In an effort to get a jump on 2010 year-end round-up stuff — yeah, it’s really time to start thinking about it — I’ve recently begun sifting through reviews and records, trying to compile my local favorites from the year that (almost) was. It’s actually been surprisingly fun to rediscover albums that I dug at the time, but have receded from memory in the unending Sisyphean grind that is the newspaper bidniss — you’re eternally on to the next thing almost as soon as you’ve finished the last. 

One such record in which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed re-immersing myself is Nearly Lost Stars from Brattleboro’s Wooden Dinosaur. It’s a marvelous effort, showcasing a truly lovely duo, Michael Roberts and Katie Trautz. It features a broad array of stylistic influences, all filtered through Roberts’ unique folk lens. In other words, I really, really like it.

Anyway, Trautz was kind enough to send along links to videos from a recent Halloween show at Iron Horse in Northampton. MA. Here’s my favorite of the bunch, “Paper Cars.”

 

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...