I deeply appreciated the special focus issue on the pandemic and the arts this past week. Brattleboro and Windham County have such an abundance of residents who are artists and presenters, many of whom are struggling, so I wanted to give a voice to one rather large group of artists that was not mentioned.
It is what one might call “trad,” or traditional, musicians. It's hard to tell on a typical day in downtown Brattleboro, but the truth is that our town is internationally famous for the sheer number of musicians who play traditional New England, Irish, English, and Québécois music on the fiddle and other assorted instruments (including guitar, accordion, voice, mandolin, piano).
These artists are somewhat invisible locally because they frequently travel outside of the area to play for festivals, concerts, and other events nationally and internationally; however, the concentration of us within a three-mile radius is mind-blowing.
There are times when I'll be playing a music event in a place like, say, Arizona and quite literally two-thirds of the musicians on the staff are from the Brattleboro area.