Vermont Blues Society
Vermont Blues Society
59 Intervale Ave.
Richford, VT 05476
802-848-3135
n the early 1970s, blues was little known and heard in Vermont. Perhaps the only exceptions at the time were UVM's student run radio station (especially DJ Russ Kingsley), which was instrumental in Burlington's blues awakening and Montreal's CHOM-FM, one of the world's most progressive radio stations. In 1971, Vermonter's H.P. Albarelli Jr. and Margaret 'Peggy' Ladd joined up with Boston's Dick Waterman, who then ran Avalon Productions, to produce one of the very first concerts staged at Burlington's Flynn Theatre, then a movie theatre. The concert featured newcomer Bonnie Raitt and singer-songwriter Randy Newman. The show went down in modern music annals as "one of the best ever produced in New England." At the time, Waterman managed Raitt, as well as a number of legendary blues musicians including Son House, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, and Arthur 'Big Boy' Cruddup. Within weeks of the Flynn concert, Albarelli, Waterman and Ladd decided to produce a Blues Festival in cooperation with UVM's student association and Burlington's Community Media Project as sponsors.
That first festival, held at Burlington's Memorial Auditorium, featured Son House, Bonnie Raitt, Arthur 'Big Boy' Cruddup, Robert Pete Williams, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. The sold out event received rave reviews and lead to Burlington's second and third annual blues festivals, starring Hound Dog Taylor, Luther Allison, Big Mama Thornton, Otis Rush, Ry Cooder, Roomful of Blues, among others. In the summer of 1973, Albarelli and Waterman produced the now legendary Sugarbush Folk Festival in Warren, Vermont. That all-day, sold-out event starred Tom Rush, Eric Von Schmidt, a historic acoustic session by Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, the Whitehearts, Banjo Dan and the Midnight Plowboys, John Cassel & Band, Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur, Doc Watson and his son Merle, and others. Rolling Stone cited the event as one of the year's best outdoor festivals. Waterman and Albarelli also brought Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Jesse Colin Young, Fleetwood Mac, the Steve Miller Band, Boz Scaggs, Phoebe Snow, Maria Muldaur, Billy Joel, Neil Young, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, and many other artists to New England and Vermont stages.
With this background, it is now time to launch the Vermont Blues Society, a non-profit membership organization affiliated with the Blues Foundation, that is formulating ambitious plans for the next several years, including in-school blues education programs, statewide concerts, and a large outdoor blues festival in northern Vermont. Please, join us in these efforts.
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