I’ve been telling anyone who will listen — and probably some against their will — that 2026 is the Year of Vermont Music. Some of our biggest stars and hottest emerging talents have dropped new stuff or are preparing to release fresh albums, from Noah Kahan to Lily Seabird and beyond.
That trend continues apace this week with a veritable Green Mountain of new tracks from local artists. Grab your carabiner; we’re climbing this bad boy!
Brattleboro singer-songwriter Ruth Garbus announced on Monday the upcoming release of her third LP on Orindal Records, Profound. Along with the announcement came a new single, titled “I Think I’m Ready Now.” The piano-driven, delicate indie-pop song displays Garbus’ lyrical prowess and melodic phrasing as she contemplates what it means to be a woman in her forties.
“I continued moving slowly down the corridor / as relaxed as a woman can be when she’s filled with blood,” Garbus sings on the track. “My inner bitch was enterprising / and vain, and vain, and vain.” Garbus says the tune is about “being a ripe fruit.”
The track is available now at ruthgarbus.bandcamp.com. Profound drops on June 12.
Burlington singer-songwriter and guitarist Bob Wagner is fantasizing about murder. Well, sort of. On his latest single, the second from his forthcoming LP I’ve Been Down (June 12 on Royal Potato Family), Wagner decides to kill his enemy by ignoring him.
“The Richest Man on Earth” starts with Wagner burying the title character not with a gun or knife but by refusing to pay attention to him. I’m sure we can all picture some of the characters Wagner is imagining during the song, but in case there was any debate, the line about “colonizing Mars” should give you a good idea of whom Wagner would like to kindly fuck off.
Wagner wrote the tune shortly after purchasing a 100-year-old acoustic guitar. “I’d been thinking about writing a murder ballad, and the guitar felt like the kind you’d write one on,” he said. The song “speaks to a composite of nefarious, attention-seeking characters in politics and capitalism — and while literal murder isn’t the intent, figuratively speaking, starving the beast of its endless need for the spotlight is an idea worth considering.”
Check it out on major streaming services.
Next up is Marcie Hernandez, who is gearing up to release a trio of singles over the next three months. “Easy On Me” kicked things off and dropped on Wednesday, April 22. The bilingual singer-songwriter, who has Puerto Rican heritage, recorded the tracks with Will Andrews, aka Willverine, and they serve as a sort of farewell letter to Burlington. Hernandez is leaving town in May for parts unknown; all she knows is that she’s headed south and, eventually, maybe to Puerto Rico.
“It’s not easy to leave this community I’ve been a part of for years,” Hernandez said in a phone call. “But it felt like it was time for a change.”
Hernandez isn’t thinking about finding a new home yet so much as enjoying the feeling of being a digital nomad. She plans to continue her practice as a music therapist virtually, and she intends to continue recording and releasing music.
“It’s not goodbye for good. Vermont will always be here for me, and that means so much,” she said.
She’s playing a farewell show at Foam Brewers on Saturday, April 25. “Easy On Me” is available on major streaming services.
The Jesse Taylor Band have been hard at work with producer Jer Coons (Madaila), recording the follow-up to their 2021 EP Ever-Changing. The Burlington band is releasing Feel Everything in June and just put out the first single from the album, “Procrastination Queen.”
The song is a midtempo rocker featuring Taylor lamenting her inability to get things done, while also forgiving herself for living in the moment. “Sometimes I forget what I like to do / until I’m doing it,” Taylor sings on the track. “Sometimes I forget what makes me feel good / until I’m feeling good again.”
The tune is available at jessetaylor.bandcamp.com, and the band plays an album release show on June 6 at the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington.
If, like me, you looked out of your window the other day and felt a particular kind of whiplash at seeing the snow-covered ground the next morning after a sunny 70-degree day, Julia Randall has the song for you.
The Burlington singer-songwriter’s new single is called “April Is Colder Than December,” and wow, has any Vermont artist ever been this ridiculously on point with timing a release? Randall uses the seasonal transition as a metaphor for looking back on a failed relationship. With a tender, delicate vocal, Randall takes stock of post-winter heartbreak in a jazz-leaning pop arrangement that makes the most of a sparse, space-heavy dynamic. The song is streaming now on Spotify.
Former OMAT and the Snaz singer Dharma Ramirez, who recently returned to Vermont after living in Brooklyn, has another new single under her Deerest moniker.
“New Sermon” is a fusion of indie rock and electro-pop, built on a massive, industrial-leaning beat and swirling with Ramirez’s ghostly melodies. “I’m sick of paintings with no faces, abstract love affairs and victors / With no glory,” she sings on the single, sounding a little like Nashville indie artist Mitski, if she were produced by Atticus Ross.
The new single is streaming at deerestmusic.bandcamp.com.
Whew! That’s all for this week, but this is just the start of what promises to be a season full of killer new Vermont music. Stay tuned.
Listening In
This article appears in April 22 • 2026.
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