This music reviewer, like anyone else, is sometimes guilty of damning with faint praise. We’ve all heard the line – “This sophomore CD is a step above X band’s first effort “ - when X band’s first effort might have been just sort of so-so. But I live by the advice of my grandmother, who once said, “if you don’t have something nice to say, why say anything at all?” This is especially true when I know just how difficult it is to put together a CD and have it sound even remotely interesting to the ear.

So let there be no mistake. To say that Grace Potter and the Nocturnals’ sophomore project, “Nothing Like The Water,” is a “breakthrough” album for this talented bunch of gifted young musicians completely misses the point. “Nothing Like The Water” is a damn fine CD, the single best collection of tunes I’ve heard in quite some time. I’ve been spinning the Nocturnals’ new effort for four weeks now, and I think it safe to say that Potter and her band have crafted something magical – an arresting collection of tunes that cross so many musical genres - blues, soul, gospel, pop, jazz, rock – with a joyful deftness that mesmerizes the ear, lifts the spirit, keeps the toes tapping, and reminds us that yes, there is still something new under the musical sun.

Grace and the new and improved Nocturnals (featuring co-producer and percussionist Matt Burr, rounded out by bassist Bryan Dondero and the gifted guitarist Scott Tourney) waste no time getting down to business. The CD’s opening track, “Toothbrush and My Table,” is the most exuberant break-up song you may ever hear, beginning with Potter’s signature organ sound, and quickly settling in to a catchy shuffle, thanks to Burr’s capable drumming and Tourney’s slide and electric riffs (which are a highlight throughout the CD). Potter and her band do something remarkable with this opening track, managing to pay homage to the musical greats that have come before (“Give me back my jeans and my J.J. Cale,” Potter sings with a teasing sultriness) while re-invigorating the worn out musical clichés of each genre they slide into – love songs, bluesy break up stories, gospel numbers – with an invigorating freshness that makes you feel like you are hearing these stories for the first time.

And, amazingly, they do it again and again on this CD – instrumentally, vocally, and in the production room. On “Some Kind Of Ride,” the band blows the carbon out, while Grace puts to bed (for good, let’s hope) any sort of lame comparisons between her voice and that of, say, Norah Jones or Alison Krauss (wonderful one trick vocal ponies, both, and I say that lovingly), preferring instead to move from a whisper to a shout and then back again with a mature ease and a smooth sophistication that defies her years. “Ragged Company,” with it’s surprising lyrical structure driven by clever prepositional game playing, and “Left Behind,” which features tasty Tourney-ian guitar work and the coolest ending to any song on the CD - swift, surprising, and totally appropriate - are stand outs, while “Treat me Right” has the most wonderful lust-drenched simile – “ squeeze me like a key lime” – that still makes me laugh when I hear it.

To say nothing of the Vaughan brothers inspired rip-snorter “Sweet Hands,” the brooding Cale-influenced “Joey,” the empowering “2:22,” which, like so many of Potter’s tunes, takes a jilted woman and puts her in the power seat (I’ll leave it to you to listen), “All But One,” which reminds the listener that Grace can still do ballads with the best of them, and the tub-thumping two-song climax “Nothing But The Water,” a joyous tribute to old timey spirituals, infused with Grace’s soaring vocals.

If this CD doesn’t garner Potter and the Nocturnals the national attention and wide airplay they so richly deserve, then things are even more wrong with the world than we may realize. Fortunately, the Nocturnals are young enough, smart enough, and talented enough to understand that if they bide their time, pay their touring dues, continue to make great music, and build their grassroots listenership, they will change the world and make us all a bit more light of musical spirit in the process. In the meantime, hear Potter and company for free while you still can, this Saturday night at the American Flatbread 20th anniversary celebration at Lareau Farm.

