Nothing About Grover: “Remain” Is A Lasting Listen

As any attentive listener in the Mad River Valley knows, our community is crawling with musical talent. Stand in the center of Route 100 (after looking north and south for oncoming traffic) and swing a dead fiddle, and you can’t help but hit a gifted musician. We’ve got the Mad River chorale; Valley Players vocalizers; Bruce Sklar and Adele Nichols for jazz; the Mad River Scramblers and Don Roades and friends for bluegrass; Bruce Jones, Greg Ryan (go way south – work with me here) and countless backyard pickers for acoustic; John, Garry and the Dead Set; and of course, the blues/soul fusion sound of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (and a big shout-out to them for signing their new national indie record contract).

But just when you think you may have heard all the great music the Valley has to offer, a new and exciting sound steps into the local mix. “Nothing About Grover,” a new foursome with the best band name I’ve heard in some time, is officially announcing its presence with a debut CD and release party this Saturday, February 25 at 8:00 p.m. at the Valley Players Theater. And we are lucky to have them in our midst.

By day, you can find “Grover’s” core duo – personal and professional partners James Kinne and Tara Orion – helping out around the Valley. A youthful and affable Kinne unassumingly slings sandwiches and helps with the cooking at the access road’s Paradise Deli, while Orion keeps Bridges locals and out-of-towners happy with her warm welcome at the resort’s front desk. During their off-hours these past several months, however, these two squirreled themselves away at their little ski chalet off of German Flats Road, where they set up a recording studio and produced “Remain,” their new fourteen song CD.

Rounding out their sound with bass and percussion, Nothing About Grover” may be poised to emerge as one of central Vermont’s most popular upcoming acts, judging by the advance buzz the band has received at Burlington clubs like “Nectar’s” and “Club Metronome.”

How does their new CD sound? In a word – compelling. Think of everything you like about the past two decades of acoustic ear-catching pop - “Toad the Wet Sprocket” meets Natalie Merchant” with an indescribable edginess thrown in – and you can begin to imagine “Grover’s” appeal. What makes “Remain” so interesting, however, is the eclectic variety of tunes assembled on one CD.

In a gutsy production move, the band begins with a haunting instrumentally-driven chant called “dusk,” quickly moving into the harmony-laden “sidewalks and shores,” where one immediately appreciates the meshing of Orion and Kinne’s vocal styles. “His mind is like Jerusalem,” sings Orion on “matt’s song,” the third track, and by this time, you realize that this band has tremendous promise: lyrically, vocally, and musically.

And this should not be a surprise. The veteran Kinne, who toured nationally with bands like “Angry Salad” as a teenager, is the production mastermind behind “Grover’s” sound, a subtly layered collage of guitars, synthesizer, and percussion that provide a platform for showcasing Orion’s arresting ethereal vocals and Kinne’s warm voice. “Remain” showcases some real radio-friendly pop gems – “fire in august” (track 6, perhaps my favorite), “days like these,” and the wonderful “sleepy town,” where Kinne, backed by Orion’s beautiful harmonizing, sings:

“You come into the room like a memory in motion/I’m sailing in your ocean much too long
Have you come to stay in this sleepy town/I can slow the clock down if you’d like”
(and later – “I can pull the moon down/if you like” – a wonderful image)

All is not sweetness and light here. Check out track 8’s “industrial sky,” for example, a personal and provocative social critique, or the project’s final eerie title track (14). But tunes like this one are balanced by songs like the wonderfully evocative “Snow Day,” in which “Grover” surrounds themselves with Fayston elementary school kids and even (if my ear is accurate) principal Christopher Dodge in a special audio cameo – “what snow day?” (Perhaps if we play this beautiful song over and over, as my so Theron had me do in the car the other day, the snows will return).

One thing is for sure. “Remain” will stay with you. There is so much to like on this debut CD. Come here “Nothing About Grover” for yourself this Saturday night, and bring a friend! Doors open early, and food and drink will be served.

And listen for yourself at www.nothingaboutgrover.com.

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After The Fog (of War):
An Interview with Vermont Independent Filmmaker Jay Craven

This month – March - marks the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. 2,500 U.S. soldiers, including 16 (check this?) Vermont servicepersons have been killed in the line of duty, while countless Iraqis, many of them women and children, have lost their lives.

It seems fitting to stop and reflect on the meaning of U.S. wars with those who have served in them, and a new film called “After The Fog,” co-produced by Jay Craven, does just this. Stitching together the personal testimony of 11 U.S. war veterans, “After The Fog” is an intimate and human look at the consequences of war, told by those who fought.

We interviewed Craven about his thoughts on the film, and on war, generally.

Q. You work on fictional pieces, mostly. Why a documentary film of interviews with war veterans?

A. I started making documentaries in the 1980s – and I teach documentary filmmaking and we’ve produced several of Bess O’Brien’s documentaries here at Kingdom County Productions. So I don’t feel too far removed.

I was initially approached by Bob Miller, a Brattleboro World War II vet, about the possibility of making a film on vets. Interested in the role of the White River Junction VA hospital, he also helped raise much of the budget for the film, which helped tremendously. He’s tireless, and involved with many progressive causes.

Q. The film features a wide array of combat soldiers of different age groups. How did you go about finding these veterans?

A. In some cases, one vet led to others. Several came to us through Stuart Selikowitz, a VA surgeon and an Army combat surgeon in Vietnam. Stewart knew several of the vets, including Battle of the Bulge vet Curt Whiteway from Craftsbury, and Bob Fuller, an OAS assassin in WWII Germany. Fuller worked for Stuart, as a surgeon’s assistant.

I met Vietnam vet Wayne Karlin on a trip two years ago to Vietnam. Wayne was a Marine helicopter gunner who has devoted his life since the war to writing and publishing fiction by Vietnam vets and Vietnamese.

I had trouble wrangling Vermont Iraq vets, so Jonathan Miller is from western Massachusetts, and Abbie Pickett, the only women in the group, is from Wisconsin. I’d heard about Abbie from a friend and former KCP employee, Jacob Conrad, who works for an LA-based NPR new show. Jacob had interviewed Abbie for their show and thought she was good. She was also featured in a front-page NY Times article about returning Iraq vets.

I heard about WWII vet and POW Cliff Austin from Greg Sharrow at the Vermont Folklife Center.

We interviewed 26 vets but only used 11, due to the limitations of space–and to accomplish the film’s structure that we developed. We’d like to include others in a special dvd.

Q. Is there a “red thread” that connects these different voices in your film, would you say?

A. I see the film as a kind of circular and evolving dialogue that allows us to get to know the individual vets progressively, as they reveal more about their experience. I see the common ground as the human experience and long-term impact of war. How war changes you. I think that all the vets touch on that–and it’s important to consider this when sending people into combat–that you are asking them to undergo changes and have long-term consequences that are impossible to measure–consequences that will affect them and anyone they’re close to.

Q. You came of age politically during the 1960s - the Vietnam War years. In what ways is the global “war on terror” similar to and different from the Vietnam period?

A. I think that the war on terror is, of course, different. Al Queda carried out an attack on American soil, which the Vietnamese did not do. But I’m not sure how Iraq relates to the war on terror, except to fan its flames. Journalist David Halberstam was interviewed by Fresh Air’s Terry Gross shortly after 9/11 and he quoted a CIA memo that advised the Bush White House to “not” escalate the conflict with Al-Queda. Instead, it urged the government to “dry up the swamp” by pursuing vigorously criminal justice for September 11th co-conspirators; pushing for resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict; working hard for democratic reform in the region; and launching a policy of constructive engagement that would diffuse Al-Queda’s appeal to disillusioned and marginal people. That suggestion was, of course, rejected.

