• Courtesy
• Tyler Mast

Burlington musician Tyler Mast dropped a new single last Friday. The piano and Hammond organ maestro's latest is titled "I Could Get Used to Your Love," a breezy roots rocker that will slot in nicely on summer playlists.

"It's a groovy little tune about embracing new love and driving through the mountains on a perfect day," Mast wrote in a press release.

He initially recorded the song in 2023 but wasn't satisfied with the arrangement and kept toiling away. Mast eventually got the take he wanted, thanks to a killer band of locals featuring drummer Cotter Ellis, guitarist Marshall Dominguez, bassist Josh Weinstein and saxophonist Chris Peterman. Jeremy Mendicino mastered the final at Lane Gibson Recording and Mastering in Charlotte.

The song is available now on Spotify.

Did you love the Kendrick Lamar-Drake beef but wish it had more Vermont in it? Hey, that's weird, but you do you. Good news, though: Burlington rapper Real Ricky has entered the fray, and he's taking on ... the entire Vermont rap scene?

On his new diss track, "Rick Vs Everybody (THE 802 Diss Track)," Ricky comes out swinging: "These VT rappers are 40 and can't rap." In short order, he takes shots at everyone from North Ave Jax to Jarv to Jonny Wanzer. "I'm not cocky, I'm destined ... Make me lock in, I dare you," he concludes, signing off the track with a kiss to his competitors.

Diss tracks are weird. It's been said before, but they're just grown men slinging angry poems at each other. It can all get a little cringe. Certainly the Kendrick-Drake thing has gone that way. Diss tracks can also get serious and even deadly — see Biggie Smalls and Tupac, for one notorious example. But there's a classic, lighter vibe to Ricky's "Fuck you, 802" anthem. It's not that I don't think he means it; it's that I think there's a spirit underlying the track, a hint of playful banter toward rivals.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see if any of the many Vermont rappers Ricky took a shot at returns fire. Check out the track on SoundCloud.

Speaking of Vermont rappers, Kyle "Fattie B" Thompson hit me up recently to let me know his old outfit, '90s Vermont stalwarts Belizbeha, are reuniting for the last time in September. In what Fattie describes as a "massive celebratory weekend to wrap up an extraordinary 30-year run as a band," the group will re-form and play two back-to-back shows at the Higher Ground Ballroom in South Burlington on September 27 and 28.

The band, which merged soul, hip-hop, jazz and funk, enjoyed a run of success leading into the turn of the century, even playing a set at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The band members went their separate ways in 2000 but have periodically reunited. That all comes to an end this fall, as Belizbeha bid a fond farewell to the scene that spawned them.

DJ extraordinaire Neil Cleary has launched a brand-new weekly vinyl session titled All Ears. Held every Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Big Spruce restaurant in Richmond, the series focuses on what Cleary described as "otherworldly vibes."

As he put it, "It's a lot of heady, futuristic sounds blended with a healthy dose of chunky, viscous stank — everything from Kamasi Washington, Hiatus Kaiyote and Sven Wunder to Lee Dorsey, El Michels Affair and WITCH."

A talented multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Cleary also hosts the SiriusXM show "The Bunny," an incarnation of the on-site pop-up radio station Cleary has hosted at Phish festivals since 1997.

Eye on the Scene

Last week's live music highlights from photographer Luke Awtry

• Luke Awtry
• XAVWAX

South End Get Down at the Pinery, Burlington, Friday, May 17, and Saturday, May 25: The South End of Burlington is once again alive with the sound of music! The Pinery beer garden is open for the summer, and the lot scene at 377 Pine is happening. Earlier this month I checked out the South End Get Down, the evolutionary cousin of the late ArtsRiot Truck Stop across the street. The weekly Friday event's new home is much more comfortable and provides far more open space, views across the canal, a tabled seating area and 46 different food vendors. Xavier Jimenez, aka XAVWAX and a co-owner of Buch Spieler Records in Montpelier, spun vinyl from the sun-kissed loading dock, and the vibes paired perfectly with the copious food options. And that's not all for you weekend warriors. Live bands are booked throughout the summer for a more mellow, single food truck-supported Saturday evening hang. Local surf-rock trio Barbacoa played this past Saturday, and music encyclopedia Bill Mullins, on lead guitar and vocals, took random requests from the crowd — I took the opportunity to stealthily exit during a cover of Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man." But there's more! The Pinery is also open on Sundays from noon to 6 p.m. With the beer garden, a food truck and quiet house music playing from tree-mounted speakers, the canal scene provides a great backdrop for some laid-back Sunday fun. Just don't jump in.

Listening In

Spotify playlist of Vermont jams