A few weeks ago, I wrote a rather morbid report on the current state of the touring industry (“On the Road Again? Musicians Grapple With a Touring Industry in Flux,” September 13). Since then, a host of musicians, both local and distant, have reached out to share their thoughts, opinions and experiences. Maybe one of these days I’ll corral those tales into a follow-up piece, but most just confirmed the dire picture I painted in the article.
One reply caught my eye with a fabulous quote often attributed to the late, great Hunter S. Thompson: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
Wilder-based musician Jakob Breitbach, aka “the fiddle ninja,” who sent along that quote — which Thompson may or may not have actually said — has plenty of insight into the industry. As half of the Americana duo Beecharmer with his wife, Jes Raymond, Breitbach toured the country relentlessly for more than a decade, playing 150-plus shows a year.
After the duo moved from Seattle back to Raymond’s home state of Vermont in 2016, the touring slowed significantly. When the pandemic struck in 2020, that trickle stopped cold, and Breitbach had to reinvent the way he interacted with music.
“I figured if I couldn’t tour, I’d start bringing the music to me,” he said by phone.
Breitbach serves as the musical director of Here in the Valley, a nonprofit performing arts organization he and Raymond founded. To reimagine his musical career, he took inspiration from one of his favorite radio programs.
“I grew up listening to ‘[A] Prairie Home Companion‘ all the time,” he said. “I wanted to cross that with a sort of an NPR ‘Tiny Desk [Concerts]’ feel and host bands but talk and even play with them sometimes.”
Thus was born the Tuesday Jukebox series, a live music show and podcast taping at Hanover Strings, a music shop in Hanover, N.H. Running weekly for a month, it pairs touring bands from across the country with some of Vermont’s best and brightest.
This year’s series kicked off on October 3 with a performance from Chicago singer-songwriter Nathan Graham and Royalton’s Ali T. Burlington singer-songwriter Jesse Taylor headlines this Tuesday, October 10, with Montana’s Andrew Brozek, followed by Missouri folk singer Dana Cooper with local Allison Fay Brown on October 17, and Breitbach’s brother, Ontario-based Americana act River Glen, with Beecharmer on October 24.
“One of the things I love about hosting the jukebox series is the format of the show,” Breitbach said. “I host and talk to them about their songwriting process, how the road has been for them, what’s their influences, what’s next … It really allows them to open up and give our audiences these great insights into the life of these musicians.”
It’s a labor of love for Breitbach, who handles all the recording and postproduction of the podcast, as well as booking the actual shows. As the series has gained popularity over the years, he’s found that bands now reach out to him to play. One thing that gives him an advantage in attracting touring acts: Tuesday is almost universally their off day.
“By and large, there’s just no real shows on Tuesdays,” Breitbach said. “When I was touring, Tuesdays were for playing poker in hotel rooms. So bands have no problem driving a bit to play the series. The name sure doesn’t hurt!”
The series also functions as a primer of sorts for Here in the Valley’s flagship annual event, the Riverfolk festival. Many of the bands Breitbach books for Tuesday Jukebox end up on the bill of Riverfolk, which was held in July this year.
“Riverfolk is our big-fish event, but I get really excited about Tuesday Jukebox,” Breitbach said. “I have some big hopes for what’s coming next.”
Breitbach’s long-term goal is to get the show syndicated on NPR or Vermont Public. He’s been working with musician and DJ Stevens Blanchard from WRSI-FM the River on ways to broaden the series’ reach.
“We’ll see where it goes,” Breitbach said. “It’s worth all the work it takes to put these shows on. We help touring bands establish audiences here, hoping they’ll come back, and they usually do. And we put some shine on local acts. What’s not to love?”
I couldn’t agree more. To learn more about the Tuesday Jukebox series, visit hereinthevalley.org.
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This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2023.
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