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View ProfilesPublished December 15, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. | Updated December 15, 2021 at 10:22 a.m.
There was something so comforting about how much everyone hated 2020. It's like when there's a villain so loathsome, so despised, that everyone agrees they're the worst. Think Joffrey in "Game of Thrones" or tech bro Martin Shkreli after he bought the secret Wu-Tang album. In a world where one person's villain is another person's patriot, it just felt good to all be on the same page about 2020.
This year was a little tougher to gauge. Taken on its own, 2021 was no easygoing good time. But compared with its predecessor, it had some bright spots. Musically, it felt like a series of one-step-forward, two-steps-back moments as artists navigated the post-quarantine landscape and tried to reignite their careers. For every show successfully staged, another was canceled. That was 2021, though: The year that music persevered.
Because, through it all, Vermont musicians kept working. They kept writing, kept playing, and kept using ingenuity and determination to perform live music. To say I'm proud of our music scene is an understatement. I'm inspired and grateful that this disparate collection of oddballs, old-timers, kids, professionals, first-timers, prodigies and virtuosos all channeled whatever the hell they were going through this year and gave us back some very necessary art.
When I look back at 2021, I think of moments, whether they were shows or albums or just announcements, that highlighted a difficult year.
The Backside 405 series from Higher Ground was a real lifesaver this summer. The series debuted with a set from DJ Disco Phantom, but the Barbacoa show a few weeks later — my first show since March 2020 — was where I had a real moment.
Now, I've seen Barbacoa more times than I can honestly count. The Burlington surf rockers are a fixture of the local scene and not shy about playing shows. In normal times, the idea of walking across the city and forking over $20 to see Barbacoa, as good as they are, would have seemed sort of nuts. And as I headed down to the South End that night, I wondered whether I was a little too excited about catching a local act.
The moment I walked into the parking lot/venue with my ticket in hand, the sensation hit me. The massive, tatted-up bouncer, the smell of weed and cigarettes, the line by the beer tent, the sound of a tech hitting the kick drum over and over ... I was home, baby. Perhaps I hadn't fully grasped just how much I'd missed seeing live music, but within 15 minutes of arriving, I was fighting back happy tears.
By the time Barbacoa ripped into an epic, high-powered set, the energy of the crowd was overflowing into that most perfect kind of show — the kind where performers and audience feed off one another in an endless loop. The good vibes were so prevalent that when someone inevitably screamed out "Free Bird," the band actually obliged by tearing into an instrumental version of the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic. I don't think I'll ever forget the sight of Bill Mullins shredding the "Free Bird" solo while Junktiques Collective owner Phinneus Sonin danced in nothing but a pair of tight shorts, slowly immersing himself in a giant wraparound balloon.
It was bizarre and magical, two things I associate with the best Burlington shows. To experience those sensations my first night back filled me with hope.
So did listening to the debut LP from indie-pop and neo-soul artist Brittany Mae, aka Ivamae. The Burlington-based singer-songwriter released Tender Meat in June, a record of songs simmering with longing, love and loss. I'm not picking albums or songs of the year for 2021 (though some of Burlington's best artists will do it for me in our year-end issue on December 29), but I can't think of another Vermont-made record I listened to as many times as Tender Meat.
After months of streaming shows and DIY home-recording efforts, listening to an album crafted with such love and recorded with such uncompromising vision was incredibly affecting. My advice to anyone feeling a little stressed by the world is to smoke 'em if you got 'em or pour yourself a glass of something nice, light a candle, put on "Blessed AF" and let Ivamae ease you back. I know I said I wasn't handing out awards, but if I were, I'd give "Best Record to Get Stoned To in a Loveseat" to Tender Meat.
That said, my runaway favorite Vermont song of this year was "All Your Friends Are Gone" by producer extraordinaire Willverine, featuring a guest vocal from Blackmer's Sam DuPont. I blasted this track so many times it ended up in my Spotify Wrapped end-of-year list. The song is so good it fit into the mix beside Thundercat and R.E.M. songs without a hitch.
