R to L: Dwight Ritcher, Nicole Nelson, Kelly Ravin, Kat Wright, Brett Hughes, Francesca Blanchard, Marie Claire Johnson, Stephanie Lynn Heaghney
As anyone who has heard his 1987 folk album We Shall Overcome knows, singing ain’t exactly Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) strong suit. Fortunately, he’s got some tremendously talented constituents in his hometown who can lend his message a slightly less gruff and agitated voice.

Recently, an all-star collection of local Bernie-rooting singers and musicians joined forces at Burlington’s Signal Kitchen, “We Are the World” style, to do exactly that, recording a soulful, gospel-inspired rendition of Sanders’ favorite song, Woody Guthrie’s iconic “This Land Is Your Land.”

The band is a veritable who’s who of local talent, including vocalists Dwight & Nicole, Francesca Blanchard, Marie Claire Johnson, Smooth Antics‘ Stephanie Lynn Heaghney, Waylon Speed‘s Kelly Ravin and Kat Wright. Several members of Wright’s band, the Indomitable Soul Band, turn up, too. Among these are Josh Weinstein (bass), Ezra Oklan (drums), Bob Wagner (guitar) and Shane Hardiman (keys).

Rounding out the group are guitarists Lowell Thompson and Brett Hughes, the latter of whom organized the supergroup session with Wright and Bernie staffer Luis Calderin. Here’s Hughes on how the project came together: 

During many conversations with Luis Calderin, Bernie’s Arts & Culture and Youth Vote coordinator, we discussed trying to build interest and participation in the campaign process around music and musicians, both from the local scene and nationally. He really wanted a version of “This Land Is Your Land” that felt like it was both updated and classic, and asked if Kat Wright and I could put together a version and pull in the musical community for a recording. The version that emerged came out of thinking about where the country is at the moment, and where we hope to see it moving toward. We wanted to add texture and dynamics as the song progresses, in the way that more people joining a movement add their voices and their energy.  
If the apex of Bernie’s movement is anywhere near as dynamic and moving as the climactic end of this tune — particularly the jaw-dropping interplay between Wright and Nelson — it would bode awfully well for his presidential hopes. Check it out:    

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Dan Bolles is a culture coeditor at Seven Days. He joined the paper in 2007 as its music editor, covering Vermont's robust music, comedy and nightlife scenes for a decade before deciding he was too old to be going to the Monkey House on weeknights to...

7 replies on “BTV Musicians Honor Bernie With ‘This Land Is Your Land’”

  1. A fitting homage! I do wonder about the choice of having Kat Wright sing all the verses. With so many great vocalists there, it might have made a more powerful statement to have each verse handled by a different singer (representing Bernie’s diverse supporters and sharing the spotlight, as it were).

  2. Hey Nate! Kat and I worked up the arrangement for this session, it went through several iterations, but in the end we wanted to avoid the We Are The World schtick, and keep Kat’s vocal central as it is joined by other voices and as the energy builds. In the end, it was a collective, collaborative effort! Thanks for weighing in!

  3. I like the many voices expressed through a lead voice. The singular voice of Woody. The collective voice of Bernie. Runs the gamut.

  5. The two lead vocalists are world class. Listening more closely, the color does come out.
    Thank you so much.

  7. Beautifully done. I am honored to have provided a bit of the inspiration for doing it, having produced Bernie’s own version of This Land in 1987.

    Just to set the record straight, Bernie does not sing on his 1987 album. He talks. Once I realized that he was not a singer, we opted for a spoken-word approach, similar to what Rex Harrison did in “My Fair Lady.” We called it folk-rap. Bernie also delivers some moving monologues on the 1987 album, backed up by a five-piece band and twenty-five singers.

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