Vermont Sojourns:
Reading and Walking the Historical Landscape

For anyone wishing to understand the history and promise of a unique place like Vermont, there are two ways to go about doing research. The first is, of course, through careful reading. For wanderers interested in rooting themselves more deeply in Vermont’s many pasts, a new and comprehensive history of Vermont might be just the ticket. Michael Sherman, Gene Sessions, and P. Jeffrey Potash’s book Freedom and Unity: A History of Vermont offers the traveler a remarkably comprehensive look at how the Green Mountain State came to be, in all of it’s uniqueness. At more than 700 pages, the book weighs enough to serve as a substitute shot put (in case you need one), but it gracefully runs the reader through a comprehensive history of our little section of the globe – a welcome addition to any historian or Vermontophile’s library.

For those who would rather saunter than read, or, like Mr. Thoreau, enjoy the two in equal measure, writer Bill McKibben’s new book Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America’s Most Hopeful Landscape: Vermont’s Champlain Valley and New York’s Adirondacks offers an anecdotal account of an extended sojourn McKibben undertook from his Ripton, Vermont home to the wilds of New York state’s Adirondacks. By turns humorous, provocative, and personal, McKibben’s book offers some insights into what makes this section of the world special, and what wisdom the land and it’s inhabitants may offer us as the 21st century begins to unfold.

I caught up with McKibben for an interview about his book.

Q. You’ve written so many books about “big picture” topics - global warming, the age of missing information, over-population, and genetic engineering. Why a little book about an extended hike across the Vermont and New York landscapes?

A. Well, partly because I needed a vacation after two years of slogging through genetic engineering. But more because I’d always wanted to write an explicit love letter to my place. It’s been in the background of much of my work, but I wanted to say more fully why it seemed to me such a place worth crowing about.

Q. In your book, you suggest that the landscape of Vermont and eastern New York is somehow unique. Can you elaborate?

A. There’s plenty of places with lovely and interesting pastoral landscapes, from Lancaster County to the Low Countries. And plenty of great wild places, from Alaska to the Amazon. But very few where world-class wilderness like the Adirondacks directly abuts a place where people are trying to figure out truly careful and interesting strategies for inhabitation. The Champlain Valley and the six million acres of Adirondack wild complement each other perfectly in my opinion; the one teaches the virtues of husbandry and cooperation, the other of restraint. And these, I think, are the values we most need in this increasingly pinched world.

Q. Writer Wallace Stegner, a Westerner who also loved Vermont and had a summer home in the Greensboro area, once observed that Vermont was a place that had experienced the frontier “boom and bust” mentality and then thought better of it. Would you agree?

A. It’s clearly a landscape that’s gone through a lot–seen overuse, seen decline, seen ecological recovery, now seen a kind of social rejuvenation. Unlike Stegner’s West, we have lots of rain–that helps, over the decades, to cover a myriad of mistakes. We’re making some new ones now, of course–the junior-high sized homes appearing on our ridgelines, for instance. But I think there is a wisdom here that will help us avoid the worst of the Western don’t-tell-me-what-to-do mentality.

Q. You tell stories in your book about some remarkable people you meet on your journey. Did you have any scary moments on your walk? Did you meet any people who didn’t make it into your story, for reasons you might elaborate on here?

A. Not a scary moment, and hardly an unrecorded one. This was a nearly blissful walk. I highly recommend vacationing in one’s immediate vicinity!

Q. Given your concerns about global warming, the Walmart-ization of America, and other “big picture” economic issues, where do you think Vermont’s economic future lies?

A. Well, the burden of my work at the moment is that we’re probably going to need to shorten the supply lines of our civilization–that globalization is running into ecological and economic contradictions (climate change; sweatshop labor; rising oil prices) that will curtail it eventually. With that in mind, I think Vermont would be well-advised to continue and speed up its experiments with more local economies–things represented by, say, the Intervale, or the Farmer’s Diner, or the spread of farmer’s markets, or Moo-Doo, or all the rest. With some actual help from the state government, I think this place might find its short-term and long-term future as a much more contained place. I doubt if the next IBM is going to locate here, and frankly I think we can live with that.

Q. How do you feel about Vermont as an independent republic?

A. Well, many attractions. But I don’t really want to use a passport to cross Lake Champlain into New York. They belong together, these two places. But I said that already.

