Jam bands and Indian classical music have more in common than you might realize. Just ask Pat Lambdin. The Burlington composer and musical therapist trained for years under renowned Indian musician Pandit Shivnath Mishra, mastering the sitar and sarod. But Lambdin is also a fan of Phish, the Grateful Dead and other bands with improvisation in their DNA.
“I love the unpredictability of that music,” he said of the jam genre in a recent phone call. “No one knows where it’s going to go, and as a fan, it’s exciting to be along for the ride.”
Unpredictability is even stronger in Indian classical music, according to Lambdin. “With Western music, people show up to concerts expecting to hear songs,” he said. Indian ragas, by contrast, provide frameworks for improvisation and can go anywhere the players take them.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” Lambdin explained. “Depending on the mood, the crowd, the raga itself, and its melody and character … when it aligns, something beautiful happens because it’s 99 percent improvisational, and that piece of music will never happen again.”
Lambdin has been organizing performances celebrating the genre since 2017. His latest, “Ragas by Candlelight — An Evening of Hindustani Music,” goes down this Friday, March 20, at Burlington City Hall Auditorium. The show features Lambdin on the sarod, along with two Boston musicians: santoor player Kunal Gunjal and Amit Kavthekar on the tabla. They’ll be surrounded by hundreds of LED lights as they delve into the raga.
“We’re all going on a journey together,” Lambdin said.
In the past several years, Lambdin has stepped up his push to bring Indian classical music to the Queen City, making a point to educate listeners on what they’re hearing, too.
“When I go to Boston to see Indian music performed, there’s a huge Indian community there, so the people who come to the show know all the aspects of the music,” Lambdin said. “But the majority of the people coming to our shows aren’t as familiar. I might be showing them their first raga. So I try to add some framework, but, really, it’s about just showing up and letting the music take you somewhere. It’s an experience more than a theory.”
Tickets for the show are available at sevendaystickets.com.
After more than 60 years and 1,000 performances, Burlington singer-songwriter and purveyor of Western swing music Rick Norcross hung up his spurs, retiring his All-Star Ramblers band in 2024. Now, the Cowtown Society of Western Music is fêting Norcross by inducting him into its Heroes of Western Swing Hall of Fame. The honor was revealed on a March 7 broadcast of “Swinging Country” on Texas’ KSSL-FM, hosted by Billy Bowles. The Cowtown Society is a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Western swing music and its culture.
Norcross released his final studio album, God Bless the Mighty Pickle, in 2023, capping a career that included 13 albums and numerous awards. His musicianship even inspired a 2013 biography titled Riding My Guitar: The Rick Norcross Story, written by Vermont author Stephen Russell Payne.
Congrats, Rick! Ramble on.
Growing up in the 1960s on Long Island, musician James Heltz experienced air-raid drills at his elementary school. They were a regular school-day feature during the Cold War with Russia. “I was told to hide under my desk so I would be safe if there was a nuclear attack,” Heltz told Seven Days in an email. “Little did I know at the time, the real threat to our democracy would be a real estate developer living in nearby Queens.”
Now the Williston singer-songwriter has put out a new protest song about that certain former real estate developer. It’s a pointed rebuke of President Donald Trump titled “The Land That God Gave Cain (No King! No Crown!).” Released just a few days before clashes between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, local and state police, and protesters in South Burlington last week, the fiery folk tune is a nod to John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and features lyrics such as: “A Home Depot gilded parking lot / The White House is torn apart / No King! No Crown! / … We will never kneel down.”
The news cycle moves fast these days, and so does Heltz. Just as we went to press, he released another protest song. Titled “Greetings From the Occupation,” the song is a bleak look at the growing creep of fascism in America. Both songs are streaming now at transitorysymphony.bandcamp.com.
New York City-via-Burlington blues and soul act All Night Boogie Band have some things to say about current events as well. The band recently dropped the single “I Think They Called It Peace,” a soulful, powerful statement about complicity and complacency in the face of troubling times. Singer Jessica Leone describes the song as a “call to action and a cry for change.”
“Can’t you see?” Leone belts out in the chorus. “Or are you just gonna stand there / And watch it all burn away / Feeding the fire day by day?” It’s more than just lip service from Leone and the band. Every cent earned from the song will benefit Human Appeal’s Gaza Emergency Fund and the National Immigrant Justice Center.
Recorded at the VT Music Lab in Essex Junction, the track features fellow Burlington artists Sam Atallah on trumpet, Jon McBride and Avery Cooper on saxophones, and Dwight + Nicole drummer Ezra Oklan adding percussion.
Give it a listen at allnightboogieband.bandcamp.com.
Shows to Watch Out For
Last week, Higher Ground Presents, the off-site arm of South Burlington venue Higher Ground, announced a flood of outdoor summer shows in Vermont and beyond. Here are seven to put your calendar:
- Greensky Bluegrass at Shelburne Museum, June 10
- Lucy Dacus at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., July 23
- The Head and the Heart at Waterfront Park in Burlington, August 1
- Big Thief at Waterfront Park in Burlington, August 2
- Modest Mouse at Shelburne Museum, August 21
- Alabama Shakes at Shelburne Museum, September 6
- Marcus King Band at Flynn Main Stage in Burlington, September 15
Listening In
This article appears in The Food Issue • 2026.
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