Girls Rock Vermont at Burlington Highlight!

Linda Bassick is a songwriter and musician hailing from Burlington. She’s served as director for Girl’s Rock Vermont since 2013 and as an educator since the eighties. This past year, she and the music camp of Girl’s Rock Vermont set up and performed their first ever Variety Rock Show, featuring talent from young and aspiring artists across the state! This year, much of the same plan is in action; but with more music, more artists, and a bigger venue!

“This is our second time doing it, so we’re really excited about it. We’re gonna be at a different place, at the FlynnSpace, and it’s gonna be a little bit longer so we have a little more time to share. I think last year we filled an hour and a half, this year it’s one to three so it’s a bit longer of a show. I’m hoping to really showcase some of what the campers have been working on.”

The show is, as Linda puts it, an “extension” of the camp itself. The girls within the show have all attended the camp for at least one session—a prerequisite of sorts. Upon arriving at the Girl’s Rock Vermont camp, the young musicians are thrown into a band with others their age, not all of whom are acquainted, in a process designed to stretch and grow their comfort zones, experience, and ultimately their skill and confidence in their music.

“Wrangling groups of kids and dealing with families is definitely something I’ve been doing for a while,” Linda says, both in reflection of her experience in the field and the success of the previous year’s show. “So that probably lent itself to the success of our event last year. And there’s been a lot of hankering from the kids to do it again.”

Linda and the camp at large work hard to foster a welcoming and inclusive environment for which this learning can take place. In her own words: “We definitely deal with social stuff, we talk about self care, we bring in other women who are in the business around here to do workshops, and not necessarily about music. Some are about music, some are about self care, and yoga, and some are more about arts and crafts, like T-shirt and logo making. We have performances every day from people, so at the end of the day someone will come in and perform for the kids, and what I’ve really tried to do is really represent different kinds of music, not just have all singer/songwriters come in. Because that’s easy to fill, but what’s tricky is to find a kick ass rock band to come in that’s female fronted, or mostly female, and have them play for the kids so they can be like ‘Oh, this is a choice for us.’ ”

The Variety Show itself is a creation for the purpose of, much like the camp, broadening and deepening the girls’ musical experience and competence. The simple but raw experience of being backstage at a show, plus (as Linda puts it) “the protocol that goes into what a show is,” is part of the gig. While developing and performing their talent, Linda puts value on the ability to stand on stage confidently; To stare down the barrel of stage fright and keep on playing.

“It’s safe out there, safer than you think, out there on the stage,” she emphasizes. “he ability to just step up and do your thing even though it’s really frickin’ scary, to do it anyway and just to be like ‘Wow, that was amazing, I’m so glad I did that.’ I think it’s so scary because the rewards are so amazing. Like ‘Yeah, I was scared,’ but it makes up for all the fear after the fact.

“Taking risks is our number one, most important thing about camp. Letting them know it’s okay to make a mistake, and that it can be a real learning experience. That you can pick up your pieces, and if it’s still what you wanna do, you keep going, you keep doing it.”

In addition to this year’s show, plans are underway for other performances by Girl’s Rock Vermont, the exact nature of which has yet to be revealed. Although the terms “monthly show” and “open mic” were tossed about, nothing concrete has been announced as of writing this. At least not until the children of the camp have been consulted, as Linda puts it: “I can’t always think of the ideas, they’ve got way better ideas than I do.” Until then, you can find Girls Rock Vermont at Highlight on December 31st, from 1 to 3 PM at the FlynnSpace.

Text by Thomas Himmield.