Six Vermont Music Podcasts You Should Be Listening To

Vermont is home to a vast variety of musicians, bands, creatives and artists with stories to tell — and it’s not just Seven Days doing the reporting. Increasingly, podcasters have taken on the job of immortalizing the local scene and sharing its music, each with their own shtick or signature that makes them stand out. Some welcome touring guests who are just passing through, while others keep interviews focused on home-grown talent. But they all share one thing: their love of Vermont and music.

Check out these six Vermont music podcasts.

‘Vermont Talks’

After a brief hiatus, “Vermont Talks” is back and celebrated its five-year anniversary on Halloween. Originally founded on the rejection of “quick entertainment,” according to host Becca Hammond, the show focuses on community outreach. “I just want to get to know my neighbors by interviewing everybody who is doing a cool project,” Hammond said.

While Hammond interviews various creative folks, as a musician herself, she’s partial to the local music scene. Guests have included Big Heavy World cofounder James Lockridge, producer and tour manager James Cross, and old-school hardcore band Old North End.

Hammond aims to put guests at ease by interviewing them wherever they feel most comfortable, she said. Audio quality also matters to her, so she travels around the state to chat in person, avoiding the dreaded Zoom interview. She prefers to let her guests do most of the talking, so depending on how chatty they are, episodes can range from 30 to 90 minutes.

Hammond enjoys listening to others talk about their passions and connecting organically in conversation. “We get into a lot of social issues, because artists usually have something that they stand for and believe in strongly,” she said. “I want to give any Vermonter with a project, business or a message a platform to express whatever they have to share.”

Find “Vermont Talks” on all podcast platforms.

‘Rocket Shop Radio Hour’

Created by Burlington’s volunteer-run nonprofit Big Heavy World, “Rocket Shop Radio Hour” is a weekly show that first aired on 105.9 FM the Radiator in 2007 and added a podcast in 2015. The show features music and interviews with Vermont-based musicians who have at least four original songs, but beyond that, there are no rules. Every genre is welcome.

Between interview segments, acts play their music on the air and share the stories behind their songs and careers. The goal of each episode is to get to the question of motivation: “What makes you want to make music?”

Because there are so many episodes to choose from, “Rocket Shop Radio Hour” is a good show to binge. Chances are, your favorite local band or artist has already been interviewed, including Andriana Chobot, Eric George and Cricket Blue.

DJ Tom Proctor, who has hosted the show for years, will soon pass the torch to coproducer Abbey Berger-Knorr, with Keagan Lafferty as her cohost. Bob Colquhoun has produced the show since the dawn of the podcast. “What’s special to me about the show is that we get to record the musical history of Vermont while it’s happening,” he said.

“Rocket Shop Radio Hour” airs live on the Radiator Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and streams on most major podcast platforms.

‘3some’

While its name may suggest something else, “3SOME” is a new podcast centered on music and memories. Local DJ and rapper Kyle Thompson, aka Fattie B, asks his guests to name three songs that remind them of something personal. While he does review their picks in advance, Thompson gets his guests’ raw and truthful stories about each song for the first time on-air.

Whether a song is part of a guest’s flashbulb memory or they simply associate it with a period in their life, “you truly don’t know what someone is going to say until you sit down,” Thompson said. “It could be happy memories like a first kiss, sad memories of a parent dying, or anything and everything in between.”

While “3SOME” is only a few episodes in, notable guests have included artist Katharine Montstream, DJ Craig Mitchell and Andrew X Smith of the band Chin Ho! In the show’s fourth installment, Thompson’s friend and former Belizbeha bandmate Shauna Anderson turned the mic around and interviewed him. Future guests will include Dwight Ritcher of Dwight + Nicole, Higher Ground co-owner Alex Crothers, and Russ Lawton of Trey Anastasio Band and Soule Monde.

Listen to “3SOME” on hearthis.at.

‘ab.stract’

Another Big Heavy World podcast, “ab.stract” is not-so-coincidentally also hosted by Berger-Knorr. While sister podcast “Rocket Shop Radio Hour” focuses solely on Vermont musicians, Berger-Knorr opens up “ab.stract” to local artists and professionals of all kinds, not just musicians but also cinematographers, woodworkers and mental health advocates.

The host asks her guests to choose five songs to discuss on air, giving them no guidelines or prompts beyond that. The songs serve as starting points for deep discussions on a range of topics. In one recent episode, graphic designer and illustrator Laci Harmon spoke of her new art and clothing brand, Tantivy, and her love of songwriting and dancing. Comedian Marlon Fisher talked about comedy and fatherhood on his episode.

“I love getting to know people through their music,” Berger-Knorr said. Guests have shared everything from songs from their childhood to all-time favorites to what they are listening to that week. On the broadcast version of the show, Sunday mornings on the Radiator, you can hear those songs stitched into the interviews. Due to licensing issues, Berger-Knorr can’t include the songs on the podcast, but listeners can cue up the show’s master playlist on Spotify to hear later or alongside the pod.

“ab.stract” airs live on the Radiator Sundays at 10 a.m. and is available on Spotify.

‘Golden Hour’

With “Golden Hour,” hosts Shaun Machia and Travis Card aim to fill a niche in Chittenden County by giving a platform to local skateboarding figures and connecting skate culture to the larger Vermont arts and culture scene. The podcast is conversational and relatable; in Machia’s words, it feels like “a hang with old friends.”

Derived largely from the hip-hop scene, the show’s musical guests include rappers, DJs and producers. The duo also hosts fellow skaters, graffiti artists and other members of the skating community. They tailor the flow of conversation to each guest with the goal of creating, as Machia put it, “little intersections of touchstone camaraderie. We really just like to get to know the people in town who are doing their own thing.”

Machia and Card grew up skating together in greater Burlington, where both attended high school. The two friends launched the podcast in 2021 as a response to the isolation of the pandemic. Machia said they saw the podcast as a way to “go against the grain in terms of how [we] use the internet” and create a “local versus global network” in Vermont. “Golden Hour” inspired the pair to create a sister podcast, “Vermontrepreneurs,” and a locally shot skate film, “iHomie.”

“Golden Hour” is available on YouTube and Spotify.

‘Load-In Through the Back’

“Load-In Through the Back” bills itself as “a music podcast with personality.” That personality comes courtesy of cohosts Troy Millette and Paul Varricchione, who launched their pod this summer after bonding over a shared love of music.

As the name suggests, the two men like to ask their musical guests for their strangest load-in stories. From there, the guests control the conversation — no matter where it goes. Whether the cohosts are committing to the bit as Canadian singer-songwriter Steve Poltz shares his sordid attempt to get home from Mexico or discussing social justice with children’s musician Laurie Berkner, they know how to draw a good story from their guests.

“We want to talk to people who want to talk to us,” Millette said.

Millette tours with his band Troy Millette & the Fire Below. Producer Varricchione formerly cohosted the “No Thought Required” podcast. The duo’s broadcast styles are complementary: Millette takes the lead on most of the “Load-In” interviews, but Varricchione is quick with his quips.

Millette and Varricchione aren’t afraid to cold-call or DM a potential guest, no matter how far the reach may be. Their fearlessness is paying off: Upcoming guests include Everclear, Wheatus and Fastball.

“Load-In Through the Back” is available at loadinpodcast.com, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

This article appears in The Winter Preview Issue 2024.

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