I’ve been feeling a little like a vagabond of late. Between synth fests in Brattleboro, punk shows in the Northeast Kingdom and studio tours in the mountains, your friendly neighborhood music editor has been all over Vermont recently — magnifying glass and deerstalker cap in tow — canvassing our eternally weird and spread-out music and arts scene.
Skulking through the state to uncover the full tapestry of Vermont sound is something I spoke about with Jon Ehrens during a recent episode of the Vermont Public radio show “Vermont Edition.” Ehrens is the program’s managing editor and senior producer. He’s also a recording artist who dropped his latest record as Repelican, Dim Halo, last month. In our November 10 segment, we chatted about the nature of my gig as music editor and how, unlike in more concentrated scenes in bigger markets, it’s necessary to explore farther afield. You have to go looking for new sounds and new venues because there are often gems hiding in the wild, at places like Stage 33 Live in Bellows Falls, the Billsville House Concerts in Manchester Center and the gone-but-not-forgotten Barrage in Holland.
The conversation reminded me that there are some incredible venues just beyond our borders, as well. I’ve written before about the Mill in Westport, N.Y. Last year, Taylor and Catherine Ross Haskins transformed the 11,000-square-foot former site of the Champlain Valley Seed Cooperative into a gorgeous artistic hub, complete with three galleries and apartments for visiting artists. There’s also a speakeasy with a full menu and bar called the Knock, with an expansive performance space with 23-foot-high ceilings as the centerpiece.
The Mill has largely hosted music of the avant-garde, neoclassical and jazz varieties in the listening room — unsurprising, as Taylor is a Grammy Award-winning trumpet player and composer. Along with Catherine, an artist and curator, he programmed Westport’s Ballard Park Summer Concert Series from 2014 until 2017. The married couple brought artists such as Anaïs Mitchell and Julian Lage to the sleepy town with a population of just over 1,000.
Lately, the Haskinses have been branching out at the Mill by booking comedy shows, including a November 15 performance from New York City standup Casey Balsham. I saw that Balsham was performing at Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington a few days earlier, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to drive down Route 22A, hop the bridge to New York and see if a highbrow place like the Mill was ready for dick jokes.
Taylor had emailed me earlier, explaining why he and Catherine were introducing comedy to their offerings. He noted that getting to a comedy show from the Westport area can sometimes take up to an hour. And “while it may seem like a shift in our programming, stand-up is nearly the same art form as improvisational music,” he added.
As I drove into Westport, the Mill sort of popped up out of nowhere, looking more like, well, a seed depository than an arts hub. But the line of cars parked along the road, overflowing from the full parking lot, told me I was in the right place.
As I walked through long hallways and the galleries, looking for the golden door that leads to the Knock speakeasy, I had my doubts about the vibe. I like my comedy clubs rough around the edges. I tend not to dig stuffy venues with older, rich audiences politely chuckling and gently clapping, afraid to laugh too hard at the edgy material. In other words, the kind of comedy show you might find at an après-ski event or a corporate fundraiser.
The full house at the Knock validated the Haskinses’ gamble: Westport had turned out for the show, and the room was bustling as Taylor took the mic.
“I consider comedy to be one of the high arts,” he told the crowd, making it clear why he and Catherine started booking comics. “And it’s an art that’s more important than ever.”
Taylor’s intro couldn’t have better set up opening act Rob Christensen; the New York City comedian immediately quipped “Fine art, eh?” before launching into a bit about his various masturbation techniques.
While it took the room a few jokes to warm up to Christensen’s NYC-centric jokes and clipped delivery, he eventually won over the crowd, prepping folks for Balsham.
She took the stage with the slickness of an experienced comic, launching into a bit about her recent pregnancy, her annoying habit of lactating anytime she even sees a picture of a baby, and how her dad tours with her and loves when she jokes about orgasms. Her horror was both real and hilarious when she searched the Uber app onstage to see if she could get a ride in rural Westport and found nary a driver.
It was obvious before Balsham went up that the Haskinses’ comedic experiment was working, but by the end of the show there was no doubt that the Mill can serve as a killer comedy room. With the packed house, the venue sold out of food. When I spoke to Catherine after the show, she was beaming and ready for the next installment of comedy at the Mill, a January 17 show featuring New York City standup Andy Haynes.
“I think this really works,” she said with a grin as she helped bus tables. She and Taylor do everything from bartending to cooking at the Mill, running their venue with a true DIY ethos. That’s true even when they bring in help for sold-out shows, such as Balsham’s. “I just think this area needs a place to see comedy and not have to drive over the border and head to Burlington every time,” she said. “We hope we can become part of that ecosystem for touring comics going forward.”
As I drove back across the bridge to Vermont, making the more-than-manageable jaunt to my home in Colchester, I thought again about how this gig sends me to small communities like Westport all the time. As I told Ehrens on “Vermont Edition,” sometimes you feel like a detective, uncovering a secret scene, and sometimes you feel like you’ve experienced a stroke of dumb luck and stumbled upon random magic in the woods. It’s a cool part of living in a highly artistic yet sprawling community, and one that all music and comedy lovers should take advantage of.
In other words: Good hunting, my friends.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Knock-Knock: Funny Business at the Mill”
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2 2025.
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