• Courtesy
• Troy Millette

As any local musician can tell you, booking shows around Vermont is as difficult as ever. Venues are struggling with predatory insurance companies thirsty for profit, as well as unpredictable crowds that, post-pandemic, rarely buy advance tickets for smaller shows. It all leads to a hesitancy by venues to book anything other than proven and reliable seat-fillers.

Even when artists do book a show, they're often expected to handle most of the promotion. And then there's the growing practice of venues taking cuts from artists' merchandise sales. (Before any of you email me with a "not in Vermont" rant again: Yes, many of our local venues take merch cuts.)

As someone who has played music in this community for well over 20 years, I can tell that while some challenges are new, it's always been a slog for local talent to book good shows at top venues. I've had to buy and sell tickets to my own band's shows just for the "privilege" of getting to play a local stage on a Tuesday night with a handful of other Vermont bands. I've watched as touring bands get fed and paid while local acts are relegated to a 10-minute sound check, with two drink tickets for draft beer for dinner. It's always been the way of things.

Working to change that are Seth Soloway, executive director of Spruce Peak Arts at the base of Stowe Mountain, and local singer-songwriter Troy Millette. The two are collaborating to make the performing arts center a welcoming home to Green Mountain musicians by pairing local acts with top touring talent for the Spruce Peak Unplugged series. The new initiative kicks off on Saturday, October 12, with a show by Philadelphia rockers Deer Tick and an opening performance by Millette.

"When I took this job, I knew my mandate was to elevate Spruce Peak to the level of a national performing arts center," said Soloway, who joined the Stowe organization last year. "But I also didn't want to forget about the local music scene, which I knew was incredibly robust, from Noah Kahan to the buskers on Church Street. I didn't want anyone thinking I just showed up from New York City and kicked out all the locals — that's exactly how you piss off a local scene."

Soloway met Millette when the Americana artist opened for folk act Josiah and the Bonnevilles, aka Josiah Leming, in February.

"I had this epiphany," Soloway said. "Josiah was Troy, and Troy is on his way to being Josiah. So let's connect them — let them meet and eat dinner together and talk and see what happens. Let's make that the norm."

The two musicians hit it off and ended up playing a Taylor Swift cover together at the show. A light bulb went on in Soloway's head, and he approached Millette about replicating the experience with other local acts.

The opportunity was too good to pass up for Millette, who saw a chance to not only procure high-profile gigs for himself and friends in the local scene but also to help improve Spruce Peak's reputation among that set.

"It's no secret that Spruce Peak felt a little like the stepchild of the Vermont music scene," Millette said. "It seemed to exist under the resort banner, and there wasn't this mandate to support local music. But that all seemed to change over the last eight months or so, and I think we're really changing the narrative."

Additional series headliners include songwriter Dar Williams on January 10, vocal jazz duo Rachael & Vilray on January 16, and alt-rockers Big Head Todd and the Monsters on February 16. Local openers are yet to be announced.

Soloway isn't just relying on the Unplugged series. The success of July's Homegrown in Vermont Music Festival, which featured 12 local artists handpicked by Soloway and Millette, formed a blueprint for the duo to continue hosting the event annually.

"After the fest in the summer, I realized I wanted to make Homegrown into a commitment. We're going to do it every year," Soloway said. "We want a music ecosystem where we do well and so do other venues and artists. That's how you create a healthy music scene."

For more information on Spruce Peak Unplugged, visit sprucepeakarts.org.

Eye on the Scene

Last week's live music highlights from photographer Luke Awtry

• Luke Awtry
• Béla Fleck and American Excellence at the Flynn Main Stage in Burlington

Béla Fleck and American Excellence, Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, Friday, September 27: When the Vermont Symphony Orchestra announced "Béla Fleck and American Excellence," the George Gershwin-heavy program at the Flynn celebrating the symphony's 90th anniversary, my thoughts jumped to my own start with the theater in 2016. That was my first year working a Burlington Discover Jazz Festival pit, and it included what was then my biggest show to date: the headlining Waterfront Park set by Fleck and his band, the Flecktones. Being a fan, I knew what to expect from the four-piece back then. But I had no idea what might happen last Friday, when the banjo virtuoso joined the VSO to perform his arrangement of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," the 100-year-old homage to, as Gershwin put it, America's "unduplicated national pep" and "metropolitan madness." The mash-up worked. In Fleck's hands, the banjo rose to the occasion and matched the score with all the musical pep and melodious madness needed to pull off the piece. If only Gershwin could see us now...

Listening In

Playlist of Vermont jams