SUND

News and views on the local music + nightlife scene

Thomas received invaluable help on his mission to folk out from his LA housemate, singer-songwriter and producer SASAMI ASHWORTH, who performs as SASAMI. The two have been collaborating since they moved in during the pandemic, cowriting and coproducing each other’s albums.

“She really helped bring it to fruition with her sweet sense of melody and harmony,” Thomas said of Ashworth, also praising “her skills at arranging. It feels like the record 40-year-old King Tu needed to make.”

Even his longing for Vermont may have rubbed o on Ashworth. Thomas said the California native fell in love with heavier music after he took her to see some of his fellow Brattleboro musicians, the metal outfit BARISHI

“She wasn’t in the mood to go to a show, but I dragged her to it anyway,” he recounted. “The minute [Barishi] started playing, I turned around, and she was just losing her mind.”

Ashworth channeled her newfound love of metal into her highly regarded 2022 album, Squeeze . She also took Barishi out on the road as her backing band. Thomas described seeing a band he’d known since its members were kids playing stadiums with Sasami as a “joy” — and another distinction for a small Vermont town whose music scene continues to punch above its weight.

“I honestly don’t know what it is about Brattleboro,” Thomas said. He described the town of just over 12,000 people as feeling like both the “center of the universe, somehow” and “nowhere, but in a good way.”

Playing a show at the Stone Church, a venue Thomas considers one of his favorites in the country, should bring an extra layer of feel-good vibes to his upcoming visit. While he has no immediate plans to return home for good, he envisions himself in a less urban setting than LA.

“My ultimate dream is to buy a small wooden hut in the forest with a painting studio and many plants and books,” he said. “I’d paint by day and write weird little tunes all night. Then the gnome will truly be home.”

On the Beat

PUTUMAYO is preparing to celebrate its 30th year. The New York City-based record label, which now partially operates out of Charlotte, took its name from a Latin American handicraft shop that DAN STORPER opened in 1975, after the then-23-year-old returned from a trip to Colombia’s Putumayo River valley. Seeing Afrobeat outfit KOTOJA at a 1991 performance in San Francisco’s

Golden Gate Park inspired Storper to turn Putumayo into a world music label, which he and cofounder MICHAEL KRAUS launched in 1993.

As well as releasing records from around the globe, Putumayo has contributed more than $500,000 to nonprofits where its releases originate.

FOLK ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL acknowledged those efforts in 2021 with the Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Award.

To kick off the anniversary celebration, Putumayo will release the new collection African Yoga on April 28. Cocurated by Storper and New Orleans musician and yoga instructor SEÁN JOHNSON, the album offers soothing melodies to soundtrack a yoga session. The physical package also includes a 16-page booklet of information about the artists and the history of yoga and music.

Happy (almost) birthday to Putumayo!

When musician PETE SUTHERLAND died in November, the fixture of Vermont’s folk music scene left behind a legacy of teaching and supporting young musicians. As artistic director of the touring group of YOUNG TRADITION VERMONT, a program dedicated to teaching folk music to young people, Sutherland touched the lives of generations of Vermont musicians.

To honor that legacy, the SUMMIT SCHOOL OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC AND CULTURE will hold Mud Season Spectacular, a showcase of young traditional musicians on Friday, March 31, at the Capital City Grange in Berlin. The group will play

Eye on the Scene

Last week’s live music highlights from photographer Luke Awtry a set before holding a Balfolk dance, a European-style folk dance that will be played by multi-instrumentalist

EVERYBODY’S FAVORITE IRISH DRINKING SONGS BAND AT RED SQUARE, BURLINGTON, FRIDAY, MARCH 17: It’s 3:30 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day. I step into Red Square and immediately am alerted that the band is throwing things. Something shiny flies overhead, followed by something else. I can’t tell what the objects are, but I want one. I make it to the front, where Sully — Seven Days art director the Rev. Diane Sullivan — smiles at me. I get a few shots off before being struck in the chest by one of the projectiles, which is denser than I expected. It’s warm, and it smells good. I’ve been pelted with a baked potato! When the band calls me out and breaks into AC/DC’s “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You),” I turn bright red, but in that lighting, no one can tell. The band only exists for one day a year, so … see you next year, Everybody’s Favorite Irish Drinking Songs Band. And thanks for the potato.

NICHOLAS WILLIAMS and a group of visiting Québécois youth musicians. For tickets, visit summitschool. wixsite.com/summitschool. ➆

On the Air

Where to tune in to Vermont music this week:

“WAVE CAVE RADIO SHOW,” Wednesday, March 22, 2 p.m., on 105.9 the Radiator: DJs Flywlkr and Gingervitus spin the best of local (and nonlocal) hip-hop.

“EXPOSURE,” Wednesday, March 22, 6 p.m., on 90.1 WRUV: Indie rockers H3adgear play live in studio.

“ROCKET SHOP RADIO HOUR,”

Wednesday, March 22, 8 p.m., on 105.9 the Radiator: Host Tom Proctor plays the best of local music.

“THE SOUNDS OF BURLINGTON,”

Thursday, March 23, 9 p.m., at wbkm.org: Host Tim Lewis hosts singer-songwriter AliT.

“CULTURAL BUNKER,” Friday, March 24, 6 p.m., on 90.1 WRUV: Host Melo Grant plays local and nonlocal hip-hop selections.

“ALL THE TRADITIONS,” Sunday, March 26, 7 p.m., on Vermont Public: Host Robert Resnik plays an assortment of folk music with a focus on Vermont artists.