If you missed last night’s five-year Honky Tonk Tuesday anniversary … well, my friends, you missed a hell of a night. The cowboy boot-clad Queen City faithful were in rare, glorious form. You also missed the cameo appearance of the year. And no, I don’t mean my humble return to the stage. Though I will say I pulled off a half-decent rendition of Buck Owens’ “Close Up the Honky Tonks,” and did justice to Gram Parsons’ “A Song For You.” But the real kicker was a surprise appearance from a local legend …

Neko Case.

OK, I’m messing with you. The local legend was none other than Eugene “Country Band-a Style” mothereffin’ Hutz, who dropped by and did a killer version of “Folsom Prison Blues,” complete with about three off-the-cuff original verses. Simply put, it was friggin’ awesome. So friggin’ awesome, in fact, that a female friend of mine approached Hutz outside afterward and said — and I quote — “I want to have your Gypsy babies.” True story.

Anyway, speaking of mid-1990s Burlington greats, remember Tim Lauben?

To be honest, I had sorta forgotten about the guy. But back in the day, he was among my favorite local songwriters, right alongside Matt Hutton (Envy) and Tom Lawson (The Pants). But then I stumbled upon a Club Fub compilation over at Brad Searle’s excellent website, Bradley’s Almanac, and rediscovered how much I used dig his bands, Snowplow, Huffy and My Own Sweet.

So, to continue with the self-congratulatory celebration of 7D’s 15-year anniversary, I offer two tracks from the aforementioned Club Fub comp. The first, Huffy’s “Carry” from their Sunny Drive Time EP, a cassette I believe may still be in the tape deck of my first car, and probably worn away to nothing. The second is “Marble,” from Snowplow’s never-competed full-length. Enjoy!

Dan Bolles is a culture coeditor at Seven Days. He joined the paper in 2007 as its music editor, covering Vermont's robust music, comedy and nightlife scenes for a decade before deciding he was too old to be going to the Monkey House on weeknights to see rock shows for a living. He became assistant arts editor in 2017 and culture coeditor in 2021. Bolles has received numerous local and national awards for his writing on Vermont arts, sports and the occasional celebrity canine murder mystery. He loves...

One reply on “Lock All the Doors: 1995 Revisited”

  1. I remember playing Snowplow on WIZN’s “What’s New” show back then, and Huffy, too… those were the days! Snowplow rocked – what a great band! Was writing my “History of the Burlington Music Scene” for Good Citizen back then. You got me all nostalgic, Dan!

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