(Self-released, digital)
When Tom Holland was 9 years old, he enrolled in a dance class. Two years later, he was starring in Billy Elliot: The Musical in London. By the time he was 20, he was freaking Spider-Man. When I was 9 years old, I was pedantically correcting my teachers in class, and now I’m a critic. (Like, professionally.) Point is, sometimes people really do find their calling early, which brings me to Addison County’s Evan Jennison.
At 11 years old, the Bristol resident first enrolled in Clint Bierman’s Rock-It Science music camps in Middlebury, where he learned not only how to create music but also how to build a band. Now 22, Jennison is a singer-songwriter who has released his third recording — and debut LP — Standing Next to Nothing, with Bierman himself backing on electric guitar. And that’s just the first of the local heroes Jennison assembled for this outing.
The acoustic guitarist recruited two of Bierman’s bandmates from the Grift, Peter Day and Jeff Vallone, to support on bass and drums, respectively. Among other musical contributors, Ben Lively (Vermont Symphony Orchestra) adds fiddle to the mix, Josh Dobbs (Dobbs’ Dead) is on keys, and Matt Schrag lends his mandolin to a few tunes.
With its confident blend of folk, rock and bluegrass, Standing Next to Nothing displays an unexpected maturity across seven tracks. It’s there in Jennison’s lyrics, which are clever but never self-satisfied, earnest yet wry. The album kicks off with “Gone for Good,” an upbeat meditation on a love that’s ended and the struggle to move on. The song launches out of the gate with the first of many startling visual metaphors: “Everybody’s playing the gold rush game / Well, I feel half used and so confused / A postcard in a frame.”
Then there are the small, surprising flourishes that catch a listener off guard and lift the instrumentation to another level. In “Storm Clouds,” Bierman drops a guitar solo that suddenly transforms the plucky, country-tinged ditty into something harder, only for Lively’s soaring fiddle to bring it back to its roots. Al Schnier, of jam band moe., brings an extra dose of electric guitar to the rousing title track, making it the toe-tapping bar anthem of the album.
Pappy Biondo of Cabinet plays banjo on the final track, “White House,” his fluttering strum contrasting with Lively’s steady fiddle, which rises to meet Jennison’s vocals in harmony: “Don’t quit on me/ Don’t quit on me / We’ve all got a destiny to see.” Though the album is frequently contemplative and backward-glancing, “White House” closes it out on a softer note of hope.
Standing Next to Nothing showcases Jennison’s considerable talents, sure, but my biggest takeaway is his restraint. In a world of “Go big or go home,” Jennison has delivered an album of subtlety. He confidently deploys his seasoned backing musicians as if they’re actual seasoning, sprinkling their gifts in moments that pop but never overwhelm. The songs themselves, while pitching slightly toward one genre or another, remain cohesive and speak to his clear vision.
As this is only Jennison’s third release — after an EP and a live album — I have no doubt he’s got what it takes to build a nice, long career for himself. If we’re lucky, maybe he’ll even stick around and be the one mentoring the next crop of Vermont talent.
Standing Next to Nothing is available at evanjennison.bandcamp.com and on major streaming services.
This article appears in February 18 • 2026.
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