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Summers in Vermont boast an embarrassment of riches chief among them the idyllic grounds of Shelburne Museum. Set impossibly close to Route 7, this rolling green Mecca is a wonder of the northern world. Miles of groomed pasture stretch out to a stunning wooded horizon, where five times this season, local sponsors will land a mother ship of marquee music. And who better to pilot its inaugural, hazy June opening than goodwill emissaries Michael Franti and Spearhead?... Read more

The evening was ripe with promise as I strolled into Club Metronome, with notebook and pen in hand, and positioned myself discreetly on the club's beautifully refurbished floor to catch tri-state trio The Mathematicians. I'd been hearing great things about the band over the past couple of years, and hoped they were true.... Read more

The most recent facelift at Nectar's has been a hot topic of conversation in Burlington of late. While most folks seem to dig the stage improvements in the legendary nightclub, opinions on the dining room renovations seem somewhat mixed. I'm not a restaurant critic, so I'll not weigh in on the matter, except to say that I'm really going to miss the pool table. A lot.... Read more

In music, as in any discipline, proficiency and professionalism only come with experience. To become truly seasoned, there is but one avenue an artist can pursue in hopes of reaching this elusive upper echelon: relentless performance.... Read more

One of my favorite Burlington pastimes is to look at the Seven Days music calendar on a given night, find a band or two I know next to nothing about and go check ’em out. It’s a game you can play virtually any night of the week in our lakeside hamlet. Folks who complain there’s nothing going on in the Queen City just ain’t trying hard enough.... Read more

Led by the emergence of acts such as The Capstan Shafts and new releases by local stalwarts such as Ryan Power and Colin Clary, 2007 was a banner year for Vermont’s indie-rock scene. But perhaps no group made quite as big a splash as Joey Pizza Slice and his outlandishly kooky collective Nose Bleed Island.... Read more

Sixteenth-century religious reformer Martin Luther probably never made the famous quip often attributed to him — “Why should the devil have all the good tunes?” — in which “the devil” meant the Catholic Church. But he did issue a call to arms for fresh Protestant music, and composed many rousing hymns himself. The tone of the spurious quote captures the fierce competitiveness of Europe’s musical scene at the time. War raged between Catholics and Protestants militarily, philosophically and artistically.... Read more

Playing ska music is inherently problematic for two specific reasons. First of all, the typical skinny-tie-wearing, porkpie-hat-clad outfit has, on average, like, 10 members. It’s hard enough to coordinate the schedules of your average power trio, let alone a ragtag assortment of guitarists, keybordists, horn players, vocalists and dancers. Musicians are a notoriously flaky lot, and that’s especially true of the band-camp flunkies who usually populate ska ensembles.... Read more

Why is the theater critic slumming — I mean, showing up — in the music section? Here’s a little secret: Before arriving at Seven Days a couple years ago, I was far more experienced as a music reviewer than as a stage sage, having covered symphony and opera at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin for three years. I also performed many years as a cellist and a singer.... Read more

By the time they got to Woodstock, they were half a million strong and everywhere was a song and a celebration. Or so the story goes. Nearly everyone knows at least one or two people that claim to have been at the landmark festival in August of 1969, and maybe a few of them really were. Woodstock was monumental. It was the defining moment of a defining period in American history and symbolized the philosophy and ideals of an entire generation the way few singular events had before or have since.... Read more