Album Reviews: Six New Records From Vermont Artists

Every week, Seven Days gets more new music from Vermont artists. To keep up with the deluge, music editor Chris Farnsworth occasionally takes on six releases at once. From records that almost slipped through the cracks to brand-spankin’-new LPs,
here are the latest sounds of the Green Mountains.

Daffodil-11, Daffodil-11

(Self-released, digital)

Burlington is currently producing quality indie-rock bands at a frightening pace. The latest to emerge is Daffodil-11, the quartet of Jake Wright, Oskar Schroeder, Ben Dexter Cooley and Adam Morin. They dropped their self-titled debut LP in early April.

While Daffodil-11’s sound lacks the gritty traces of ’90s grunge favored by scene mates Robber Robber, Greaseface and Lily Seabird, it stakes out its own corner of the indie ecosystem. A record at the intersection of dreamy psychedelia and breezy indie pop, Daffodil-11 adds flashes of funk and R&B, aligning the band with indie-pop acts such as Whitney or Crumb.

It’s an impressive first offering from the band, whose members also play in local acts Fuzzy Bones, Cedar and St. Silva.

Key Track: “Monkey Butter”
Why: The band excels at dreamy, washed-out grooves, and “Monkey Butter,” with its delicate vocals and melodic swings, is a perfect example.
Where: daffodil-11.bandcamp.com

Kimberley McKee, Swamp Yankee Lullabies

(Self-released, digital)

Singer-songwriter and banjo player Kimberley McKee has been around the local bluegrass and folk scenes for years. The Montpelier artist played with the string band Two Cents in the Till before releasing her debut solo effort, Groundskeeper, in 2020.

McKee’s latest record veers into the world of children’s music, with a strong folk strain throughout. In an email, McKee said she started writing music for kids “after six years of living with a cast of very small (and very opinionated) humans.” Turns out, she has a knack for it: Whether she’s singing about encountering a lonely bear cub in “Bear in a Tree” or imparting hard truths to tykes on “Sharing Is Hard,” McKee strikes a tasteful balance of kid-friendly earworm melodies and spirited instrumental heft. Her clawhammer banjo chugs along throughout the record, forming the bedrock of McKee’s kid-grass sound.

Key Track: “The Floor Is Lava”
Why: McKee scores the classic kids’ game with a sunny strain of country-western and bluegrass.
Where: kimberleymckee.bandcamp.com

Andy Cohen + Eleanor Ellis + William Lee Ellis, Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard

(Riverlark Music, CD, digital)

Saint Michael’s College professor William Lee Ellis is a scholar of American folk music’s roots, particularly Southern blues, gospel, soul, and early rock and roll. He’s also the son of bluegrass legend Tony Ellis, who played banjo for Bill Monroe.

Ellis isn’t just an academic — he’s an established recording artist with a gravelly, soulful voice who’s capable of turning his guitar into a time machine. On his latest endeavor, Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard, he teams up with Maryland folk artist Eleanor Ellis (no relation) and Memphis bluesman Andy Cohen to deliver a 21-track compilation of blues, ragtime, country, gospel and all sorts of other folk sounds.

From the jaunty, straight-out-of-a-hoedown “Won’t That Be a Happy Time” to the banjo-powered “Drunkard’s Lament” to the dark Delta roots of “Mr. Furry’s Blues,” the record transports the listener back to the American folk music traditions of the early 20th century.

Key Track: “Riley & Spencer”
Why: Eleanor Ellis’ lilting vocals capture the heartbroken desperation of such lyrics as “I’ll pawn my shoes for a bottle of booze.”
Where: williamleeellis.bandcamp.com

english major, Swan Songs for Beginners

(Self-released, digital)

The Burlington music scene and the University of Vermont have a symbiotic relationship, with many of the Queen City’s best acts coming from the school. One of the newer and most promising UVM bands to show up in the past two years is english major. The indie folk-rock outfit recently released its debut LP, Swan Songs for Beginners. Lush, often gentle but occasionally rocking, the collection of twee-heavy tracks is surprisingly free of raw spots and jagged edges.

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Ellen Gray’s delicate, captivating vocals are a perfect match for the band’s slight rock edge. english major never put their foot all the way down on the gas on the album’s nine tracks, instead teasing with bursts of noise amid more elegant indie-folk terrain. When it goes full folk, such as on “something about a mountain…,” the band takes on an almost haunting kind of power.

Key Track: “Pillager”
Why: A hint of Big Thief and Kimya Dawson colors the fuzzed-out, slow-burning tune. Where: englishmajorband.bandcamp.com

Gilda Lyons and Roger Zahab, Magic & Desire: Songs of Intimate Connections

(Albany Records, digital)

Gilda Lyons’ wordless singing swirls across “gather-summon offering,” the first track on Magic & Desire: Songs of Intimate Connections. Her ethereal, almost plaintive vocal links up with the album’s only other singer, Robert Frankenberry, and their voices entwine, occasionally harmonizing but often straying away from one another. Thus begins a concept album set to sparse vocals, viola and piano that serves as a meditation on the threads that bind one person to another — a musical love letter to love itself.

Roger Zahab, cochair of the Master of Fine Arts in Music Composition program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and Lyons, a composer, vocalist and visual artist based in New York City, have crafted a minimalist score that uses empty space as powerfully as it does musical notes. Whether soaring with operatic singing or peeking out of the shadows with Benjamin Binder’s ghostly faint piano, the songs on Magic & Desire feel laden with intent, as if each note carries its own message.

Key Track: “Charms and Blessings: I. A Charm for the Night-Fire”
Why: In a song all but bursting with yearning, Frankenberry’s voice and Zahab’s viola play out a gorgeous duet.
Where: Major streaming services

Bonji, The Musical Poemwriter

(Self-released, digital)

After a recent fundraising gig in Montpelier, singer-songwriter Ben Ellingson, aka Bonji, started wondering about that designation — singer-songwriter — and whether it really fit his work.

“I was out walking my dog one afternoon, and it popped into my mind that I’d really like to tell folks that I’m a Musical Poemwriter,” Ellingson wrote in an email.

His latest album, The Musical Poemwriter, takes that mission to heart. Ellingson uses softly plucked acoustic guitar and gentle folk arrangements to lay a foundation for his mostly spoken-word songs, though they often take on half melodies in the vein of Tom Waits and Lou Reed. The approach leaves something to be desired sonically on several tracks that just feel underdeveloped, such as “Black Widow Blues.” But when it works, it’s easy to see what Ellingson is going for. His compositions, mixed in with a few choice Townes Van Zandt covers, come across as musical paeans to Vermont country life, little folk poems of middle-age observations.

Key Track: “Things Most Real”
Why: Bonji shouts out the joys of his rural home, dogs and all, over a Woody Guthrie-like folk arrangement.
Where: bonjidude.com