Given the timing, we didn't get the chance to lean into it. Since there isn't anything super-noteworthy going on that we haven't already talked about (got turned down for yet another grant, yawn), we're gonna trot it out now. Layla Burke Hastings wrote it for the Eagle Times. We’re pasting it here with some light edits for accuracy and to bring it up to date, and we’ve also added annotations. 

by Layla Burke Hastings, [email protected]   |   Mar 12, 2020BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. — A brief, two-minute walk from downtown, Stage 33 Live is an intimate listening room with the echoes of industrial architecture and an incomparable natural acoustic sound that attracts music lovers from all over New England.Just an idea in 2016, the prospect of establishing a place for musicians in Bellows Falls took on a life of its own with donations and a group of loyal volunteers, according to founder Mark Piepkorn.“We let the room define itself,” Piepkorn said. “We are a grassroots, local-level and volunteer-run venue.”The open space, which neighbors the independently run Black Sheep Radio, is a total immersion into the arts with a ‘do it yourself’ message for anyone who seeks a more direct connection with local-flavor creativity.The musicians find an acoustic reaction in this old factory that by word of mouth has developed a unique following of both performers and fans.“It’s fulfilling in lots of ways,” Piepkorn said. “Other than the complete lack of income, I can’t find a significant downside. It helps players get appreciative ears and eyes, it brings people together for a positive experience, it helps uplift the community at large. The community largely might not realize that yet, but we’re playing a long game and the trajectory is good.”According to Piepkorn, most shows are on Sunday evenings every three weeks from fall through spring, but sometimes the venue deviates from its schedule. March 14

[was to have been]

one of those occasions. On that day, the third of four installments of The Second Saturday Synthfest will begin at 7 p.m. The event is a quirky night of sound bending, with a jazz tone and some funk and groove made from all things synthesizer.

The Synthfest was a very cool limited series that was Covidus Interruptus, and was radically different from what’s usually in the room. Videos from the first one (featuring Tiny Little Ghosts, Five Before Chaos, tOOthpAAt, and a long-form group improv) are up on YouTube.

Ten-time award-winning artist Carolann Solebello, formerly of Red Molly, sings Americana-themed music with a tiny thread of Brooklyn sound in her voice. She said playing live at the venue was more than a fleeting memory.“The good folks at Stage 33 Live have somehow managed to turn an industrial space into an intimate and cozy listening room — especially attractive for lyrically driven singer-songwriters like me and Joe Iadanza,” Solebello said. “Whether it’s magic, alchemy, or perhaps just the right combination of thoughtful stagecraft, expert sound engineering, and good, old-fashioned elbow grease, Mark Piepkorn and his able crew have created a space that allows audiences and performers alike to fully immerse themselves in live music. No filter. No bells and whistles. Just music. And that is a rare and beautiful thing.”Stage 33 Live features both top indie billings and locals with warm accessibility since its official opening in 2018.According to Piepkorn, the volunteer staff films each live show and that they are processing them for live video releases on YouTube.“I like the tech side of it, but it’s the musicians who bring the love. Performing in such an intimate setting is a really vulnerable thing, but when a performer and an audience are there for each other, really paying attention to each other, there’s a magic that happens,” he said. “It can only be hinted at on tape and film.”

Carolann Solebello and Joe Iadanza co-billed in March 2019 and they were transcendent. The chops on both of ’em, wow. Plus they really liked the room and the people in it, which is always cool. A return engagement for September 2020 was erased by COVID-19, but that first show is available on YouTube (minus the warm hilarity of their patter between songs). They're into coming back when the world is a little less... interesting. And they're totally welcome.