"Look around, the world's a-blazing," DuPont sings as the beat shuffles in over blipping synths and a thick bass line. The track has a melancholic feel, but it's juxtaposed with a never-say-die attitude. "We've come too far," DuPont sings. Is there a better anthem to take into 2022? Things are hard, we're losing people, but we're not going to stop.
The last highlight of this year happened just last week. Waking Windows put out hard dates, May 13 to 15, for the 10th iteration of the festival held (usually) annually in Winooski. After two cancellations, the announcement alone was enough to make my day.
When the team at WW released the lineup, though, my excitement levels soared into the stratosphere. Dinosaur Jr.? I had to shake my head, close my eyes and look again. The indie-rock legends have been soundtracking my life since I was a pimple-faced, scrawny kid getting kicked out of shows with a fake ID. Take note, F-35s: You might not be the loudest thing in Vermont in May.
Vermont lost a lot of musical talent in 2021. While this is by no means a comprehensive list, there are three deaths in particular that I want to touch on.
Rest in peace, Tom Morse. Well known and well loved, the Montpelier resident died last month at the age of 40. Morse spent his life working at the family business, Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks, as his father and grandfather did before him. He was also a classically trained musician, excelling on the trumpet and flügelhorn. Morse played in numerous groups over his music career, both alongside his brother, bassist RobINSON Morse, and sitting in with groups such as Gravel and the Vermont Jazz Trio. He leaves behind memories of a player with great feel who could move effortlessly between genres.
William Metcalfe also passed away in November, at the age of 86. The University of Vermont professor emeritus chaired multiple departments at the school, including history and music. In 1974, Metcalfe cofounded the Vermont Mozart Festival, an institution that brought some of the best talent in classical music to the Green Mountains. A gifted conductor, he went on to form chamber music vocal group the Oriana Singers with his wife, Elizabeth Metcalfe.
The great Tony Markellis died in his sleep in April. A man known for his kindness as well as his prodigious bass guitar skills, Markellis was beloved both in the Burlington music scene and in his adopted hometown of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He came to prominence playing with Kilimanjaro, the jazz-fusion act he formed with guitarist Paul Asbell, keyboardist Chuck Eller and drummer Bill Kinzie. The band would take the name the Unknown Blues Band to back up saxophone great "Big" Joe Burrell, a run that would last for 25 years.
Markellis also played bass in Phish front man Trey Anastasio's solo band, cowriting a number of tunes with Anastasio. "He was kind and had a sweetness to his personality," Anastasio wrote in an online post after Markellis' death. "And he was the baddest bass player I've ever heard."
The musical comedy duo known as Pony Death Ride has rereleased its 2019 Christmas album, The First Leon: A Sassy Musical-Comedy Christmas Album. A record about spending the holidays with a dysfunctional sort of family, The First Leon was pressed to vinyl at Burlington Record Plant.
Married couple Joe and Jaye MacAskill, who also own Catland Vintage, a cat-themed vintage store in Winooski, felt the time was right to rerelease the album, both because of the season and because of the opportunity to make a record.
"You know how the kids need vinyl!" Joe joked in an email. "But it's a really different kind of holiday record. We wanted to make an album for people like us, people who don't really know what it means to have a normal Christmas."
Since I don't know anyone who's having a "normal" holiday this year, I think Pony Death Ride's timing is impeccable.
Singer-songwriter Jesse Taylor of the Jesse Taylor Band and Lazer Dad has released a new version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Taylor initially contacted producer Dan Rome at Future Fields with the idea of recording a holiday EP. "Of course it didn't happen because I didn't give myself enough time," Taylor wrote on social media. "But we decided to do one song — one of my faves!"
Clad in a festive sweater and seated at a piano, Taylor does her best Judy Garland, belting the Christmas classic with joy and tenderness. Taylor's take had even a grinch like me (give me Halloween all day) wishing I were sitting in front of a lighted tree and watching snow fall outside my window.
Tags: Music News + Views, Backside 405, DJ Disco Phantom, Barbacoa, Ivamae, Tender Meat, Willverine, Sam DuPont, Waking Windows, Tom Morse, William Metcalfe, Tony Markellis, Pony Death Ride, The First Leon, Jesse Taylor, Future Fields
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