Landgrove writeup is online

Posted last Friday, actually, and forgot to note here.

I went a little nuts on this one. It includes several threads: the town history, history of the Town Hall building and the piano, reflections on old uprights in general and on playing Ives on this piano in particular, even an investigation into the roll-down map of Europe...in addition to the usual concert description, clips, and photos.

My assistant Gideon had mentioned that social media postings which included interesting B-roll video that my wife Annelies had taken in South Hero (our dog Stella dreaming of running while I played) and Warren (an outdoor-to-indoor walking clip where the sound of the rushing Freeman Brook, swollen with the historic July rains, gradually gives way to my rendition of James P. Johnson’s also stormy “Jungle Drums”) generated an above-average number of likes. So in Landgrove I asked Annelies to look for interesting side stories, which resulted in two posted videos: another outdoor-to-indoor clip, this one of the Maple Leaf Rag, and host Sally Ogden recounting her husband’s experience when the Town Hall venue was Landgrove’s one-room schoolhouse. 

Gideon put both of the videos on social media as teasers in a scheduled lead-up to the posting of the Landgrove writeup. It was all a bit of a production. In particular, producing every additional video (these were besides the four pieces from the concert that I included in the writeup) takes a fair bit of my time.

All in all I’m pleased with the result. It was worth the effort: the B-roll videos were compelling enough, as was the overall energy of the Landgrove concert, that I felt they called for a fancy concert report. But it took three solid workdays, which I can’t do for every concert; some have to be more minimal. Still have 10 to catch up on! 

It’s tempting to go all in on all of them though. Which is an indication that what I say at concert after concert is true. Every one is really distinctive: the locale, the village, the community, the venue, the collaborators, the program, the audience. And that you really don’t have to go far to travel.

Landgrove: Gore-land

Concerts no. 37 and 38 were both in towns with connections to two of Vermont’s remaining gores, in an interesting reciprocal way, as I discussed here.

Extending the coincidence, concert no. 39 was in an ex-gore. Almost all Vermont gores were eventually annexed to a nearby town; Landgrove is one of the few exceptions, a gore that became its own town. (I think the only other one is Stannard.) 

Apparently the first settler family, the Utleys, thought they were in the town of Peru (then called Bromley). After living there a few years, it became clear they were actually in a gore between Bromley, Weston, and Londonderry. Rather than joining up with Bromley, Capt. William Utley and a few others who had settled in the area petitioned the Vermont legislature in 1780 to form their own miniature town. 

I assume this had something to do with not wanting to pay Bromley taxes, or maybe some more specific beef with Bromley; in any event the precise town line was contested for some time, with the ensuing lawsuits not settled until 1835 by the Legislature.

Interestingly, there is no record of the origin of the town name. It is generally assumed to be a “made” name: a land of groves. But given the long boundary dispute, I like to think the name is an anagram of “Land” [i.e. self-governing area] “v. Gore”.

Mojo come, mojo go

For much of July and August my energy for this project was faltering, right when I’d imagined it would be picking up because I didn’t have to divide my energies with teaching classes. At least I had the self-awareness to realize it could have something to do with a broken toe (no tragedy, but an extended and frustrating summer debility), anaplasmosis (also no tragedy, but an energy sap), and the ever-worsening local and global news from the climate and biosphere (beyond tragedy, but not a surprise, except in its rapidity). Also I’d always anticipated there would be low points in a project this long and involved. So I allowed myself to feel mildly daunted and unenthusiastic without also worrying about feeling that way, which would only have amplified it.

And then I had an especially energizing concert in little Landgrove, pop. 177, with a great vibe, an old country upright with a great backstory, and our highest audience:population ratio by far— 35%! Plus we had a happy stay in Brandon on the way home—mostly for fun! though we did check out the piano (superb) at the see-it-to-believe-it Barn Opera while we were there. And now I feel excited again.

Ratio’d, again

Playing in Coventry last Sunday, I couldn’t help thinking of the most famous concert there. Coincidentally, Phish’s so-called “farewell” concert of 2004 also took place in a time of much wetness. Cars were stuck, roads were closed, and the band got on the radio to tell fans not already at the Newport State Airport to turn around and go home. 

They didn’t; people abandoned their cars and were ferried to the venue by locals, and for two days, Coventry was Vermont’s largest town. For comparison:

Burlington, 2000 census	38,889
Phish Farewell Concert, 2004	68,000
Play Every Town, 2023	39

(earlier ratio experience here)

South Hero writeup

Posted just now.

I’ve acquired some basic skills with Final Cut, so I’m starting to do slightly fancier things in some of the concert clips. My wife Annelies took some B-roll footage of our dog Stella running in her sleep to part of Eve Beglarian’s haunting “Another Time”, which I incorporated into a video of the whole piece. Today is exactly 17 months since we brought Stella to the vet to extract a cracked tooth, only to have the vet tell us she couldn't do the surgery because Stella’s blood work showed severely reduced liver function, the result of a passel of tumors throughout the organ. She gave Stella six months to live. But Stella did not get the memo. She’s still with us—weaker, less active, and emaciated, but still trotting happily, if not running, at least a couple of times a day .