Remote Control or Self-Control?
An Interview with ACMEVermont’s Robin Rieske

On Monday, May 9th, the Vermont chapter of the Action Coalition for Media Education (www.acmevermont.org) will be hosting its second statewide Summit in Burlington at Champlain College. Fully 150 people from around the state and region will be in attendance for a full day of keynotes, workshops and plenary sessions focusing on the relationship between media and public health. This week, the “Guardian” spoke with Brattleboro resident Robin Rieske, a substance abuse prevention worker and ACMEVermont Secretary, about the nature and purpose of ACMEVermont’s second annual statewide conference.

Q. What exactly is “media literacy” education?

A. Media literacy (ML) education has several key elements. One is about encouraging people to have an active relationship with the media they consume. When I say “media” I am talking about all forms including television, computers, movies, advertisements, magazines, news stories and so on. Most of us have passive relationships with the media. We have been taught to think of media mostly as a form of entertainment. But ML teaches us that the media is always educating us and influencing our values and our behaviors. We don’t often question what we are hearing or seeing, nor do we critically think about what information or stories are being told to us. Media Literacy teaches us to hone our critical thinking skills as well as helping us to understand the pervasiveness and influence of media on our lives, our attitudes and our behaviors.

Another key element of ML education is to teach people how to produce their own media and how to better access media. As I mentioned before, media tell stories and they create attitudes. If there isn’t a diversity of voices represented in the media, a diversity of stories and perspectives being produced and shared, then the stories we hear will have a skewed bias. This bias, particularly those found in mainstream and corporate media, often have a monetary or commercial interest behind them. By giving people the skills to create their own media and more access to share that media, we create a more educated consumer audience. We also create an environment where the news we get is not just presented from one, often biased angle.

As Bob McCannon from the New Mexico Media Literacy Project once told me, ML is not about teaching cynicism, it’s about teaching skepticism because skepticism implies hope!

Q. What is ACME?

A. ACME or the Action Coalition for Media Education is a grassroots national organization that works to create opportunities for media literacy education, media reform, media production and media activism. Our work covers a spectrum of issues from public health to democracy. We help network folks from many professional disciplines: healthcare, media producers, educators, community activists and more. We also have parents, youth and other individuals who work with our initiatives. As a new organization, we currently have 3 state and local chapters around the country, including one here in Vermont. Our goal is to work independently of funding from corporate Big Media interests so that we are always clear with our agenda.

Q. How long has your Vermont chapter of ACME been around, and what kinds of projects do you sponsor?

A. ACMEVermont began in the summer of 2003. Several interested people had been gathering to talk about media education and reform in Vermont and we decided to become an official ACME chapter. Our statewide work since then has included a series of films and discussions called “Reel Action”. These events consist of showing new independent releases around the state in a coordinated manner and often included a panel discussion. We also produce a monthly e-newsletter that reaches about 425 people throughout New England. This e-newsletter updates people about educational events, media action and other networking information. Legislation is currently pending in Vermont to create Media Literacy K-12 education in our schools and our board has helped advise supportive legislators. We have also co-hosted several educational events and have presented at various conferences. Our first ACMEVermont summit, which 100n people attended, was held in Brattleboro last April, and our next Summit will be held in Burlington this May.

Q. You are organizing a statewide ACMEVermont “Media and Public Health” Summit on Monday, May 9th at Burlington’s Champlain College. In what ways are “media” and “public health” connected?

A. Yes, our next ACMEVermont Summit on May 9th is focusing on media and public health. These two topics are very much connected. As I mentioned earlier, media is continually educating us and often behind that education lies corporate interests. If we are continually bombarded with images of young children eating fast food, french fries or sugary cereal in the morning, for example, we begin to believe that this behavior is normal and healthy for our kids. We know on one level that too much sugar and fat is unhealthy, yet we continue to buy these products that are heavily marketed to both youth and adults. We begin to go numb and are convinced these products are healthy, often by companies who are not concerned about our health.
The alcohol and tobacco companies do the same thing. They connect consumption of their product with healthy looking people, usually young and vibrant, and they connect deeply to our need to be accepted and part of the crowd. And its this normalization of the attitudes that overall is affecting behavior. Tobacco use, for example, is killing more women than breast cancer, but because of cigarette advertising, very few women’s magazines will share this information. Body image, gender issues, substance use, nutrition - all of these areas of public health that are impacted by media.
Media can also be used positively in social marketing campaigns to help reach various populations about certain public health problems. Teens in Vermont, for example, have created PSA’s that are running at the movies to show how tobacco products and smoking are being mistakenly glorified in Hollywood films. This is a great project that shows the positive power of media.

