I was recently reminded of something Henry Miller wrote in his 1957 novel Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch: “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of looking at things.”
I’ve thought of that line many times of late, particularly as I’ve walked around Burlington, a town I’ve known and loved since I was but a tyke. For a small burg of 40,000, the Queen City seems to generate a lot of talk. CNN just ran a story on its charms, and the New York Times recently published a study listing Burlington as the 11th happiest city in the USA. (Shout-out to South Burlington for landing at No. 4. I’m never that happy when I drive through there, but sure, whatever.)
Meanwhile, we’ve got raging debates about the city’s safety, music venues are in short supply, and I still can’t find a decent taco downtown. Burlington’s beauty, or lack thereof, seems to be in the eye of the beholder. One day, it’s the coolest little college town in America, a place of ice cream and jam bands and good weed. The next, it’s a heroin-riddled den of shady shit, bereft of all its former charm.
Honestly, neither is completely true. Just ask an even longer-serving Burlingtonian: writer, poet and musician David Schein. A Queen City native, Schein grew up in the Burlington of the 1960s before setting out on a glittering career that includes writing and touring with Whoopi Goldberg, creating the gender-bending solo show “Out Comes Butch,” and crafting award-winning operas. He started theater ensembles in Berkeley, Calif., and Ethiopia and has written music, poetry and four novels. The man is nothing if not prolific.
After years of traveling and living abroad, Schein, who turns 77 later this month, returned to his home in 2010 and, for my money, has the most accurate take on Burlington I’ve heard so far.
“Burlington is utterly unique … to the people who live here,” Schein told me in a recent phone call. “But I’ve always rebelled against the smugness of Vermont and this feeling that we’re special. It’s not unique, not really. It’s just a city, man.”
Despite his measured take on Burlington, or perhaps because of it, Schein is preparing to debut a new performance piece about the city. Queen City Songs premieres at Off Center for the Dramatic Arts on North Avenue this Thursday, August 13, and runs through Saturday, August 15, with additional performances August 20 through 22.
A mix of original songs and storytelling, the piece is a hyperlocal love letter to Schein’s hometown and works like a map, detailing a city full of subtle secrets, lost hangouts and high school shenanigans. Locales switch from childhood haunts on North Prospect Street to a possibly haunted orphanage in the Old North End.
Like me, Schein has Henry Miller on the brain when thinking of Burlington.
“Miller said something like ‘The more you remember, the more you remember,’” Schein recalled. “And maybe it doesn’t all have to be true! That’s been an inspiration for me for many years.”
Schein started writing Queen City Songs in 2008, when he was living in Jamestown, N.Y., and felt his hometown “sending me vibes,” as he put it. Those feelings intensified when he moved back two years later. He’d stroll old, familiar streets and reminisce about old, familiar houses, buildings and other landmarks. Then, in 2023, he watched as the former Burlington High School was torn down and remembered being in the first-ever class there.
“Memories have a way of cascading,” he said. “So I started to envision this sort of musical walking tour, where I’d bring listeners through the city and its history, even if some of that history is really personal or obscure.”
In tunes such as “Down at the Barge Canal,” “St. Joseph’s Orphanage Blues” and “The Ballad of Francis Roule,” Schein crafts intensely niche portraits of the city. For all the years and changes, his version looks quite similar to the Burlington we know, from houses on Maple Street that have stood unchanged to his eyes for 70 years to a still-growing apple tree he used to pretend was a spaceship.
His songs show their hyper-specific autobiographical bent in depictions of pushing abandoned cars off the edge of the Intervale and being haunted by vengeful Abenaki chiefs. Is Schein worried audiences won’t connect with them?
“Well, I hope the show makes people think about the towns they grew up in and the stories that are there, too,” he replied.
Schein sees a precursor to his work in Spoon River Anthology, the 1915 poetry collection by Edgar Lee Masters that tells stories of a fictional town in Illinois. He also noted You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe, which centers on the writer’s home city of Asheville, N.C. — a town often compared to Burlington, and vice versa.
“For all the local stuff, I think the show has a universal feeling to it,” he said.
A map of the city, projected onstage, will help audiences follow Schein’s musical tour. Joining him is frequent collaborator Ronald Rost, a multi-instrumentalist who has played in a wide assortment of Vermont bands, including the Dirtminers, the New Nile Orchestra and the Eames Brothers Band. Schein said having a talent such as Rost on board gives him the ability to change the show on the fly and improvise, something he loves to do.
“Ron and I interact on stage, too,” Schein said. “We take breaks to tell stories. He might pick up a recorder or a standup bass … It’s all part of the surprise. We don’t even know how we’ll play the songs. Every show will be a little different.”
Schein is particularly excited about his “gossip” sections, in which he tells unscripted stories from his youth in Burlington.
“I have a lot of funny and poignant stories,” he said. “There’s a bit about growing up as a Jewish boy in Burlington and the Adams School not letting Jews or Catholics into their dances.” He paused, then added, “Oh, and my babysitter became the governor of the state.”
Schein wouldn’t divulge which one, suggesting instead that folks see the show to find out. Turns out that Schein, like Burlington, is full of surprises.
To learn more about Queen City Songs and purchase tickets, visit davidschein.net.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Songs of the Queen: David Schein’s Musical Tour of Burlington”
This article appears in August 12 • 2026.
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