Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship for Winooski News
WINOOSKI — The Tenderbellies, an Americana group composed of five Vermonters, have been playing together for 12 years.
On a Wednesday night at Winooski’s Four Quarters Brewing, the band took to the stage to perform a set at “Bluegrass and Barbecue.” Despite their weekly gig at a bluegrass event, the band’s funky style veers far from the genre’s traditional sound. Guitarist and lead vocalist Chris Page spoke about the band’s history, the local music scene and what it meant to lose one of Burlington’s most culturally important venues: Nectar’s.
Q. What are the names and roles of your other band members?
A. Matt Francis plays the mandolin. We all kind of have little jobs that we do on the side to keep things rolling. He put the website together. So he’s the mandolin guy, but also kind of the business guy.
Luke Hausermann (plays upright bass and) doesn’t sing lead very much, but he sings high harmony parts behind all of us.So he’s got a funny job of playing the deepest instrument and singing the highest part.
David Titus also plays guitar. He’s more of a traditional flat-picker. So when I play with a bit of a blues, or blues-rock, kind of vibe, he plays a lot more straight bluegrass, or even jazz.
Last but not least, there’s Collin Cope. He’s the harmonica player. In terms of his singing voice, he’s got the voice that people will really latch onto.
It’s not the same voice for every song. It’s passed around between the band members, and I think that’s one of the things that people really like about us. It’s not monotonous because the lead vocal is changing all the time.
Q. What was your first gig like?
A. It was a kickoff event for the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and we were one of two bands that played in the parking lot of the Old Brick Store.
Q. How did you get the name “The Tenderbellies”?
A. After the show, somebody asked me what we were called, and off the top of my head, I said, “We’re the Tenderbelly Bluegrass Band because we’re ticklish.”
They laughed, but the name stuck. We later dropped the bluegrass band part because we were playing jazz and folk, and not just bluegrass.
It stuck because the truth is, we’re all very sensitive. So that idea of “tender bellies” being that we’re sensitive, that our feelings can get hurt easily. We’re a band of very sensitive dudes.
Q. What was Nectar’s like for the local music scene, and how did the closure impact you and your band?
A. I played there a lot before COVID. Nectar’s was a great place for local bands to play and link up with traveling bands because it had enough draw that bigger traveling acts would stop through.
I think it’s a real shame that the Handys, who owned the building, couldn’t have worked something out with Nectar’s, like a stopgap, for saying, “Look, we know you’re having a hard time. We’ll give you reduced rent for the next six months. Try to get your shit together, and we’ll try again in six months, and we’ll raise your rent then.”
There had to have been a way to work it out. The people who own the Nectar’s building are worth millions of dollars. They could have spared a few thousand a month to make it keep the cultural phenomenon from disappearing. It’s just late-stage capitalism rocking our culture.
Q. What song are you most proud of? What’s the significance?
A. “A New Wind.” I wrote it myself on the new album, “Thunder Rolls.” It’s my version of “A Change is Gonna Come.”
It has to do with how I see the problem of homelessness being dealt with in Burlington. You have all of these well-intentioned, upper-middle class, liberal-minded people, but when the rubber meets the road, and something has to get done, they seem to fall short on compassion. In many cases, they sort of turn the other cheek when they should be lending a hand.
Q. What is the broader Winooski music scene like?
A. I lived in Winooski for about eight years. I served on the Tree Committee and on the Public Works Committee, but nothing made me feel like I was more a part of the fabric of Winooski than when we started playing.
You can tell in Winooski that there’s an effort being made for live music and to get people out and about. It’s much smaller than Burlington, but in a way, it feels a little bit more put together in terms of music and shared musical experiences.
Q. Who’s your biggest musical inspiration?
A. It’s partly because he has my same last name, but Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin. That’s how I decided I needed to buy a guitar. I needed to sit down and start learning the thing. I wanted to have the superpower that he had.
Q. What’s your favorite lyric you’ve ever written?
A. “I’ve seen how pleasantries dig us in our holes. I’ve seen so many narrowed views. I see that all love is unconditional. And we’re drowning in an ocean, distracted by the blues.”
My dad taught me that it’s all about unconditional love. He’s like, “Religion is confusing. They get it all wrong. They make a bunch of stuff up. It’s no good. The main thing is that there is a source of unconditional love, and that all love is unconditional, and that we choose to condition it.”
Q. What do you guys want to accomplish as a band going forward?
A. We’re in a tough spot because it’s really hard to get a lot of commitment out of parents. We’re all trying to just live holistically. But we would love to be able to play more festivals.
It would be easier if we were dedicated totally to music, and we could just hop in a van. And we weren’t married, we didn’t have kids and we didn’t have full-time jobs — all that kind of stuff.
Q. How about in the next five years?
A. Establish a foothold in places like New York City, Albany, Boston, Montreal — all places that we can drive down to for a weekend and drive back.
I’d like us to be able to play for hundreds of people, like in the old days of Nectar’s. Being able to play for large groups of people just feels different.
I think everybody in the band is in that book where we all really, really, really love playing out. And we’ll do whatever it takes to keep that going.
Q. How did your UVM experiences shape your musical identity?
A. Music became my whole social life. And it still is.
I’m not the guy that people call to go out to have a couple drinks because they already know I’m going to say no because I’d rather be at home playing guitar. So my entire social outlet is being in bands and playing out.