UPDATED: Big Heavy World Announces Vermont Music Summit
Words by Nick Kramer.
On Saturday, January 14 “The 1st Annual Vermont Musicians Summit” comes to Higher Ground. The event will bring together musicians and professionals from all facets of the Vermont music industry to take part in an array of music-related activities. From 5:30-7pm artists and industry pros alike are invited to come network, share stories, take part in panels and in all ways bring the Vermont music community closer together.
The panels:
Booking 101, from 6pm-6:45 Moderated by Zack DuPont Panelists: Kris Gruen Danny Coane Meg Hammond Nick Mavodones Paddy Reagan Rebecca Kopycinski Ryan Krushenick Face-One Trevor Jewett Scott Mangan
The Past, Present & Future of Vermont Music, from 6:45pm-7:30 Moderated by Jim Lockridge, Justin Hoy, & Joe Adler Panelists: Kevin Statesir Jason Liggett a.k.a. Liggy Dan Bolles Nick Vaden Danny Coane Matt Bushlow Kris Gruen Meg Hammond Harrison Shulman Face-One Zach Rhodes Kyle Rose
Afterwards, doors open to the public at 8pm for a concert beginning at 8:30 and featuring performances from Kat Wright & The Indomitable Soul Band, Something With Strings, The Human Canvas, The Wind Woods w/ Brett Hughes, and more to be announced, including an all-star jam session with some very special guests. Tickets for the concert are available now through the Higher Ground box office, highergroundmusic.com.
The Post-Summit Music: 8:30-9:05 The Smittens 9:10-9:25 Anna Pardenik 9:30-9:55 The Wee Folkestra 10:10-10:55 Kat Wright & The Indomitable Soul Band 11:00-11:15 Second Agenda 11:20-11:45 The Wind Woods w/ Brett Hughes & Russ Lawton) 11:55-12:30 Something with Strings 12:35-12:50 The Human Canvas 12:55-1:40 Soule Monde (Ray & Russ) 1:40-2:00 All-Star Jam
In the eyes of the three men behind the summit, the evening has been a long time coming. Musician, song-writer and Radio Bean stalwart Joe Adler admits that he has seen for a while the “need to get everybody together." According to Adler, there is a collaborative attitude already at work in the Vermont music scene, “[Adler’s band] Wee Folkestra came out of this attitude, this is how [Adler’s weekly parties at Half Lounge] Burgundy Thursdays developed... everybody needs to meet.” Despite this need for collaboration, Adler still sees a fair amount of disconnect amongst various Vermont music camps and looks to the summit to provide an open field for collaboration and education. He muses, “If we could bring everybody up to at least understanding the basics of everything...it would raise the bar.” To that end, he, “want[s] to make it big, make it memorable, and hopefully get the word out to some of the more national musicians who live in Vermont.” For Adler, “The summit is the meat and potatoes. The music after it is just the dessert.”
Justin Hoy, the President/CEO and founder of Halogen Media Works was the one who had the initial vision for the summit. It occurred to Justin that, “We’ve been doing music for the local community for a long time, and I thought we should do something to bring the whole industry together.” As the idea for the summit began to take shape Hoy reached out to Adler for help in attracting talent and putting together a program and to Jim Lockridge of Big Heavy World since, “I think Big Heavy is important as a building block for the Vermont music industry.”
With the pieces coming into place, Hoy next turned his attention to finding an appropriate venue and quickly settled upon Higher Ground. Says Hoy, “I thought about all that Higher Ground does for local music and realized that it would be the place to have it. Also at Higher Ground we can have it be an all ages event.” That the summit open to all ages is crucial to Hoy’s vision of an annual gathering, which he hopes will become a banner event for the entire Vermont music community. Hoy posits, “It’s important to have the summit as a yearly event to be able to have different headliners, showcase different headliners. The two things we’re going for here are having fans engage with the music and having industry people meet each other.” To that end, Hoy sees the summit as a way to, “expand a dialogue between musicians and industry folks.” This means that, “The summit will help musicians to see the back end behind when they book a gig. Lots of times when musicians book and play a gig they don’t necessarily see everything that goes on back behind the scenes.” By uniting musicians with industry professionals of every stripe, Hoy hopes to ensure that everyone in the rapidly growing Vermont music scene understands every part of the industry, and knows the people responsible for making the industry work.
Jim Lockridge, the man behind volunteer-run music advocacy organization Big Heavy World, sees the event as a natural extension of the work that the non-profit has been doing since its birth in 1996. According to Lockridge, “Big Heavy has always sought to bring the music in Vermont closer together and help individual musicians recognize the larger community... this summit is a social application of that.” He believes that, “Ultimately what happens at the summit will give a charge to the musicians that come, and help them to recognize that there are other friends out there that are experiencing the same challenges.” For Lockridge, the summit also provides a chance for “musicians that come to be introduced to the resources that Big Heavy World offers for free to the Vermont music community.” These resources include promotion, event production, airplay on radio station 105.9 the Radiator, and even use of the brightly-painted Big Heavy World van for touring.
Musicians and industry professionals of every kind are welcome to attend the free early evening summit and for those with ideas about activities or interest in putting together a panel, programming director Joe Adler is open to communication. Tickets for the concert are currently available to the public and are being sold for $8 in advance or $10 on the day of the show. With a talented and diverse line-up of musicians, and a wide cross-section of the Vermont music community already looking forward to the event, The 1st Annual Vermont Musician’s Summit should prove to be a unique gathering of every side of Vermont music, as well as a night filled with songs and fun for those young and old. Visit bigheavyworld.com or email info@bigheavyworld.com for more information.
Thank you Dan Bolles and Seven Days for helping get the word out! http://www.7dvt.com/2012summit