Off a sleepy back road heading north to the Champlain Islands, there’s a quiet turnoff between an apple orchard and what looks like an endless field. Beneath a huge blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds, newly green grass and blooming trees frame a picture-perfect Vermont scene, the type of spring day locals dream about all winter.
This idyllic setting is where longtime Vermont singer-songwriter and guitarist Bob Wagner has been living since last October, when a long-term relationship came to an end. He refers to it, casually, as his “place in Colchester.”
Among a small group of friends and family, it’s also known as Mike Gordon’s guesthouse. It sits a few hundred feet around a bend from Gordon’s home and across a field from the Phish bassist’s recording studio. Lake Champlain is just beyond the tree line.
“It could be worse,” Wagner said with a relaxed smile. “The walk I take every morning is incredible.”
His signature red beard framed his face, as did an ever-present baseball cap. A long, tapering braid hung over his shoulder. He was seated in a room that, like the rest of the house, was tastefully renovated, spacious. There were at least two guitars nearby: a light blue and white T-style custom made out of old barn board by Burlington luthier Creston Lea, and a vintage Silvertone in black and white.
The serene landscape outside, and the proximity to Gordon and his new studio, say a lot about Wagner’s career right now. He recently finished up his first tour as part of Gordon’s band. And while his decade-plus journey as a backing musician for the likes of Gordon and singer Kat Wright is clearly in high gear, he’s also stepping into the spotlight in an unfamiliar role: front man.
Wagner’s debut solo album, I’ve Been Down, comes out this Friday, June 12, on Marco Benevento’s Royal Potato Family label. Its nine original songs and a cover of Elton John’s “Daniel” lean into the metamodern sounds of latter-day country torchbearers Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell. That may surprise fans who associate Wagner with Wright’s soul and folk bands, Gordon’s funk-inflected solo work, or cover acts as such as Wagner’s Pink Floyd tribute, Dark Side of the Mountain, and the long-running Hug Your Farmer benefit series.
But viewed in the wider context of Wagner’s Vermont career, the seeming stylistic shift on I’ve Been Down is in keeping with his omnivorous musical appetite. And if anything, Wagner’s ascension to center stage is long overdue — perhaps because he got there in a backward sort of way.
A lot of people probably start off being their own artist … Whereas I’m kind of coming from the opposite direction.
Bob Wagner
“A lot of people probably start off being their own artist. And then, like, maybe life throws a curve, and then they end up in some tribute band,” Wagner said. “Whereas I’m kind of coming from the opposite direction.”
Born in Rumson, N.J., Wagner, 45, studied jazz performance as a guitar player at what was then Johnson College, where he practiced so much that he was paid to lock up the music building every night. After graduation, he moved to Burlington, gave lessons and worked at a music store. He also started building a reputation as a monster player who was comfortable shredding in a wide range of styles.
By 2009 or so, he had his first blues-rock residency at Nectar’s. Soon after, Wagner, Wright and keyboardist Shane Hardiman cofounded Radio Bean’s Thursday-night Soul Sessions, a celebration of classic soul songs. Wagner left after just a few months to work with Josh Panda, a singer-songwriter who had blown up in the local scene with his blend of gospel vocals, roots music and showmanship.
“When I first saw Bob, it was like, Holy shit,” Panda said of Wagner’s guitar chops. “I’m seeing something; I’m witnessing something. But he’s never seemed like he’s trying to prove himself to anyone else in his playing.”
Wagner spent a couple of years with Panda, including touring Europe, before deciding it was time to go out on his own. Meanwhile, Soul Sessions had evolved into Kat Wright & the Indomitable Soul Band, an eight-piece ensemble with a rhythm and horns section that was gaining attention beyond Vermont. But it needed a guitarist. Putting aside his solo ambitions, Wagner accepted Wright’s invitation to join the band and played with her — including as a trio with bassist Josh Weinstein — for the next 13 years.
In a phone call from her new home in Provincetown, Mass., Wright recalled that Wagner’s playing was important — as was the personal bond that formed among herself, Wagner and Weinstein.
“We just come from a deep enough shared musical background, in terms of what we grew up on and what we love,” Wright said. “We just got each other right away.”