Whatever is happening to neutralize Al-Queda is largely done in secret, so it’s very hard to know much about it.

The war on Iraq is similar to the Vietnam War because it really was unprovoked. It is a “desired war” and a “political war” that had nothing to do with September 11th. And, of course, Saddam Hussein had been supported by the U.S. since 1963, when he and others became a political front to neutralize progressive secular political forces–through assassination and other string arm tactics. His growing potency also proved useful against ethnic and religious factions and against the Iranians. But he had outlived his usefulness, especially when he wanted to move against Kuwaitis who were drilling under the Iraq border for Iraq’s oil. As the New York Times reported extensively before the 1991 Gulf War, Hussein was initially given a green light for his move to push Kuwait back from the disputed border. But then Bush I changed his mind and Hussein went in further, provoking the stand-off and war. This kind of back room politicking also happened during the Vietnam War, as the Pentagon Papers clearly show. The Diem Assassination, trumped-up Tonkin Gulf attack and resulting Congressional resolution, and much more. There are many similarities.

As former Bush Treasury Secretary John O’Neill said in his book, the Bush agenda for an invasion of Iraq became clear in the very first cabinet meeting after the inauguration–fully nine months before September 11th. So, in this way, the Iraq War is similar as a pre-meditated attack and occupation aimed at gaining geo-political control in the region. And, in the case of Iraq, better access to $9 trillion worth of oil. Like Vietnam. local resistance has grown, even among disparate political groups. And it appears that there will be long-term repercussions. During the Vietnam War, there were also domestic efforts to curb dissent and control the media. This is being done again–in ways that apply lessons learned by the establishment. As during most of the Vietnam War, Congress is again proving ineffective in dealing with the war and with administration misrepresentations aimed at having their way.

The other similarity, I guess, is the racial component of both wars. I think that we Americans are able to tolerate a brutal war against a stated “enemy” because we dehumanize them as “the other.” This is not entirely healthy. And it parallels what we find most objectionable about Al-Queda–the way they objectify us and strike willfully and at random. I saw a recent film, Turtles Can Fly, about Iraqi kids waiting for the American planes to arrive and start bombing. It’s a useful film, if for no other reason that it allows us to see the human dimension of the Iraqis. And an artistic expression out of the chaos.

There are many other parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, including the use of torture and the ways in which the American presence united disparate political groups in opposition. But one significant difference between the two wars involves the elections in Iraq–which resulted from substantial Iraqi pressure on the ground against initial American resistance. The elections have put into motion a political process that’s much more complex and open than anything that occurred during the American occupation of Vietnam. That’s a hopeful sign–and its being watched by the U.N. and the international community. Whether the political process can truly take root and govern effectively remains to be seen–and depends on future moves by the resistance and the U.S. military.

The war on terror is different than the war in Iraq, although I guess it’s becoming joined in a kind of self-prophecy resulting from all the de-stabilization that has made Iraq more open and vulnerable to Al-Queda and its off-shoots.

The world community could have been joined very effectively, I think, to isolate Al Queda and even to push for political reform in Iraq, if that was desired. These opportunities were missed. War always represents the failure of diplomacy. In this case, diplomacy wasn’t given much of a chance. The resulting war has a human dimension and an immense human cost on all sides. “After the Fog” tries to grapple with just one side of all this.

Q. What do you hope this film might accomplish? What do you hope audiences will take away from this film?

A. I hope audiences find their own personal meanings in the film that resonate. The film is meant to pose questions rather than state the answers. I hope the film shows the human cost of war so that we are mindful of what we ask people to endure–on all sides. I also hope that it increases awareness about the needs for lifelong care for many of the soldiers who serve.

“After the Fog”: March film showings currently scheduled include:

• 7pm, Fri. March 10, Enosburg Falls High School
• 4pm, Sat. March 18, Montpelier City Hall (Green Mountain Film Fest)

Rutland, Bellows Falls, and other dates are being organized and will be announced as soon as they are set.

Additional bookings, DVD’s of the film, and more information are available by contacting Jay Craven at Kingdom County Productions 802-592-3190 or jcraven@pshift.com.

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“It Was A Hard Life:” A New Documentary Explores The “Good Old Days” In Lamoille County

“We’re all just clueless,” concluded Johnson representative Floyd Nease after watching a new documentary film called “Life In Lamoille: Stories From Vermont’s Youngest County.” The film, which explores the trials and tribulations of Green Mountain rural life prior to the arrival of modern conveniences, is the brainchild of state senator and Vermont historian Bill Doyle and Peregrine Productions producer Vince Franke, and assembled by Doyle’s Johnson State College Vermont Government and History Class.

I interviewed both Doyle and Franke about the making of the film.

Q. Why a film about “Life in Lamoille”?

BD: A year ago I visited Hardwood High School and witnessed a film called “Common Ground - Waterbury to Warren.” I was so impressed by the film I said this format could be applied to Lamoille County.

That’s where the idea came from.

VF: Through producing “Common Ground” with Jean Berthiaume’s class during fall 2004, my interest in local/Vermont history grew. Listening to the stories describing events in my backyard gave me a new perspective on living in Duxbury and then after seeing the photographs it sunk in how much has changed in just the last 100 years. Since that project, I have been interested in producing other local programs and when Senator Doyle contacted me about following the template we developed at Harwood Union High School I was on board immediately.

Q. How did you approach collaborating on this project?

BD: It was great to work with Vince Franke - a wonderful
videographer. Last summer I called all the Lamoille County Clerks and historical societies and asked for names of people in each town who knew a lot about the history of their town. When my first class met in August since there were 12 towns to deal with I gave each student a list of four names to call. They were responsible for choosing one person and setting up an interview that took place between the student, the person in the community, and Vince. From late August to mid-December, Vince and I went back and forth almost on a daily basis, including about 40 phone calls.

VF: The Johnson students each researched the town they were assigned, and after conducting a few phone interviews, chose a candidate to be interviewed on camera. I taped the interviews and provided the students with a cassette tape so they could type the transcripts. Once I received the transcripts I digitized the interviews and began compiling the best stories and editing a rough draft. JSC students and Bill viewed the rough draft and gave comments and suggested improvements. Given many names by Senator Doyle, I scanned in photos from whoever was willing to let us use their collection. Over the term, I took 3 versions to be viewed by JSC students and incorporated their suggestions into the next version.

Q. Who handled the shooting and editing?

BD: Vince did most of the shooting and editing. The students and
I met with Vince in Waterbury and helped out with editing.

Q. People remember rural Vermont life as “the good old days,” but those were tough times. How do you explain this paradox?

BD: I believe that those interviewed felt the good old days were
important because there was a sense of equality and cooperation and
knowing your neighbor. A good example is they worked together on
harvesting their products. Another example is those interviewed did not think there was a Depression because they shared their agriculture
produce, they bartered goods, they paid physicians who visited their
home in grain and potatoes and other commodities. Knowing your neighbor and a sense of community really came through the film and that’s why you could argue they were the good old days.

