Montpelier has the Blues

It's been awhile since I wrote about my travels in this space. I've been to Portland, Oregon in recent months, and I've had several trips to Vermont. Most have been whirlwinds and I haven't found the time to write about them, unfortunately. However, tonight I was back in Montpelier and ready to soak up the culture. As I've noted in this space before, Montpelier is a pretty small town that shutters most of its windows at 5:00 pm. That's the case during the winter months, anyway. This was my first bonafide summer trip to Montpelier, and as the sun is up longer, so are more people out and about.

Because my actual work-related plans changed at the last minute, I decided to check out the calendar for the Langdon Street Cafe. The Langdon Street is the local communist (I mean "cooperative") foods/arts project in the heart of Montpelier. I've been told that the music and beer are good, and the people watching is unsurpassed in Montpelier. And so it was that I found myself making my first venture there, despite the fact that the place is two short blocks from my hotel.

Montpelier's Langdon St. Cafe, on Langdon St. in Montpelier

New at the Langdon Street is the Wednesday night blues happy hour, featuring Dave Keller and Jan Shultz. This is a gig that Keller started just this month, and thus far seems to be attracting a small but enthusiastic crowd. Keller's main band is a six-piece R&B outfit, but the event at the Langdon Street was a blues jam featuring four musicians (Keller on guitar, Schultz on bass, Nick Kirshnit on trumpet, and presumably Brett Hoffman on drums). I think this is the "Blues Trio" plus the trumpeter. I didn't recognize the songs (Robert Cray, Junier Wells, etc.), but I did recognize the groove, a funky blues punctuated by occasional guitar and trumpet solos. The set was appropriately loose, almost to the point of being sloppy (in a good way), with Keller announcing songs and instructing the rest of the band as to which chords to play. We were told that this was Kirshnit's first time appearing with the trio but he proved to be a consummate professional, stepping in with seamless solos as soon as Keller gave him a nod. We were even treated to a tune sung by the bartender, who had requested the opportunity to show off her vocal talents with the rest of the band, and who sounded like she had been performing with the rest of the musicians for quite some time.

I always enjoy watching musicians perform live, and a jam session always carries a spirit of freedom that effervesces through the music. These guys were performing for the love of music (and whatever meager donations were dropped in the bucket at the front of the stage), and the lack of structure to the show lent it a refreshing air of sincerity. The Langdon Street Cafe proved to be a worthwhile venue to sit back, enjoy some Wolaver's Orgainic Ales and listen to some back-to-the-roots blues. Yet another hidden treasure from Montpelier.