Two weeks ago Connecticut folk-rock-grass-blues duo The Meadows Brothers came up to visit us in our little town in Vermont. The boys were kind enough to perform at the town’s little (but big hearted) coffeehouse series. A series that raises funds for a local beneficiary at each show. Small town rural communities doing what they can for the things we need and care most about in town like the local library, fire department and in the case of this show the local ski hill, the Northeast Slopes.

Early in the day Ian, Dustin and myself headed up the hill to visit with my friend and local woodworker/luthier Dave Richard. At any given time Dave may be working on dressing frets on a teens Gibson mando, repairing a crack in a pre-war Martin tenor, and a neck reset on a Santa Cruz Tony Rice model acoustic. He has also built a handful of his own acoustics from scratch and he had two of those builds in the shop. One that is a couple of years old and another that just had its first set of strings popped on it a week or two before. We all talked shop for a bit, picked around with some of the guitars and then Ian and Dustin grabbed the two guitars and performed their beautiful version of Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Steel Rail Blues’.

 

 As we packed up and headed back down the rutted dirt road I mentioned the Slopes and how the lady and I volunteer their during the winter running the t bar and rope tows. Its about a 5 minute hop from our place so we headed over to check it out. I then explained that the shed that houses the electric blue mid 70s Dodge Dart (that powers the little tow) was actually a set piece from the covered bridge scene in Beetlejuice. Our tiny town’s claim to fame that Beetlejuice was filmed around town (that diorama of the town, you can see the library the Mrs. volunteers at). Here the boys perform their tune “Letters” inside the shed that houses an old truck that powers the big tow (not the Beetlejuice shed!). Check it.