Q. Do you have plans for other documentaries down the road?

BD: Vince and I have talked about continuing work on historical
documentaries. We have plans to do Washington County in the spring and possibly Franklin County in the fall.

VF: I am very interested in producing more of these type programs. The two previous videos have been received by locals with very positive responses and I think it is very important to archive our local Vermont history, since so much of it is tied up in stories. These programs not only archive the history, but bring together an impressive collection of photographs from as many as 20 different collections.

BD: Every student did an outstanding job. All the interviews were recorded and they had to type out their transcripts. During the film’s very first showing in December, the students at the end of the film came to the front of the class, introduced themselves and gave tapes to the people they interviewed. My sense is that the students thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

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WMRW: A Radio Refuge In A Hyper-Commercial World

We live in the most mediated society in world history, spending 10-12 hours a day consuming stories told to us by television, radio, video games, computers and the Internet, magazines, newspapers, books, and media outlets of every description. Our 21st century media world is an often-exciting and truly bewildering series of interwoven media-scapes, all competing for our time, money and attention. And, of course, most all of those channels are driven by the corporate commercial impulse that places profit-maximization above other social values.

And then there is WMRW. Our local low-power FM station. 100 watts. Run entirely by volunteers. Serving roughly 5,000 listeners via the broadcast airwaves and the cable lines in five towns.

As WMRW begins its winter fund drive – it takes a mere $6,000 a year to keep the station up and running – I wanted to find out how much a truly independent non-commercial community radio station might be worth?

According to WMRW station manager John Barkhausen, interviewed here, the answer is: plenty.

Q. Why is radio such an important 21st century communications medium?

A. As I see it, the medium of radio is essentially the medium of story telling. Story telling is an ancient art and is perhaps the most powerful psychological tool known. It can be used well, for great social good, carelessly, with unforeseen results, or, in an extreme example, diabolically as in Rwanda’s radio-catalyzed genocide.

Q. You told this remarkably insightful story at our December WMRW leadership meeting about an old Mad River Valley Vermonter’s take on community radio…can you recount it here?

A. Sometime in the 1980s, I was talking to my good friend, neighbor, and great storyteller, Rupert Blair, about what life in the Valley was like when he was growing up. He said life was physically harder, lacking some of today’s amenities, but he also described a rich self-sufficient culture, where people entertained and informed each other.

Kitchen junkets were neighborhood parties, where people would gather at one farmhouse. Some would play music while others danced, told stories and jokes, or played cards. Sandwiches, pies and coffee would be served and the fun might last until dawn when they would go home to do chores.

Among other things, he also described how Warren had a large town band of 100 plus members, weekly dances, and many societies and clubs.

Rupert told how this culture began to dwindle with the advent of radio in the 1930s, and disappeared almost entirely with television. The reason for this loss, he ascribed to a combination of isolation and embarrassment, as the professional radio personalities - musicians, storytellers or comedians - were so good at what they did, that the local talent felt like what was the use of practicing their skills when they couldn’t compete? Along with this slick professionalism, came glittering commercialism, letting everyone know just what material things they needed to be “successful” and “happy”.

Rupert had the wisdom and the long perspective to appreciate this change. In today’s age of media hyper-commercialism, most people, understandably, have no conception of what true non-commercial community radio is. As has happened to PBS, NPR and VPR, it is easy to fall into the accepted patterns of our marketing-driven society, and become what we profess not to be, commercial.

Q. So how does WMRW offer a genuine alternative to this hyper-commercial media environment?

A. I conceived of WMRW as an independent, non-commercial community radio station that can address some of the community damage done by hyper-commercialism. WMRW’s obligation is to facilitate, in our own small way, something that everyone is always dreaming of and longing for, and that is a shared sense of home, of community.

Q. How does WMRW do this?
A. To that end, WMRW is a ” free format” station where anyone can host their own show, and share their talents and expertise with their neighbors, provided they follow a few basic FCC and station guidelines. We are all volunteers, and operate on a minimal budget, making us open to all, and beholden to none.

Q. This is an exciting vision – is it possible?
A. With participation and support from this community, WMRW can be a refuge from, and an antidote to unnecessary professionalism and hyper-commercialism. Together we can honor and emphasize the local, the amateur and unpolished, the eccentric, the experimental and possibly mundane aspects of life that have no commercial agenda, but that make us whole and human.

To make a contribution to WMRW’s winter 2006 fund drive, simply visit their web site at www.wmrw.org for more information.

I’m writing my check today.

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Electile Dysfunction: We’ve Been “Fooled Again”

Quick! Name the most important yet ignored national news story of the past six years.

Think hard now. Make a short list.

Peak Oil? 911Truth? Weapons of Mass Destruction? The Iraq War?

A hint: this is an issue upon which hangs the very fate of our 200 plus year old experiment with representative government.

Got it?

This is a story that, if published by any credible journal of record in any sort of systematic investigative manner, would rock our republic to its very foundations, and probably sell piles and piles of newspapers in the process.

You’ve guessed it by now, haven’t you, even though you’ve seen nary a peep about it in MSM (mainstream media) coverage of our national political culture these past six years?

The answer. Our U.S. electoral system is badly broken. Our Constitutionally protected process of “free and fair elections” in which the principle of “one citizen, one vote” used to hold legal sway, has been systematically dismantled in a concerted “dirty tricks” campaign by Republican party apparatchiks whose fingerprints can be traced all the way to the White House. This hijacking of our electoral process, moreover, has been aided and abetted by obsequious Democratic party leaders, including Al Gore and John Kerry, as well as a compliant corporate press congenitally incapable of shining a light on the most earth-shattering political story of our time.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Conspiracy theorist. Wing nut. Wacko.

After all, “no voter disenfranchisement occurred in this election of 2004, and for that matter the election of 2000,” observed Texas Congressman Tom “The Hammer” DeLay during January 2005. “Everybody knows it. The voters know it, the candidates know it, the courts know it, and the evidence proves it.”

I’ll be the first to admit that I tend to believe just about everything that Tom DeLay says, given his record of unimpeachable integrity as both a businessman and a politician.

But to embrace DeLay’s conclusions, you have do what the MSM does.

Ignore the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Consider: Ranking House Judiciary Committee Democrat John Conyers’ Ohio report. Or citizen activist Bev Harris and Black Box Voting’s uncovering of electronic voter fraud. Or University of Pennsylvania statistician Steve Freeman’s “exit-poll versus actual results” number-crunching. Or Ronnie Duggar and Greg Palast’s investigative reporting.

If all of this is new to you, here are three new resources to use in beginning to make sense of our now-dysfunctional electoral landscape. Begin with People To People TV’s clever and brilliantly titled new film “Electile Dysfunction.” Directed by Penny Little, with supporting appearances by everyone from Danny “Media Dissector” Schechter to the Reverend Jesse Jackson, this 1 hour plus grassroots guerilla film provides a hilarious and provocative look at the perils of electronic voting machines, and the ways in which the Orwellian “Help America Vote Act” (HAVA), passed by Congress with the blessing of the defense industry (ah – a clue) in 2002, actually set the stage for the corporate hijacking of the electoral process now underway in many key counties in many key states around the Union.

While the film manages to incorporate a number of key pieces of evidence in building its case, it is most useful as a frank and funny (if that is the right word) introduction to our situation, with a focus on the perils of electronic “voting” (and we can use that term loosely).