Q. Speak more about the May 9th Summit’s keynote speaker, Jean Kilbourne.

A. I first saw Jean Kilbourne in 1985 when she released her first documentary “Killing Us Softly”. This film was so powerful that I never looked at an advertisement the same way again. She has helped me hone my critical eye towards the media messages I was receiving. Jeans’ films and lectures have exposed the impact of media, particularly the negative impact on women around body image, eating disorders, sexual assault and self-esteem. Jeans’ work has also looked at the impact of alcohol and tobacco advertising and it’s targeting of youth, women and minorities. I feel fortunate that she will be keynoting at our Summit in May. I expect others will agree that her message is both profound and motivating!

Q. What kinds of initiatives does ACMEVermont have planned for the future?

A. We hope to continue to offer “Reel Action” film screenings. Our next effort will focus on community networking, trying to expand our membership and scope of our work. The ACME National Summit will most likely be hosted by Vermont in 2006, so we will be busy helping out with that effort. The current Legislature is looking at a bill on Media Education K-12 and we will continue to support that. I encourage anyone who would like to either get our e-newsletter or to get more information on ACME Vermont, to contact me at tbreeze@sover.net.

To find out more about ACMEVermont, visit http://www.acmevermont.org

Uncovering “The Hidden Jar”: The Return of EKIS

Good news, Vermont acoustic music lovers! Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, the band EKIS is back and better than ever. Originally formed in 1999 by Montpelier-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Jay Ekis, the band’s new ensemble features the added talents of bassist Rudy Dauth, drummer/percussionist Carter Stowell, and, in a nod to it’s jazz-tinged roots, features regular “sit in” guests, including keyboardist Andric Severance, percussionist Matt DeLuca, and lap steel/dobro player Adam Frehm.

Even more exciting, EKIS has a brand new CD called “The Hidden Jar,” a unique amalgam of groove-friendly tunes including the toe-tapping “Let It Out,” the transcendent “Angel,” and the CD’s title track. I’ve been spinning their new CD for several weeks now, and EKIS’s music is undeniably hooky, a cross between the sound of the Freddie Jones Band and any one of a number of funk-filled trios you may have heard and loved. My only suggestion involves fleshing out Jay’s singing with some two or three part harmony, to give the vocals more collective bite on this, their full-length studio project. But, as fans have told me, EKIS is best listened to live, and you can do that at a variety of venues during the next month, including the Langdon Street Café (Friday, May 13th CD Release Party from 9-12 pm); the Saturday morning Waitsfield Farmer’s Market (May 21st from 10-12 am), and Morrisville’s “Bees Knees (Saturday, May 21 from 8-10 pm).

We caught up with EKIS founder Jay Ekis for a conversation about the new CD and his own musical journey.

Q. How did you get started as a musician?

A. I’ve been attracted to music since I was a wee lad. I remember humming along with “Chariots of Fire” and Bee Gees tunes and trying to imitate the sounds and melodies on my grandparents’ piano. I began studying the trumpet but quickly moved to the guitar and started writing songs when I was 15 or so and never stopped.

Q. How did EKIS coalesce as a band?

A. EKIS coalesced originally in 1999 out of my desire to play my songs live with a full group as opposed to solo, which I had been doing for a few years with a singer/girlfriend. I went into Charlie O’s in Montpelier and booked a gig. The problem was I didn’t at that time have a full band or even a name for the group. The girlfriend/singer suggested we call ourselves the Pickled Beats. An alright name…Two weeks before the show we had enough people together to call it a band too. A few days before the show I was in the bar having a conversation with a gentleman who was confused as to why his band (The Pickled Beets) had a gig that none of his band mates had told him about. Thus EKIS was born.

