Upcoming @ 51 Main (Sept. 6-15)

The First-Years are here! We will welcome them to Middlebury 51 Main-style with a little Verbal Onslaught. Drawing from our Middlebury community of faculty, staff, students, local community members and other special guests, Verbal Onslaught adds dynamic poetic and cultural diversity to our vibrant town nestled between the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks. Shy and Outspoken Poets, Storytellers, Writers, Artists, and Listeners are more than welcome.

Gypsy Jazz in the tradition of Django Reinhardt &I the Quintette of the Hot Club of France. “In a time when good jazz groups are hard to find, Swing Noire rises to the top as one of the best jazz groups playing around Burlington. Too often do we hear jazz ensembles that are highly arranged and dry of emotion. Swing Noire brings you into those smoky clubs of days past, makes you feel jazz the way it was meant to be felt, full of emotion and energy. If you yearn for the jazz clubs of New York and Paris in their heyday, Swing Noire is your type of jazz.” – Jennifer Crowell, First Night Burlington

A lifetime spent in the vast hills and rambling valleys of Vermont can do a lot for shaping a band’s sound. Coming off more as a front-porch musical family than an independent band, members of Split Tongue Crow’s backwoods harmonies and hauntingly earnest songwriting have become a favorite of fans and skeptics alike. One listen is all it takes to fall in love with such honest and unforgettable music.

For more than 30 years Mark Lavoie has been performing for crowds both large and small. His passion for and commitment to music, particularly blues harmonica, is admired by the many musicians who have played with him. Mark enjoys spreading the word about harmonica music and is an active member of national groups working to preserve and promote the harmonica as an accessible, inexpensive instrument.

Downtown Middlebury will become a center for art, music, food and fun. Stores will remain open, becoming galleries displaying the work of dozens of area artists. Art will turn up in restaurants, on the town green, and in other exciting and unlikely places. This is a regular monthly event – visit downtown Middlebury on the second Friday of every month. 51 Main will feature a mixed media exhibit by New York jazz musician Diallo House and music by Dayve Huckett.

Diallo A. House is a bassist/composer/artist hailing from Ithaca, New York. House began to cultivate his musical talent long before he received his first bass guitar at age twelve. Like his father Donald, (who is also a bass player) Diallo feels and knows the true role of the bass in any band situation. In 2009, Diallo and longtime friends Stacy Dillard and Ismail Lawal produced House’s debut album, “Night at the Eclipse.”