Once you’ve screened this film, you’re ready for Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman’s “How The GOP Stole America’s 2004 Election and Is Rigging 2008.” The book is a valuable companion text to “Electile Dysfunction,” as the authors provide a detailed point-by-point account of what they call electoral “death by 1,000 cuts.” This is not a book for the easily distracted. Specifics abound. Footnotes are copious, as are URLs for further research. But our authors set up the story in clear and coherent manner, moving from pre-election day shenanigans to the actual election itself, examining the relationship between exit polls, the vote count, and then the controversy over the recount, as well as looking at the many creative ways Republican party operatives on the ground blocked access to the polls. (To mention but one of many insidious tactics, called “caging,” which involved Republican party tricksters mailing registered letters to thousands of Democrats in mostly minority and/or urban areas, and then challenging those voters who refused to sign for the letters, or who simply ignored them, on election day at the polls.)

And finally, for a page-turning global perspective on what this all means, Mark Crispin Miller’s new book “Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They’ll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them)” is a must. Miller, a longtime observer of contemporary media and politics at New York University, is that rare breed of scholar who possesses both a witty sense of humor and the courage to look into the abyss without flinching. “The election of 2004 was stolen by a theocratic movement,” Miller concludes, “just as hostile to the promise of democracy as any Bolshevik or Nazi of the past or any fuming Islamist today.” Miller documents Republican dirty tricks, not just in Florida and Ohio, but across the United States, drawing on copious amounts of evidence from, brace yourselves, the experiences of actual voters, as well as the local coverage of fraud that went unreported in the national press, allowing the entire story to quickly become marginalized by the MSM by early 2005.

Make no mistake – if the conclusions advanced by these three new texts are accurate, citizens in our now-dying representative democracy are somewhat akin to that allegorical frog sitting unwittingly in that rapidly warming pot.

To where do we jump now, and will we make our move in time?

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WMRW-Low Power FM Community Radio (95.1 fm)
www.wmrw.org
“Green Mountain Globa-Local” show
DJs-Rob Williams and Dan Eckstein
“Think Local, Dance Global!”

Below find regularly updated show play lists from our weekly 1 1/2 hour musical adventure!

WMRW (www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:30-10:30 p.m.
Monday, February 6, 2006
DJ- Rob Williams
Featured Vermont artist: Patti Casey

Patti Casey/Lonesome You
The Flaming Lips/The Wand
Patti Casey/Tender Heart
Elbow/Forget Myself
Patti Casey/I’m Not Finished With You Yet
Josh Ritter/Girl In The War
Patti Casey/Sully’s Hill
Modern Skirts/Seventeen Dirty Magazines
Patti Casey/I am Not Alone
Duncan Sheik/White Limousine
Patti Casey/East of Asheville
Mugison/Murr Murr
Patti Casey/Handsome Patrick
Neko Case/Star Witness
Patti Casey/Another Lucky Day
Ray Davies/Run Away From Time

WMRW (www.wmrw.org)/“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:30-whenever p.m. /Monday, January 2, 2006
DJ- Rob Williams /Featured VT artist: Silo

Shemekia Copeland/Who Stole My Radio?
Silo/Meadow Song
Norah Jones and Dolly Parton/Creepin’ In
Brand New Heavies/Have A Good Time
Peter Mulvey/Sad Sad Sad (And So Far From Home)
Vieux Diop/Africa Wassa
James Taylor/Enough To Be On Your Way
Silo/Pond Song
Jerry Douglas and Alison Krauss/Back In Love Again
Jerry Douglas and Chris Thiele/Hide and Seek
John Shain/Scratch Card Sally
John Mayer/Why Georgia
Silo/Flange (live)
Gregory Douglas/Better Tomorrow

WMRW (www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:30-10:30 p.m.
Monday, October 14, 2005
DJs - Rob Williams and Dan Eckstein
Featured VT artist: Named By Strangers

Peter Mulvey/Charlie
Kris Delmhorst/Bobby Lee
Named By Strangers/Wonder Drug
Drew Emmitt/The Awakening
Alison Brown/The Pirate Queen
Gordon Stone/South Wind
Peter Mulvey/Shirt
Bela Fleck/Blue Mountain Hop
Donald Byrd/Cantaloupe Island
Us3/Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)
Pharoah Sanders/Save Our Children
John Scofield/A Go Go
Dan Zanes/Wandering
Gregory Douglas/Crazy Love
Kris Delmhorst/Weather Vane
Nickel Creek/Stumptown
James Taylor/October Road
Jerry Douglas and Alison Krauss/Back In Love
Named the Strangers/Keith’s Song
Adrian Legg/Chicken Lickin’s Last Ride

WMRW (www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:30-10:30 p.m.
Monday, November 7, 2005
DJ- Rob Williams
Featured VT visiting artists: Kris Delmhorst and Peter Mulvey

Shemekia Copeland/Who Stole My Radio?
James Taylor/September Grass
Jerry Douglas (with Alison Krauss)/Back In Love
Peter Mulvey/Shirt
Kris Delmhorst/Waiting Under The Waves
Nickel Creek/Jealous of the Moon
Gregory Douglass/Sail The Sea
Peter Mulvey/Sad Sad Sad Sad (And So Far From Home)
Kris Delmhorst/Hummingbird
Lucy Kaplansky/I Had Something
Jon Shain/Poetry and Sin
Ekis/Let It Out
Twice/Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon
Peter Mulvey/Road to Mallow
Kris Delmhorst/Bobby Lee
Dan Zanes/Wandering

WMRW (www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:30-11:00 p.m.
Monday, October 17, 2005
DJs – Dan Eckstein and Rob Williams
Featured VT artist: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Shemekia Copeland/Who Stole My Radio
Grace Potter/Sweet Hands
Lucy Kaplansky/I Had Something
Mike Gordon and Leo Kotke/Twice
Jerry Douglas and Alison Krauss/Back In Love Again
Death Cab For Cutie/Soul Meets Body
Los Lobos/Charmed
Elvis Costello/Days
Sam Magwana/Zengolo
Drew Emmit/All Night Ride
Grace Potter/Tooth Brush And My Table
The Latin Playboys/Chinese Surprize
Alison Brown/One Morning In May
John Doyle/The Month Of January
David Gray/The One I Love
Lucy Kaplansky/Red Thread
Grace Potter/Crazy Parade
Gordon Stone/Funky Joe Clark
Tim O’Brien/Turn the Page Again
Rob Wasserman/Satisfaction

WMRW (www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:30-11:00 p.m.
Monday, September 19, 2005
DJ- Rob Williams
Featured VT artist: James Kinne

Gary Horsman/Mossy Stone
Gregory Douglas/Hard
Billy Holiday/Moonlight In Vermont
James Kinne/Writing On The Wall
Shawn Colvin/New Thing Now
Evan Brubaker/23 Minutes
Nancy Griffith/Listen To The Radio (6)
James Kinne/Molly
Patty Griffin/Moses
Shawn Colvin/One Cool Remove
Mark Alan/Leave A Light On Marion
James Kinne/Sleeping In On Saturday
Greg Ryan/Hope To Find
Harry Connick Jr/Save The Last Dance
Indigo Girls/Hammer And Nail
James Kinne/Better Things
Alison Krauss/When You Say Nothing At All
Lucy Kaplansky/My Name Joe
James Kinne/Reach Down

WMRW (www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:30-11:00 p.m.
Monday, September 12, 2005
DJ- Rob Williams
Featured Vermont Artist: Will Patton

