well suited for pop.  Hearing that voice applied to traditional material and tradition-grounded originals is a major treat.

Brattleboro's Mole's Eye Café has had its shifts in booking policy, though for the most part it is probably mainly remembered for having a small list of regular acts who would each appear there, in rough rotation, maybe every other month.  But there has been a regime change at the venerable Mole's Eye.  On Saturday, October 20 and then again on Friday, December 7, Amity Front  -  a talented band on the blues side of roots music  -  takes the Mole's Eye stage.

Maybe it's just me; but every time I see the name of the band, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, it calls to mind an old Pioneer Valley hit, "The Ballad of Dr. J" ("He put the Six in the Seventy-Sixers.") Stephen Kellogg leads his Sixers to Higher Ground, Saturday, October 20.

The pairing of Ravel's Mother Goose Suite with the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Brahms is classic Vermont Symphony Orchestra programming.   I am personally not at all familiar even with the title of Variaciones Concertantes by Ginastera, but surprises can be fun.  VSO Music Director Jaime Laredo conducts these works, while the featured artist is a man with stronger Windham County ties even than I have (and I've been here since 1970), the great Peter Serkin.  What a perfect way to cap off a remarkably busy Saturday, October 20, and where better to do it than Burlington's Flynn Center.

Loreena McKennitt ought to draw a good-size audience to the Flynn, Tuesday, October 23, while the same may be said of folk-circuit veteran Greg Brown at Higher Ground, Friday, October 26.

The last month of the fall season boasts terrific variety, starting with a Dark Star Orchestra three-day stand at South Burlington's Higher Ground, Sunday, November 11 to Wednesday, November 14.  Find out why the Washington Post called Dark Star Orchestra "the hottest Grateful Dead tribute act going."

Bill Staines, easily one of the greats, hits yodeling notes accurately; and he knows when not to yodel.  Not every yodeler does.   "I have always loved it but it was always about five percent of my show," explained Staines.  "Of course, it is something that people always remember.  When I won the national yodeling contest in 1975 in Texas, Wilf Carter (Montana Slim) was one of the judges."  The question Staines was answering brought in star Canadian yodeler Wilf Carter, whose influence, starting in the early 1930s, on country music in Canada and across the northern tier of states was truly massive. [My question also brought in star Connecticut River Valley yodeler of the 1940s, Yodeling Slim Clark.]

Winning a national yodeling competition judged by Wilf Carter (most commonly known, in the United States, as Montana Slim) is one of probably countless remarkable entries on Bill Staines' resume.  Another amazing resume item is that he and Don McSorley ran the Sunday night hoots at Harvard Square's legendary Club 47 coffeehouse from 1966 to 1968, and Staines was in attendance at the Club's closing weekend.

The tour schedule at Staines' website looked like he would be driving a major zigzag through the Northeast to get to the Middle Earth for his Friday, November 23 gig, but he said, "Actually, I'm driving up to Vermont from home in New Hampshire and then heading down to Connecticut.  The concert at Middle Earth has become a Thankgiving weekend tradition and I wouldn't miss it.  It is one of the few places that I play in Vermont nowadays.  The Connecticut gig [at The Goodfolk Coffeehouse in Rowayton, Connecticut] is also a Thanksgiving weekend tradition."

I have been listening to Bill Staines since his 1975 Miles album was new; but, strange to say, until now I have never had a chance to profile him at even this length.  So I take this, my very first opportunity, to say to the reading public at large that, for me, Bill Staines' "River" is among the best songs ever written.   Ever.

Bill Staines' Miles LP, incidentally, was engineered by Rockin' Ramrod Jesse Henderson and included one of New England's most colorful characters, Fox Watson, on violin.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band brings more than a little of New Orleans to the Barre Opera House, Saturday, December 1.

The Vermont Symphony Orchestra's second Masterworks concert of the season is at Burlington's Flynn Center on Saturday, December 1, Anthony Princiotti conducting and featuring pianist Vanessa Perez.  Works to be performed include Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, Overture to Oberon by Weber, and the Bartok Piano Concerto No. 3.

A Web search on Collegiate Gospel turned up . . . nothing.  Well, it's early yet.  But evidently a surprise treat is in store for the folk who turn out for Collegiate Gospel at Brattleboro's Latchis Theatre, Sunday, December 2.

In recent years I have learned, though I also already knew it, that singer-songwriter Patty Larkin has lots and lots of fans.  Expect a quick sell-out at Bradford's Middle Earth Music Hall, December 8.

Early this summer, Tony Barrand of Nowell Sing We Clear was out for a pedal on a wonderful contraption while I was out for a jog.  As we passed, I got a classic Tony Barrand grin.  Thinking of that beaming grin, in relation to the visiting customs that Nowell Sing We Clear shows are partly about  -  families visiting families, neighbors visiting neighbors, friends visiting friends  -  all in a spirit of merriment  -  is a vivid reminder of one reason the time of year around the winter solstice is called the season of light.

In a November 2005 interview with the Vermont Guardian, Barrand spoke of a central goal of Nowell Sing We Clear as being "to take a show drawing from my own cultural center into small communities to try to show how the full range of meanings in the seasonal celebration can be incorporated by people to enrich their own family customs."  He said that, after then-31 years of putting the "dance back into Christmas," he was "not surprised that it feels fresh every year."  Nowell Sing We Clear is at Brattleboro's Latchis Theatre, December 10.

From Labor Day to the year's shortest days, the music of autumn 2007 is bound to brighten our nights.

Can Winter Be Far Away?   If you already know about big Vermont-related events coming this winter  -  special shows, regional and national tours, CD releases, venue openings, and other happenings  -  please e-mail details to us by way of the following Web page:

www.oocities.org/nemsbook/fred.htm