Six Quick-Hit Reviews of Local Albums 

click to enlarge

• Courtesy

A little-known fact is that Burlington's famous file-cabinet tower is actually the Seven Days album submission queue. Every week music editor Chris Farnsworth hauls out the company ladder and scales the cabinet for new albums from Vermont musicians. Sometimes, because he's terrified he'll fall to his death, he pulls too many albums from the drawers and has to review six records in one week. What an asshole! Still, he climbed all the way up there, so you might as well read all of his reviews, right?

Cooked, The Hanged Man

(Self-released, digital)

Cooked might be the hardest-hitting punk outfit in the 802. The Burlington four-piece made the local scene with its 2022 debut EP, Good Luck, Don't Die, which showcased deafening sonic fury and frenzied, self-loathing lyrics.

The Hanged Man launches from that anarchic base, doubling down on the band's raging dynamics and the vocal-cord-shredding antics of singer Bobby Bones. A psychiatrist might take some alarming notes from the album's lyrics, such as: "Can someone please kill me just to validate this feeling of misanthropy?" Still, there's a sense of shared therapy in Cooked's music. The band's honesty about addiction makes for fraught, compelling songwriting.

Key Track: "Fired Up" Why: On a record full of high-energy, hardcore punk, "Fired Up" hits the hardest. You can hear the pit forming. Where: cookedvt.bandcamp.com

Mike Gordon, Flying Games

(ATO Records/Megaplum, digital, vinyl)

Phish bassist Mike Gordon returns with his sixth solo record, Flying Games. It's a less severe departure from the Vermont jam outfit's signature sound than bandmate Page McConnell's synth record, Maybe We're the Visitors. But Gordon's new offering carves out its own territory.

Flying Games was primarily recorded during the pandemic lockdown at Gordon's home studio. Many of its songs are based on rhythmic movements and sonic experiments, continuing the interesting work Gordon broached on 2017's OGOGO. He leans a bit more into those weird margins on his latest outing. The record might not satisfy fans looking for 20-minute jams, but it will reward those open to experiencing Gordon's writing.

Key Track: "Tilting" Why: It might be the closest anyone associated with Phish has come to crafting a clever pop song. Is it pop? No, but Gordon's version of a dance track makes for compelling listening. Where: Spotify

Bonji, Telling Secrets

(Self-released, digital)

There's no handbook on how or when to start a music career. Montpelier singer-songwriter Bonji, aka Ben Ellingson, was working at a local hardware store in 2021 when his wife challenged him to enter an original song in NPR's "Tiny Desk Contest." Considering himself more of a storyteller than a songwriter, Ellingson took up the task, starting a process that culminated with his first record, Telling Secrets.

With spoken-word-style singing and classic folk arrangements, there's nothing particularly striking about the music on Telling Secrets. The real appeal of these 10 songs is in the stories that Ellingson tells. His lyrics showcase poetic wordplay, as well as an occasional foray into the absurd.

Key Track: "The Taken Road, with Robert Frost" Why: You have to respect a New England-based songwriter bold enough to reinterpret one of the area's most famous poets. Where: bonji.bandcamp.com

Nancy Carey Johnson, Chaos & Grace

(Self-released, digital)

Poultney-based Nancy Carey Johnson is a woman of many designations. She's the author of books such as Life Is Good: Wit & Wisdom From a Vermont Homesteader and The Vermont Homesteader's Christmas Memories: Wit, Wisdom & Holiday Recipes. Johnson also describes herself as a deli manager, baker, gardener, hemp farmer and, now, a singer-songwriter.

Her debut album, Chaos & Grace, is an Americana-leaning collection of homespun folk tunes, written and recorded with a professional sheen uncommon in local debut efforts. Much of that quality is due to the 6 String Ranch studio in Austin, Texas, where Johnson recorded her album. She utilized some of the area's ace studio musicians, including guitarist Bill Kaman. Though her songs sometimes feel indistinct from one another, Johnson has a pleasant, warm vocal delivery and shows her potential on tunes such as "Run Out of Road."

Key Track: "Birthday Cake for Breakfast" Why: No, it's not a chapter from a stoner's diary but rather a maudlin take on moving on after a lover has left. Where: nancycareyjohnson.bandcamp.com

Ryerson Ehrens, The Skies Within

(Self-released, digital)

Soft rock and aging go together like billionaires and homemade submarines. (What, too soon?) What I mean is, it's dangerous to make a yacht-rock-adjacent record centered on the themes of time and age, because there's a substantial risk that it will become parody. Fortunately, the duo of Will Ryerson and Jon Ehrens navigate those traps with skill and style.

Their debut EP as Ryerson Ehrens, The Skies Within, is a work of seamless collaboration. In five songs, the duo delivers emotionally complex and instrumentally rich soft rock that owes as much to Christopher Cross as to Andrew Bird. It's an EP that sounds classically of a time yet not anachronistic.

The two former Baltimore-based songwriters now make their music on opposite sides of the country: Ehrens is here in Vermont and Ryerson recently relocated to Montana. The distance hasn't blunted their collaborative edge; The Skies Within is a record of two talented songwriters in conversation.

Key Track: "Drive Time" Why: Ryerson Ehrens let the good vibes and bongos percolate before a killer saxophone solo brings it all home on a song about living in the moment. Where: ryerson-ehrens.bandcamp.com

Dale and Darcy, The Spilled Pint

(Self-released, digital)

One of the first albums I was assigned to review for Seven Days was by a Celtic-punk band called the Cop Outs. Never a fan of the whole Dropkick Murphys-Irish-punk thing, I remember being pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the album. As I listened to the new Dale and Darcy record, The Spilled Pint, I realized to my surprise that the titular Dale and Darcy are, in fact, Dale and Darcy Cahill from the Cop Outs. I love Vermont!

Unlike the boot-stomping, high-energy Cop Outs, Dale and Darcy are a traditional acoustic Celtic folk act. Their new record is so genuinely Celtic, I almost had a buzz after the first few songs. The 17-track collection consists of original music written by acclaimed mandolinist Neil Rossi (Big Spike Bluegrass) and is filled with fiddle waltzes and jigs and inspired playing by Dale and Darcy. It's more than an hour of instrumental Irish folk songs, so you really need to be in the right mood. But when you are, you'll enjoy the beautiful authenticity of The Spilled Pint.

Key Track: "Fegy's Farewell/Farewell to Winter" Why:The somber, minor-key number showcases the dynamic interplay of the fiddle and flute. But when the tune breaks into an upbeat bridge, it's like clouds parting on a spring sunrise. Where: Spotify