(Lonely Hiway Records, digital download)

OK, Vermont musicians. Raise your hand if you’ve released a really good full-length album this year.

Just as I suspected, I’m seeing quite a few hands out there. Good, good. Now, keep your hand raised if you’ve released two really good full-length albums this year.... Read more

(Self-released , CD)

After more than 30 years of writing and performing around the state, Georgia, Vt., songwriter John Gibbons has delivered his first solo album, Small Town Dance. And when they get a taste, fans of the Green Mountains’ vibrant roots, bluegrass and Americana scenes will no doubt wonder what took so long.... Read more

(Self-released, CD)

A few months ago, a PR woman named Kitty called me, pretty much out of the blue, and talked my ear clean off about a band she was representing, The Kind Buds. If you’re a regular reader, you have probably seen the Massachusetts-based duo listed at various smaller venues around the state. They’re here fairly regularly. You may also have snickered at the impossibly hippie-dippy pun that is their band name — the duo comprises two guys named Bud and, ahem, Budd. Get it?

Anyway, back to Kitty.... Read more

(OutTake Records , CD)... Read more

(All By Ourselves Records, digital download)

On their MySpace page, local rock outfit Indecent Exposure brazenly claim their latest album, Sleazy, sounds like “nothing you’ve ever heard before.” As if that statement weren’t fraught with enough foolhardy bravado, they challenge skeptics a step further with this perilous line: “Deal with it.”

Them’s fightin’ words.... Read more

(Cumbancha, CD)... Read more

(Self-released, CD)

The dawn of MySpace Music, SonicBids and any number of other ubiquitous web-based promotional tools has made the consumption of music remarkably easy for even the most casual fan. While this unprecedented age of accessibility is by most accounts a boon, it has caused an unintended — and to some degree unwelcome — side effect: uncloaking the mystery.... Read more

(Self-released, CD)... Read more

(Self-released, CD)

Online music monolith iTunes neatly files Bad Dog, the latest album from Montpelier’s The Heckhounds, under “blues.” And that’s not entirely inappropriate, I guess. But I much prefer the band’s self-applied designation, “hopped-up country-blues.” Simple, sure. But it piques the listener’s curiosity. What’s more, it accurately clues us in to what we can expect to find over the album’s brisk 10 tracks.... Read more

(Self-released, CD, digital download)... Read more