Q. Can you describe how the band “assembles” a song?

A. I will pretty much give them charts in first or second draft and we all just work out our parts and arrange things accordingly. I think there are plenty of ways to go about putting it all together and I would like to try different methods but so far this has been consistent for us.

Q. How would YOU describe EKIS’s music?

A. The music is born out of many things not just my interest in rock and roll and world music so I find it difficult to label it so easily. I would like to say it is introspective haiku set to a beat you can dance to.

Q. I’ve listened to your new CD “Hidden Jar” a bunch of times, and I can’t find any particular theme. The CD’s title, though, is
provocative. Can you explain where the title for the project originated, and if, in fact, there is a theme -musical, narrative, or otherwise - running through EKIS’ work generally?

A. Well, the song/album title refers to the artist’s and ultimately humanity’s creative spirit and the desire to express it. In the song the character goes through a whole day starting with his “heart” in a jar in the closet. The rest of the day is spent living, breathing, until he makes his way home or to a state of enlightenment perhaps and is finally able to connect with the spirit of creative expression.

Q. What are your hopes for EKIS down the road?

A. To get bloody rich…No, I want to be able to make a living for sure, doing what I love: performing, writing, and recording songs. I think EKIS as a group as a lot of potential to make great music and I want to see that happen.

To listen to EKIS online, visit www.ekismusic.com

High Wire Live: The Music of Willy Porter

For acoustic music lovers, attending a Willy Porter concert is a quasi-religious experience. The Wisconsin native is, simply stated, one of the most remarkable singer/songwriters on the international music circuit today. I first heard him years ago in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when he was touring to promote one of his first CDs. As a fellow acoustic traveler myself, I have some sense of just how challenging it can be to coax music out of your six or twelve string in front of an audience, and sing, and tell stories, and entertain, and inspire. Porter does all of this – effortlessly.

Begin with his guitar playing. Sure, anyone who has seen Porter play knows he can throw down a blues riff with exquisite ferocity. And, when he straps a blues slide onto the finger of his left hand, prepare to be mesmerized. But Porter is no one-trick musical pony. He is equally at home with Hedges-ian percussive playing, fond of turning his instrument into a resonating drum kit at a moment’s notice. He also can lapse into some of the most contemplative and sophisticated acoustic finger-picking you’ll hear from the stage. Even more impressive. he’ll occasionally run the gamut of styles within the context of a single song, tucking his guitar pick behind the fingers of his left hand for some tasty finger-picking, and then calling the plastic out to move into power chords, and the back again. To get some sense of what Porter can do, check out “Road Bone,” on his newest CD – jaw-droppingly remarkable guitar work.

But Porter is more than a fabulous guitar player. He is a gifted songwriter and vocalist, as well. Unlike some writers, his word-smithing doesn’t lose luster with time. Older Porter standards like “Rita” or “Angry Words” carry an undeniable universality and freshness that still appeal after repeated listenings, A song like “Jesus On The Grille,” meanwhile, which he co-wrote with New Englander Tom Pirozzoli many years ago, still sounds as funny and as provocative today, to my ears anyway, as the night I first heard it.

And Porter has a wonderful voice – transcendent one moment, earthy the next, full of emotion and humor and a spiritual grounding that is refreshing. One can’t help but be moved by listening to him croon a beautiful ballad like “Watercolor Sunrise,” or groove to the transcendent longings embedded in a song like “Breathe” – “Don’t worry so much/Don’t hurry so much/I’d go easy on yourself/I’d go easy on myself” Porter sings, and the audience nods, understanding.

This month, Porter returns to Mad River Valley on tour with his newest CD “High Wire Live.” “When you walk out in front of people by yourself with your instrument, you’re walking on a wire. Every mistake you make is out there; it’s fantastic, and that pressure is the drug if you will,” Porter explains of the motives behind the making of his new CD. “Knowing that you have only one shot raises the level of the performance, the intensity, and the adrenaline. On a good night there’s a symbiosis between the audience and the musicians.”

Do yourself a favor. Be a part of the symbiosis when Willy Porter returns to Waitsfield’s Valley Players Showcase on Sunday, May 15th for another remarkable performance. Seeing Porter perform in such an intimate venue cannot be described. Only experienced.