Will Patton/Cecel Swing
Bluegrass Gospel Project/Down In The Valley To Pray
James Kinne/Finally Home
Will Patton/Sonhando
Allison Mann/Straighten Up And Fly Right
Chin Ho/Yeah, Right On
Mad Mountain Scramblers/Breathing Blue
Full Moon Heart/Kiss of An Angel
Will Patton/Sambo Do Morro
Strangefolk/Roads
Rebecca Padula/Time, Speed and Distance
Motel Brown/What You Mean
Will Patton/Calcutta Cutie
Out Of The Woods/Room To Play
James Kinne/Writing On The Wall
Adele Nichols/Fly Me To The Moon
Will Patton/Choro For Rachel
Josh Brooks/Better Days
Colin McCaffrey/Giving It Up For The Night

WMRW (www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:30-11:00 p.m.
Monday, August 29, 2005
DJ- Rob Williams
Featured Vermont Artist: Ekis

Alison Brown: The Sound of Summer Running
John Shain: Broken White Line
Ekis: Let It Out
Lucinda Williams: Right On Time
Sting: Something The Boy Said
Alison Brown: The Magnificent Seven
Ekis: Hidden Jar
Drew Emmitt: All Night Ride
Anna Nalick: Breathe (2 am)
REM: Talk About The Passion
Alison Brown: Homeward Bound
Chris Whitley: Kick The Stones
Michelle Shocked: How You Play The Game
Gordon Stone Band: Funky Joe Clark
Alison Brown: The Pirate Queen
Collin Herring: Back Of Your Mind
Ekis: So We Dance
Shelby Lynne: Go With It
David Wilcox: Big Mistake
Chad Hollister: Simplicity

WMRW (http://www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:30-11:00 p.m.
Monday, July 4, 2005
DJ- Rob Williams

Featured VT artist: Gregory Douglass

Gregory Douglass/Hard
Salif Keita/Sina
PEI compilation/Red Is The Rose
Dar Williams (w/ John Popper)/I Saw A Bird Fly Away
Klez Roym/Fel Shara
Edwin McCain/Let It Slide
Patti Griffin/Chief
Gregory Douglass/I Wanted To Run
Zulya/Saginou
Death Cab For Cutie/Prove My Hypothesis
Mark Knopfler/Mason Dixon Line
Gregory Douglass/Innocent
Fortuna/Shalom Aleichem
Rosie Thomas/Wedding Day
Lei Quang/Picking Flowers
Christopher Williams/Did Not Draw
Gregory Douglass/The Ride

WMRW (http://www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:30-11:00 p.m.
Monday, June 27, 2005
DJs- Rob Williams

Featured VT artist: Chad Hollister (actually not a Vermonter, but I discovered him thanks to the recommendation of a VT neighbor)

Richard Shindell/Summer Wind, A Cotton Dress
Sam Roberts/Every Part of Me
Chad Hollister/Simplicity
Earlimart/1st Instant-Last Report
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan/Data Teira Durbar (Master in your Court)
Minnie Driver/Everything I’ve Got In My Pocket
Joi/Don’t Cha Know That
Holly Williams/Between Your Lines
Peter Gabriel/Downside Up
Chad Hollister/Spirits Waters
Alison Krauss/Restless
ACSS/Saor-Free
Julie Lee/Stillhouse Road
Chad Hollister/Dr. Bethesda
Tess Wiley/This Shadow
Afro Celt Sound System/News From Nowhere
Martina Topley-Bird/Need One
Chad Hollister/Ocean
Christopher Williams/Every Time I say Good-bye

WMRW (http://www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:30-11:00 p.m.
Monday, June 20, 2005
DJs- Dan Eckstein/Rob Williams

Featured VT artist: Nobby Reed Project (http://www.nobbyreed.com)

Lou Reed/Sally Can’t Dance
Van Morrison/Mule Skinner Blues
Nobby Reed Project/I-89
Laura Love/I Am Wondering
Hothouse Flowers/Hallelujah Jordan
One Fell Swoop/Here We Go
Joe Jencks/Deportee
Something Beautiful/Tracy Bonham
Jon Shain/Poetry and Sin
Anna Nalick/Breathe (2 am)
Nobby Reed Project/Green Mountain Magic
Casey Neill/Memory Against Forgetting
Cheb Khaled/?
Gypsy Kings/Baila Me
Romero/Vai
La Volee de Castor/C’Est Reel
Shannon McCally/The Worst Part of a Broken Heart
Nobby Reed Project/Joyful Noise
Jon Shain/Joe Turner Ridin’ Down Main Street

“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:30-11:00 p.m.
Monday, June 13, 2005
DJ- Rob Williams

Featured VT artist: The Grift

Cheryl Wheeler/Driving Home
Chris Whitley/Living With The Law
Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem/Baby Took A Limo To Memphis
Mark Alan/Mary Walks Around
The Grift/Too Bad
Salif Keita/Bolon
Dar Williams/Playing To The Firmament
Youssou N’Dour/Wiri-Wiri
The Grift/Too Long
Shawn Colvin/Another Long One
John Shain/Poetry and Sin
Michelle Shocked/How You Play The Game
Collin Herring/Back of your Mind
Baaba Maal/Mbolo
The Grift/Aluminum
Shelby Lynne/Go With It
Eric Bibb/Lonesome Valley
Rawling Cross/Pedestrian Again
Tracy Bonham/Something Beautiful
The Grift/Three Minutes and Counting
Blind Boys of Alabama/Soldier

WMRW (http://www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:00-11:00 p.m.
Monday, May 16, 2005
DJs- Dan Eckstein/Rob Williams

Colin McCaffrey/Got The Most Of You
Evan Brubaker/Bandit of Newbury Street
Indigo Girls/Hammer And A Nail
Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem/Baby Took A Limo To Memphis
The Story/The Alarm Is On Love
Willie Porter/Moonbeam
Paso Fino/Fiery Ride
Jethro Tull/Life’s a Long Song
World Party/Take it Up
Alana Davis/Love and Pride
Eddie From Ohio/This Town
Greg Brown/Spring Wind
Shawn Colvin/One Cool Remove
Mark Alan/Mary Walks Around
Bruce Cockburn/Wondering Where The Lions Are
Bill and Bonnie Hearne/Drifter’s Wind
Lucinda Williams/Right In Time
Five Stones/Happy Hour
Bruce Hornsby/Sneaking Up on Boo Radley
Daniel Lanois/Still Learning How to Crawl
Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise/Mr. Tony
Van Morrison/Mule Skinner Blues
Taj Mahal/Ev’ry Wind in the River
Geoff Muldaur/Alberta
Kate York/Stay With Me
John Gorka/Branching Out

WMRW (http://www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:00-11:00 p.m.
Monday, May 2, 2005
DJ- Rob Williams

Featured VT artist (live in the WMRW studio!):
Bubblin’ Upstream (www.bubblestoripples.org)

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals/Toothbrush And My Table
Mark Alan/Mary Walks Around
James Taylor/Jump Up Behind Me
Allison Krauss and Union Station/Restless
Tony Furtado/More and More
Emmylou Harris/I Don’t Want To Talk About That Now
Gregory Douglass/Hard
Dar Williams/Playing To The Firmament
Hothouse Flowers/Don’t Go
Indigo Girls/Tried To Be True
Freddy Jones Band/Take The Time
Lucy Kaplansky/My Name Joe
Colin McCaffrey/Got The Most Of You
Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem/Baby Took A Limo To Memphis
Greg Ryan/Hope To Find
Rachel Garlin/Your Memory
South by Southwest/New Mexico Rain
Shawn Colvin/The Facts About Jimmy
Willy Porter/Angry Words

