BRATTLEBORO — One of Brattleboro's well-known local bands, The Gaslight Tinkers, returns to the Stone Church on Friday, March 24 to help locals and tourists alike kick off the spring season with a dance party. As described on the venue's website, the group's sound ranges “from traditional old time to heavy folk to finger ripping bluegrass.”
The band's lineup includes band members Peter Siegel on guitar, mandolin, and vocals; Garrett Sawyer on bass; I-shea on vocals and percussion; and Joe Fitzpatrick on drums. Joining them at this particular show will be Emerald Rae on fiddle, Choc'late Allen on vocals, and Clara Constance Stickney on fiddle.
“The Gaslight Tinkers are the quintessential Brattleboro band with sound that flows from funky grooves to Celtic stompers, and they always get the crowd moving,” says Robin Johnson, owner of The Stone Church in an email to The Commons. “Their blend of global rhythms creates a danceable sound around a core of traditional New England old time and Celtic fiddle music.”
Johnson noted “the magnetic force of Calypso queen Choc'late Allen,” and the return from Burlington of opening band The Wormdogs to open.
The Commons reached Gaslight Tinkers founder Peter Siegel, 52, of Brattleboro, recently by phone to talk about his music career, the origin of The Gaslight Tinkers, playing at contradancing festivals, his friendship with folk singer Pete Seeger, and what the Stone Church is like acoustically.
Here's an excerpt from the conversation.
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Victoria Chertok: How did The Gaslight Tinkers start?
Peter Siegel: I started the band because I felt like there were all these world traditions which have a common thread and if you can blend these threads seamlessly then you've achieved something. Each one of us brings something genuine to the table.
This band was formed because I wanted music to appeal to a broad spectrum of generations and ethnic groups. A lot of people hear us, and they like Irish fiddle tunes or the Latin music. It's hard to push us on social media because you can't pin us down. We don't get played on a reggae list or Afrobeat list. We are an amalgamation of a few different things.
In our band, Garrett has the Afro Caribbean thing. He cut his teeth in Trinidad, plays funk and reggae, and studied at Berklee College of Music. He has a studio down in Amherst called Northfire Recording Studio.
I-shea brings her New York and Dominican Republic heritage to her music, and Joe is a rock 'n' roll drummer who can play anything. Joe went with us to Trinidad and got a lot of the Caribbean rhythm under his belt.
The fiddlers we bring in kind of just plug in and play. We tell them the fiddle tunes which fit into the set, and each one brings their own style.
V.C.: You mentioned that you play at a lot of contradances and festivals?
P.S.: Contradance is its own world! The dancers are the same 200 to 300 people everywhere you go. They appreciate you but you (the band) are an accessory, there for their dancing experience.
It's a cushy situation because they fly us to nice places, we hang out for a whole weekend, we eat well, and people treat us nicely. They pay us a whole bunch of money to just jam.
A lot of what we do on stage when we perform is honed when we are playing for contradancing. We say “let's try this as an Afrobeat, or let's try this as a soca.”
V.C.: Where did you grow up? Who were your early music influences?
P.S.: I grew up in Yonkers, and then we moved to Hartsdale, New York. I used to go to Pete Seeger's house and know folk music like the back of my hand. I was also a classical guitar player and played jazz. My grandfather was a classical violinist, so I grew up with that music. My mother taught piano, and we all sang.
As a teenager, I got into jazz and started taking lessons down in Harlem as part of the Jazzmobile program.
My mother wanted Pete Seeger to do something in my daughter's preschool. Pete answered the phone and he agreed to do it. I became friends with Tau Rodriguez-Seeger, Pete's grandson, so I hung out at his house a bunch and played some mandolin on his last album. I was in the circle of people around him and go to see the quirkiness of that world.
I was mostly interested in early jazz, Louis Armstrong, big-band stuff. Jazz has a major influence on what I do. Of course, I was also into pop music: The Police, early hip-hop, Run-D.M.C., all that stuff in the late '70s and '80s.
I like everything! There is very little I don't like.
V.C.: What do you like about playing at The Stone Church?
P.S.: I can't say enough positive things about The Stone Church. If I were to rate venues anywhere, I would put it at the top of the list.
There are two reasons: the people who run it. Robin Johnson is a wonderful person who believes in having good music, and he has a team of people there - including the sound and light people, the people who work the door, and Erin Scaggs, who does the promo stuff - who clearly love what they're doing.
They treat musicians really well, they put on good music, and they have a space for the community. Robin keeps things as open as possible. There are so many resources in the space itself: the sound is great, the floor is really nice, it's a beautiful space, and it's all just incredible.
V.C.: I heard you have a new album out?
P.S.: We have a new recording last year. It took us five years to make, and we overdubbed rap and other genres onto it, which makes it our sound. It was done in Garret's studio in Amherst.
Selling CDs is really hard these days, so we are depending on Spotify playing our stuff and putting it on playlists and things like that. We depend on fans who spread the word of who we are on social media and the internet. That's the way to do it these days.
V.C.: Why do the arts matter?
P.S.: I will answer this as a music teacher who teaches K–5th grade at Symonds Elementary School in Keene. The arts just are. There is not a separation between the arts and everything else.
The only reason we classify the arts separately from everything else is capitalism. Things have to be marketed and pushed. We all used to sing, dance, and make stuff. And now we've created a society where you have a musician and an artist but the arts are not something to consume - the arts are who we are.
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The Gaslight Tinkers play at the Stone Church, 210 Main St. in Brattleboro, on Friday, March 24. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.
For more information, visit bit.ly/707-stone_church and thegaslighttinkers.com.