In the final days of summer, musician Ben Maddox sent me the longitude and latitude for God’s Little Brown Church in Alburgh, where he suggested we meet the next morning. He had recently become enamored with capturing the wild fish of Vermont on his Canon ELPH, which he’d waterproofed with a $20 Polaroid case, and he invited me to join him on a scuba-diving excursion. Maddox would later edit the resulting footage into a collection called “I See Fish People,” overlaying each video with a song by his band, local art-rock trio Farm.... Read more

There are two people named Justin Gonyea in the Burlington music scene. Within one of them, the singer/guitarist for Vultures of Cult (the other plays in the local hardcore band Hunger), there are even more Justin Gonyeas. “I have this thing where every six months I completely flip what kind of music I write,” he says. “I’m just completely schizophrenic.”... Read more

A music-and-arts event called Manifestivus, formerly Festivus for the Restivus, has enticed hordes of music lovers onto 93 acres of family farmland in Cabot, Vt., for each of the past 10 years.

“My mom has been kind enough to let me have a couple thousand people here once in a while,” says David Pransky, 36, the Toubab Krewe bassist and Cabot native who is principally responsible for organizing the shindig.... Read more

Perfect Trainwreck front man Bow Thayer — who thinks he’s 46 but isn’t sure — says he began the Tweed River Music Festival out of frustration. “It was pretty much impossible to get into the bigger festivals like Bonnaroo or Gathering of the Vibes without being represented by Live Nation,” he says, referring to the behemoth promotion company that’s presently trying to merge with Ticketmaster.... Read more

Long before BURNTmd became a successful MC and music promoter, he was 5-year-old Brent Kauffman, selling baseball cards on the beaches of Brooklyn. Now 31, he has since worked through a difficult adolescence marked by insecurity, drugs and crime to reconnect with his enterprising spirit. The onetime Vermont rapper’s latest album, Not So Black & White, comes after 13 years free from addiction.... Read more

Ben Werlin and his brother, Brandon Werlin, were sitting on a rock in Yosemite National Park in 2010 when they decided to revolutionize how guitars were sold. Combining Ben’s business savvy and Brandon’s experience selling drum equipment, Rickenbacker guitars and the occasional Beanie Baby on eBay, they created Music Store Live, an online retailer that ships high-end axes from its South Burlington warehouse to customers around the globe.... Read more

Since 2010, Burlington’s Signal Kitchen has been a hot spot best known for its soirées during the South End Art Hop in September and occasional under-the-radar shows over the rest of the year. Though the owners of the recording-studio-cum-underground-rock-club didn’t exactly avoid publicity, they didn’t seek it out, either.... Read more

On Friday, June 8, a septet of sharp-dressed jazzbos will climb aboard the Lake Champlain ferry with their clarinets, sousaphones and other traditional jazz instruments to play a show more often associated with French Quarter balconies and gumbo than Vermont and maple syrup. Collectively known as the Onion River Jazz Band, the players have hosted the annual — and always sold-out — Dixieland jazz cruise as part of the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival since 1984.... Read more

The world of classical music isn’t generally known for lawless insurrection, but Michael Dabroski and Sofia Hirsch of Burlington Ensemble (BE) have been overthrowing the norms of chamber music since 2009. Observing that too many nonprofit music groups share the same small pool of donors, the violin-wielding duo decided to start charging for their shows and donating most of their proceeds to nonprofit organizations scattered around Chittenden County.... Read more

Outside Waylon Speed’s practice loft in a Williston warehouse, airtight country-metal songs waft into the street. Inside, a black-and-white photograph of Hank Williams fills an entire wall, the country legend peering between two stacks of amplifiers as a shirtless Kelly Ravin cracks a 27th-birthday Budweiser.... Read more