Monday, April 18, 2005
DJ- Rob Williams

Featured VT artist: Technicolor Astronauts

Alison Krauss and Union Station/Gravity
Mason Jennings/Crown
Cheryl Wheeler/Defying Gravity
Technicolor Astronauts/I
James Taylor/One Morning In May
Mason Jennings/Empire Builder
Chris Whitley/Big Sky Country
Steel Train/Road Song (w/ David Grisman)
Sinead Lowan/No Mermaid
Technicolor Astronauts/II
Mason Jennings/Fourteen Pictures
Lyle Lovett/Once Is Enough
Sade/Your Love Is King
REM/Radio Free Europe
Rachel Garlin/Big Blue Sky
Joni Mitchell/Big Yellow Taxi
John Hiatt/Slow Turning
Lucinda Williams/Get Right With God
Technicolor Astronauts/III
The Police/Spirits In The Material World
Cheryl Wheeler/ Cell Phones
Steel Train/Better Love
Richard Shindell/The Ballad of Mary Magdalene
Christopher Williams/Did Not Draw
Evan Brubaker and the Bixbys/Sit Com
Salamander Crossing/Tear My Still House Down
John Gorka/Houses In The Fields
Patti Griffin/Rain
Willy Porter/Watercolor Sunrise
Steel Train/The Lee Baby Simms Show

Monday, April 4, 2005 PLAY LIST

Featured VT artist: Bluegrass Gospel Project (promote SaturdaApril 9 Middlebury Gig at Mead Chapel)

Laura Love/Amazing Grace
Jane Siberry with k.d. Lang/Calling All Angels
Lyle Lovett/Church
Joni Mitchell/Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Talking Heads/Heaven
Peter Himmelman/Whispering Days
Patti Griffin/Rain
Bluegrass Gospel Project/Down To The Valley To Pray
Indigo Girls/Land Of Canaan
James Taylor/Shed A Little Light
U2/Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Van Morrison/I Forgot That Love Existed
Ekis/Angel
Van Morrison/When Will I Ever Learn To Live In God
Richard Shindell/The Next Best Western
Grateful Dead/Brokedown Palace
Neville Brothers/Steer Me Right
Suzanne Vega/Pilgrimage
Bluegrass Gospel Project/I Am Weary, Let Me Rest
Dar Williams/Better Things
Mark Alan/Mary Walks Around
Lyle King/Angel
Patti Griffin/Moses
Jack White/Wayfaring Stranger
The Doobie Brothers/Jesus Is Just Alright
Brooks Williams/Tulips In The Spring

WMRW (http://www.wmrw.org)
“Green Mountain Globa-Local”
9:00-11:00 p.m.

Monday, March 3, 2005
DJ- Rob Williams

Featured VT artist: Ekis
Live Studio Guest: Singer/Songwriter Dennis Derryberry

Ekis/Let It Out
Ella Fitzgerald/Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered
Bill Monroe/Doc Watson/Foggy Mountain Top
Mark Alan/Mary Walks Around
Nickel Creek/The Lighthouse’s Tale
Ekis/Hidden Jar
Allison Krauss/Down To The River to Pray
Nat King Cole/Let’s Fall In Love
Ekis/Angel
Jazz Mandolin Project/Country Open
Diana Krall/The Girl In The Other Room
Louis Armstrong/Let’s Do It
Elvis Costello/Alison
Shawn Colvin/Tennessee
Harrod and Funck/Brian Wilson’s Room
Ekis/Remember When
Patti Larkin/Do Not Disturb
Eddie From Ohio/This My Town
Bruce Hornsby/Spider Fingers
Lyle Lovett/Fiona
Dire Straits/Skateaway

Monday, March 3, 2005
DJ- Rob Williams

Featured VT artist: Bluegrass Gospel Project

Pearl Jam-Down
Bluegrass Gospel Project-Down To The River To Pray
Rob Williams-Burning Bush
James Taylor-Jump Up Behind Me
Maura O’Connell-Still Hurts Sometimes
U2-Beautiful Day
Lyle Lovett-Cute As A Bug
BGP-Shouting In The Hills of Glory
REM-Driver 8
Lucinda Williams-Right In Time
John Mayer-Why Georgia Why
Kate York-Wished For Song
Ellis Paul-Translucent Soul
Pete and Maura Kennedy-Wall of Death
BGP-Going Up On The Mountain
Keb Mo-Every Morning
Ted Hawkins-Green Eyed Girl
Mark Knopfler-Sailing To Philadelphia
Rickie Lee Jones-Satellites
Rachel Garlin-Airplane Love Letter
Freddie Jones Band-Take Your Time
Mark Alan-Mary Walks Around
The Story-The Alarm Is On Love
Great Big Sea (w/Sarah Harmer): Captain Wedderburn
Pierce Pettis-Depending On Gravity
John Gorka-Houses In The Fields
Allison Krauss-Stay
Sting-Lazarus Heart
Big Country-Peace In Our Time

Monday, February 28, 2005
Featured theme: Town Meeting Day/
Songs about small “d” democracy

John Mayer/My Stupid Mouth
Ember Swift/Include My Food
Los Lobos/When The Circus Comes
John Gorka/Good Noise
Mark Alan/Don’t Pass Montgomery By
Greg Greenway/One Man, One Woman, One Vote
The Beatles/Think For Yourself
Laura Love/Sometimes Davey Wins
Bob Dylan/Political World
Bruce Cockburn/Call it Democracy
Neil Young/Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World
Traffic/(Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired
Cheryl Wheeler/Makes Good Sense To Me
Tom Prasado Rao/Incoming
U2/All Along The Watchtower
Patti Larkin/Metal Drums
James Taylor/Soldiers
Eric Taylor/Four Great White Fathers
Richard Shindell/You Stay Here
Suzanne Vega/Tired of Sleeping
Bob Marley/Get Up Stand Up
James Taylor/New Hymn
Willie Porter/Tribe
Christopher Williams/Did Not Draw
Vieux Diop/Africa Wassa
Nanci Griffith/It’s A Hard Life
Ellis Paul/Washington DC 5/91
Ted Hawkins/Strange Conversation

Monday, December 2004

Lui Collins/Peace on Earth
10,000 Maniacs/My Mother the War
John Gorka/My Invisible Gun
Bruce Cockburn/Call it Democracy
Bob Dylan/Masters of War
Sam Roberts/Every Part of Me
Out of the Woods/April Snow
Josh Brooks/Better Days
Rebecca Padula/Crying
Mindy Smith/Come to Jesus
Richard Shindell/The Things I Have Seen
Steve Earle/Christmas in Washington
REM/World Leader Pretend
World Party/Put the Message in the Box
Adrian Belew/Peaceable Kingdom
U2/In God’s Country
Bill Malone/Life on Other Planets
The Day John Henry Died/Drive by Truckers
Yonder Mountain String Band/Not Far Away
Allison Kraus/Restless
Neville Brothers/Jah Love
Laura Love/Sometimes Davey Wins
Robbie Robertson and the Red Road Ensemble/It is a Good Day to Die
Billy Bragg and Wilco/Chris for President
Louise Taylor/Let’s Make a Baby King
Tracy Chapman/All That You Have is Your Soul
Salamander Crossing/Dona Nobus Pacem
Brooks Williams/I Wonder as I Wander