By 2015 or so, Wright’s band was playing out of town nearly every weekend, more than 100 nights a year. As the tours racked up, Wagner slowly built a network of musical compatriots, including Americana artist Seth Walker and Grammy-nominated roots band the Wood Brothers. Several Vermonters he knew, including Ray Paczkowski and Russ Lawton of the Trey Anastasio Band, had laid down tracks at the Wood Brothers’ private recording headquarters, Studio Nashville.
So that’s where Wagner headed after finishing a trio tour with Wright in late summer 2024. He and Weinstein — whom Wagner called his “closest musical collaborator” — had begun tracking several songs with Benny Yurco at Yurco’s Little Jamaica studio in Burlington and planned to spend a week in Music City finishing those and recording several more for I’ve Been Down.
“I’m a huge fan of the Wood Brothers records, of the Seth Walker records,” Wagner said. “And when I hear that stuff, I’m just like, There’s a fucking sound happening at this studio.”
I’ve Been Down’s credits are stacked with close Burlington family: Weinstein on bass, Corey Wilhelm on drums, Dwight + Nicole vocalist Nicole Nelson on harmony vocals. There are also Nashville session players and newer buds, such as Laur Joamets on guitar, Jano Rix on piano, Oliver Wood on vocals and Mark Raudabaugh on drums. The album blends Wagner’s far-ranging musical friends into a red-hot mix with an undeniable Southern flavor, whether on the high-speed country shuffle of “Good Night and Good Luck” or the atmospheric ballad “Dear Depression.”
Wagner’s years of playing soul, gospel, country and blues — all juiced with a serious dose of rock and roll — barrel through the album. The opening track, “Sad and Lonesome,” is a thick, sticky brew of growling guitar and swinging drums, part jam-band slow cooker and part ’90s Allman Brothers Band vibes. Back in the day, people would have said the song sounds like it should be on the radio.
The second track, “Good Night and Good Luck,” is a barn burner with a blazing country-rock guitar solo by Joamets, Sturgill Simpson’s longtime guitarist. Wagner’s style here bears similarities to Simpson’s, both in the way he sings — a steely baritone passed down from outlaw-country godfather Waylon Jennings — and the way he drives a hot-shit rock band.
“Richest Man on Earth” eases the listener off the speeding train and provides a little social commentary. On top of a spacious background of rubber-bridge guitar, piano and Joamets on slide guitar, Wagner’s character almost brags of killing the richest man on Earth, but it’s not what you think. “Didn’t shoot him, didn’t stab him / Not even a black eye,” he sings. “I just stopped paying him attention / ’Cause I’m too broke to spend my mind / Ya see all he wants is all the eyeballs / On him all the time.”
I’ve Been Down continues to morph, from the hangdog gospel of the title track to “Jesus, Coffee, Etc.,” which takes gospel in a rock direction with Nelson on soaring backup vocals. “Universe Is Calling” has an ultra-funky, bass-heavy pocket that sounds like something Wagner’s new boss, Gordon, could have written.
In late 2024, a few months after the Nashville sessions, Wagner was one of several guitarists invited to audition for Gordon’s band. The two had become friendly through the Hug Your Farmer concerts that Wagner leads. Over the past two decades, Gordon and his daughter, Tessa, have been part of the huge, all-star band that plays venues such as the Flynn in Burlington to raise money for Vermont farmers affected by devastating flooding or other setbacks.
“It was amazing auditioning for Mike’s band,” Wagner said. “I mean, he could have any guitarist he wants.”
Gordon wanted Wagner, who got the job along with London-born Xavier Lynn, another hotshot guitarist and singer with his own solo career.
Earlier this spring, Gordon’s band finished up a two-week East Coast tour, during which both Wagner and Lynn were able to sing some of their own material. While playing Wagner’s “Universe Is Calling” during the final date of the tour at the Higher Ground Ballroom in South Burlington, Gordon jumped up and down with excitement.
Despite those high-profile gigs and his promising new solo album, Wagner said he plans to continue playing the field, musically speaking.
“I just want to live a life in music that feels fun, is rewarding and lets me get involved with different people in different capacities,” he said. “If I was only trying to do Bob Wagner shows, playing Bob Wagner songs, I think I would go fucking crazy. I need some variety.” ➆
The original print version of this article was headlined “What About Bob? With his debut solo album, I’ve Been Down longtime Vermont sideman Bob Wagner steps up”
This article appears in June 10 • 2026.
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