Monday, January 17, 2005

Studio guests, fiddler Joanne Garton and with guitar accompaniment by Patti Garbeck. Theme: fiddle music

Natalie MacMaster/New York Jig
Ashley MacIsaac/(a group of jigs)
Garton’s Crimson Avengers/Floating Dogs of the Austrian Skyrise
Tannahill Weavers/Flashmarket Close
Dervish/The Trip to Sligo
Salamander Crossing/Big Black Bird
Beausoleil/La Danse de la Vie
Bela Fleck/Cheeseballs in Cowtown
Old and In the Way/Lonesome Fiddle Blues
Alison Krauss/Another Night
Michelle Shocked/Strawberry Jam
Out of the Woods/My Place
Lou Reed and John Cale/Style it Takes
Jean-Luc Ponty/Rhythms of Hope
The Horseflies/Sally Ann
The Waterboys/The Raggle Taggle Gypsy
Bela Fleck/Bigfoot
Alesdair Fraser and Paul Machlis/Calliope House>The Cowboy Jig
Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem/Let’s Pretend There’s a Moon

January 10, 2005
Guest Interview: Monica Cahilly on Town Mtg. Iraq War Resolution

Play List:

Cheryl Wheeler/Don’t Forget The Guns
U2/Mothers of the Disappeared
Peter Mulvey/Deep Blue
Chris Smither/No Love Today
Michelle Shocked/Over The Waterfall
Natalie McMaster/Flamenco Fling
Daniel Lanois/The Maker
Van Morrison/Mule Skinner Blues
Laura Love/Mahbootay
John Gorka/Lightning’s Blues
Lyle Lovett/Cute As A Bug
Bela Fleck/Blue Mountain Hop
*Greg Ryan/Hope To Find
Joni Mitchell/Blue
Nanci Griffith/Boots of Spanish Leather
The Beatles/Norwegian Wood
Dire Straits/Water Of Love
Notting Hillbillies/Will You Miss Me
*Grace Potter/Crazy Parade
Alison Krauss/Every Time I Say Good-Bye

Monday, January 24, 2005
Featured Reading: Long Live Secession…
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/01/24/secession/print.html
Featured Vermont artist: Lewis Franco
(* denotes Vermont artists/connections)

Play List:

*Consumer Culture/Lewis Franco
“MASS”-Cheers Song/DL (Daniel Laurent)
The Power of Love/Huey Lewis and the News
Whitewater/California Guitar Trio
*Home From The War/Colin McCaffrey
Sinead Lohan/No Mermaid
Makes It Up/Lewis Franco
*Patti Larkin/Me And That Train
*Mr. Jones/Lewis Franco
Bruce Springsteen/The Rising
Kelly Joe Phelps/River Rat Jimmy
The Story/Missing Person Afternoon
Martin Sexton/Glory Bound
Ellis Paul/Conversation With A Ghost
Tom Prasada Rao/Ashes of Love
South By Southwest/New Mexico Rain
*Lewis Franco/Floats Away
Lyle Lovett/Cute As A Bug
*Greg Ryan/Hope To Find (Radio Mix)
California Guitar Trio/Ghost Riders Mix

Monday, February 7, 2005
Featured Vermont artist: Out of the Woods
(* denotes Vermont artists/connections)

Play List:

SRV/Testify
Martin Sexton/Things You Do To Me
Keb’ Mo/She Just Wants To Dance
Taj Mahal/Fishing Blues
Jorma Kaukonen/Genesis
Adrian Legg/The Gospel According To D’ Henry
Leo Kottke/Airproofing
* Out of the Woods/Fostering
* California Guitar Trio/
Christopher Williams/Did Not Draw
* Greg Ryan/Hope To Find
* Colin McCaffrey/Home From The War
* Grace Potter/Crazy Parade
Patti Larkin/Who Holds Your Hand
* Gregory Douglas/Hard
Willy Porter/Watercolor Sunrise
Joni Mitchell/from Blue
* Out of the Woods/Comin’ Out Of It
Al Green/Be My Baby
John Lee Hooker (w Santana)/The Healer
Gipsy Kings/Baila Me
Romero/El Reynado
John Scofield & Pat Metheny/ The Red One
Allman Brothers/Little Martha
Bruce Cockburn/After the Rain
* Out of the Woods/Out the Door
Be Good Tanyas/The Littlest Birds
Mary Gauthier/Mercy
Jazz Mandolin Project/Wide Open

Monday, February 14, 2005
Valentine’s Day/Love Songs

Featured Vermont artist: Colin McCaffrey
(* denotes Vermont artists/connections)

Play List

James Taylor/Jump Up Behind Me
Allison Krauss/The Scarlet Tide
Colin McCaffrey/Got The Most of You*
Colin McCaffrey/Make Your Way Home*
Shawn Colvin/Shotgun Down The Avalanche
Nanci Griffith/Gulf Coast Highway
Mark Alan/Mary Walks Around
Van Morrison/Have I Told You Lately
Sting/The Lazarus Heart
Dire Straits/Down To The Waterline
Hothouse Flowers/Don’t Go
Eric Taylor/Kokomo
U2/Pride (In The Name of Love)
Emmylou Harris/I Don’t Want To Talk About It Now
Greg Brown/You Drive Me Crazy
Lucinda Williams/Right In Time
Elvis Costello/Everyday I Write The Book
Colin McCaffrey/Need A Little Love*
Eddie From Ohio/This My Town
Pierce Pettis/Depending On Gravity
Ani Difranco/Out Of Range
Ellis Paul/Translucent Soul
Bonnie Raitt/Thing Called Love
Tom Prasado Rao/Ashes of Love
Willy Porter/Falling Forward
John Gorka/Airstream Bohemians
The Police/Roxanne
James Taylor/Dance
Nora Jones/The Nearness of You
Colin McCaffrey/Giving It Up For The Night

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Carpe Ski’em: The Joy of Telemark Skiiing DVD

“I hate telemarkers,” Mad River Glen’s Eric Friedman said to me in the lodge a few weeks back.

“Really?” I countered, my Garmont free heel boots suddenly weighing more heavily around my shoulders.

“Do you know what ‘telemark’ means in Norwegian?” he asked me with mock ferocity, a half-grin on his face. I shook my head, apprehensive.

It means “Wait for me!”

Until this year, that joke proved to be my Telemark experience. I married a gifted skier who learned how to run black diamonds while I was throwing down the same at the poker table as a kid. After a ski-free existence through high school, I grew to love Nordic skiing after college, thanks to the infinite patience and coaching of the same aforementioned gal. But until I moved to Vermont, I didn’t begin to comprehend that you could combine the concepts “telemark,” “chair lift,” and “ski area” into one seamless package.

Who knew?

Prior to moving to the Mad River Valley, my only experience riding a chairlift happened one winter day years ago in Santa Fe, New Mexico, when I ascended the mountain with my neighbor and friend Deb Armstrong, the woman who won an Olympic medal in the downhill slalom in Sarajevo back in the late eighties.

“Let me get this straight, Rob,” she said incredulously, as I gaped at the snow-covered hill below us. “You’ve never been on a chair lift before?”

Nope.

And my first dismount from that same Santa Fe chair lift, was, in a word, ugly.

The phrase “yard sale” comes to mind, and I was barely moving.

So, I began to learn how to telemark the hard way, slogging across rugged Colorado terrain, going yurt to yurt, in the butt cold high alpine winter, with skins strapped on to edged skinny skiis.

But now there is a new instructional video that has begun to answer the lingering questions I’ve had about “telemark” skiing.

Namely, how the heck do you do it?

Few Vermonters are more qualified to answer that question than Mad River Glen’s Dickie Hall. Hall helped found the North American Telemark Organization (NATO) years ago, and has lived and breathed the sport for longer than I’ve been on skiis.

Now, with the help of fellow telemark enthusiasts Wendy Bridgewater and friends, Hall has distilled his vast knowledge of the sport into one DVD package entitled “The Joy of Telemark Skiing” (yep, a shameless adaptation of the cook book of the same name.)

Billed as a “soup to nuts guide” to improving your Telemark Skiing, this “down to earth and fun to watch” video boasts “dozens of fast easy skill-building recipes,” complete with “inspiring, simple, revolutionary instruction” that is “worth 5 years of trial and error.”

But, having tele-bruised my body on the hard high desert snow pack more times than I care to remember, I was initially skeptical. How could a video do all that, I wondered?

Truth is, “The Joy of Telemark Skiing” is a fabulous instructional tool. Hall and his tele-posse recognize that learning how to telemark, like everything else, requires the student to develop a basic understanding of the sport’s building blocks, and then immediately apply those building blocks to slope work in a way that is at once practical and non-threatening.

The video serves up one nugget of wisdom after another, complete with copious video examples of proper technique. The DVD also includes plenty of footage of telemarkers demonstrating Improper technique (and falling a lot, which made me feel a little better about my own ragtag skill set). Simple but useful editing/FX techniques help isolate certain telemark moves for the viewer, and useful analogies (think of your telemark poles, for example, as headlights pointing you down the hill) allow the viewer to visualize areas of improvement.

Finally, “The Joy of Telemark Skiing” is, well, a joyful film. Hall, Bridgewater and the other skiers who share their wisdom also share a passion for the sport, and that excitement permeates the entire film, from the opening basics to the fabulous footage of telemark skiing in Washington’s Cascade mountains, Denali’s Ruth Glacier, and yes, our own Mad River Glen.

So, if you, like me, were feeling somewhat intimidated at the thought of trying telemarking, this new video might be just the ticket. Watch the whole thing for inspiration, or watch it in strategic sections as your own skill set develops. Either way, your skiing is bound to improve, as mine has (and believe me, I still have much to learn).

For more information about the film, visit www.telemarknato.com.

See you on the slopes, fellow free heelers.

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A Bad Boy Can Be A Good For A Girl:
An Interview with Vermont author Tanya Lee Stone

As a longtime high school teacher, I’ve watched boys and girls navigate that tricky and often painful journey from adolescence to adulthood for years. Some manage to do so more gracefully than others, for all kinds of different reasons. Tanya Lee Stone’s new young adult novel (ages 14 plus) tells the story of three different girls – Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva – and one “bad boy” interested in teen seduction.

Exploring a story like this with honesty and insight provides more than enough challenges for any writer, and Stone’s efforts have begun garnering her notice. Her book recently got a Starred Review from School Library Journal, which said that it was “realistic and frank…not graphic,” noting that “this is not a book that will sit quietly on any shelf; it will be passed from girl to girl to girl.” The American Library Association’s (ALA) Booklist, meanwhile, said Stone’s story packs “a steamy emotional wallop…the lessons learned here are important,” while Horn Book called it a “candid free-verse novel…electrically charged.

“Vermont Guardian” interviewed Stone about her new book and the writing process generally.
You can find out more about the book at www.tanyastone.com.

Q. How did you come to write this particular book?
A. The title came to me first, which I scribbled in my notebook during a talk I was attending. Josie quickly followed (the first character in the book) and she started telling me her story. It began as a short story, actually, so the first part of the process was simply exploring Josie’s experience of being a freshman in high school and the push-pull feeling of getting involved in that first serious relationship. Part of her was ready for it, and part of her wasn’t. In hindsight, it strikes me that I was writing this while becoming involved with my first all-encompassing experience writing fiction. Prior to this novel, I have published a lot of nonfiction and picture books for kids, but this is my first novel. So the rush was there for me as well as for Josie.

Q. Why tell your story from 3 different points of view?
A. As I began to expand the short story form into a novel, it occurred to me that it would be interesting to keep the boy a steady-state element and really explore how each girl, with her unique perspective and background, would change and grow through her interactions with this one boy. In many ways, it’s not about the boy at all. What the book is really about is how the choices young girls make as they head into this new territory affect who they are and who they want to become.

Q. Your novel is a real coming-of-age story with some explicit subject matter, sensitively handled. How do you balance being candid in your writing with being discreet?
A. With loving care! Seriously, I care deeply about my readers and I also trust them. Kids are amazingly good at self-censoring. If they’re not ready for a book, they skim it and put it back on the shelves. For the readers who are interested in this topic, it was important to me not to try and cleverly skirt the issues I was bringing up. At the same time, I wanted to be sensitive and not have the content be too distracting from the themes of self-esteem and growth. And in the revision process, I made sure that there was nothing I felt was gratuitous. There is nothing included for shock value.

Q. Do you have a favorite female protagonist of the three?
A. I really don’t. I am fond of all three of them. Perhaps I worry most about Nicolette; she’s the character that continues to tug at me and I think there may be more of her story to tell.

Q. What do we do with this “bad boy,” who seems to be all about seducing (”nailing,” as you say over and over in the book) impressionable younger gals? Is he an archetypal bad boy? Any advice for the “non-bad boys” in the reading audience?
A. First of all, let it be said that I certainly am not of the opinion that all boys are like this. In fact, quite the opposite. I think there are plenty of nice guys roaming the halls of high schools everywhere! But as many women readers have already told me, it is commonplace for most girls/women to have experienced a player at one time in their lives. Advice for the nice boys out there? Don’t try this at home! Just be real, be yourselves, and treat your girlfriends with the same respect you show your sisters and aunts and mothers and nieces.

Q. How has the book been received by younger readers? By parents? Any stories here?
A. It’s only been out for a couple of weeks, but I am already getting a lot of reader response. I’ve had mothers tell me they read it and couldn’t wait to give it to their daughters. Many parents I’ve heard from seem to agree that a book is the safest place for kids to explore this kind of topic. It gives them a chance to play things out in their head. Comments I’ve received from teens include things like, “it’s all so true,” or “we know guys like this,” and many identify with either one character strongly, or even more commonly, parts of all three girls. I’ve also heard from parents who really connected with the book but weren’t comfortable sharing it with their 13 or 14 year old yet. To that I say, that’s fine, every kid is different. It’s a book that will keep; give it to them when they’re ready.

Q. And you are currently organizing a live performance for February 10 at the Flynn Space – talk about this.
A. Three of my readers are actually rehearsing parts of the book right now for a performance coming up in February at the Flynn Space. It’s been amazing for me to see the characters come to life on stage. The point of that performance is not to delve deeply into the plot of the book, but to simply introduce the characters to the audience. It was a great idea (not mine) for a book launch party! Following the performance, there will be a discussion with the audience, and then I’ll sign some books while people have fun. This event, by the way, is free and open to the public.

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