Performer Carl Beverly described the venue as more than a one-shot deal megaphone for musicians.“Stage 33 Live has been wonderful for me. I’m not a well-known songwriter, and it’s a tough job promoting yourself. I showed up one day to do a short set of three songs, not really knowing the scope of what they do. I kinda forgot about the video they did and then months later a friend said, ‘Hey, saw your video on YouTube.’ When I looked it up I was blown away with the quality, taste, and craftsmanship of what they had done,” Beverly said. “I really didn’t have the resources to create something like that on my own. Now, whenever I’m trying to get a gig at a venue, I always point them to the videos. Now they can check out what I sound like live, and with a quality audio track. I’ll be forever grateful for that… Those guys are all about promoting local musicians and songwriters like me.”Beverly said he has a simple mission: Shoot for happiness.“Stage 33 Live has also given me opportunities to perform. I co-headlined last September with Carl Goulet, a really great songwriter, and this October I will be opening for Fred Gillen Jr. from New York. I really appreciate their belief in my music,” Beverly said. “My goal is simple: Get my songs in front of people. For me, I don’t expect to get rich from them. I just want to make that connection. If one or two people get it, I go away a happy guy.”Stage 33 Live is as do-it-yourself as it gets with its hidden mysteriousness.“When enough people ‘discover’ that beautiful gem hidden on a back street in Bellows Falls, who knows. Sometimes I wonder why great live music is so overlooked. For very little money you can see some amazing artists there,” Beverly said. “Just can’t say enough about the beautiful unsung mission they’re on and the vital part they play in keeping local music alive.”

Carl, who hails from Warner NH, ain’t no slouch himself and deserves wider recognition. Our mission is to try to help people like him get it. The live shows are the front part (and in our opinion the best part), but the documentation has legs. We’ve hosted and documented 150+ individual performers, presenters, and artists. The view count of the online clips has exceeded 18,000 and continues to pick up steam.The three-song set from January 2019 that Carl mentioned is available on YouTube, and so is his subsequent appearance. The one with Fred Gillen Jr got pandemicked, but is rescheduled for Mother’s Day 2022, May 8.

Hiroya Tsukamoto, acoustic jazz and folk singer from Japan living in New York, said he admires the organization for the way it naturally comes together.“I played at Stage 33 Live for the first time last December. I didn’t know what kind of place it would be,” Tsukamoto said. “What I loved about this concert was the people who helped put the show together worked as a team. They were very nice and respectful with what I am doing and that is very important as a performer. That was the last concert of 2019 out of 100 shows I did last year and that show made my year.”

Our mission is helping local and regional talent, but also having bigger acts in the room brings attention to the project, lifting everyone’s boat. What an honor to host Hiroya, and for him to say such kind things. He requested a return engagement and we jumped on it… and it ended up cancelled for coronavirus. Undeterred, he rebooked for September 2021 and hopefully we’ll be up and running again by then — it’s still dicey.(Acoustic Guitar Magazine linked to one of our videos in an album review that says in the first sentence, "Hiroya Tsukamoto is a phenomenal talent, a Japanese fingerpicker, composer, and Berklee College alum who was also second-place winner at the 2018 International Finger Style Guitar Championship." Which is all pretty cool.)

Jan Sheehy of the Milkhouse Heaters, a punkabilly duo that hails from the Rockingham area and has a wide regional recognition, said it is one of her favorite venues because of its cozy, warm feel.“As a listening room, Stage 33 Live is pretty unique,” Sheehy said. “The architecture of the building provides an interesting visual element, especially since the stage just sort of sits at the far end of the wide-open room and can’t be ignored. The room is lively, but the volunteers who engineer the sound know exactly how to tweak the sound system so that a performer’s sound is clear and well balanced.”The Milkhouse Heaters will play at Stage 33 Live on Sunday, March 15, at 7 p.m.

[That was our second show eaten by COVID-19, to have been a co-bill with Dan Weber. So they rescheduled it for a year later... and that one also didn’t happen for the same damn reason. Now it's on the calendar for March 2022. Third time's the charm, right?]

“There is also an intimacy between the artists and the audience that is refreshing,” Sheehy said. “Because audiences are small, there isn’t a bad seat in the room.”

Jan and Mike — The Milkhouse Heaters — were among the earliest supporters of the Stage 33 Live concept in both word and deed, and more than once their well-timed encouragement kept the project alive before it even launched. There's also a line of descent from them to some of our mission-critical infrastructure. They’ve been around for every phase of development, both on the stage and in the audience. They were among the first to play when we got going — in fact, they played BEFORE we officially got going to help us iron out the wrinkles.

Piepkorn said there are so many reasons why he and his group of volunteers do this.“Whenever somebody immediately and deeply understands the point of it and the value of doing it, that’s just about the best thing whenever it happens. And in particular, when touring musicians who play all over this country and others, and have a real basis for comparison, tell us we’re doing something special and doing it right, that’s super-meaningful and moving,” he said.

Oh, last week

that rapscallion also guested on RAMP Director Robert McBride's show

on the local community access cable TV station, FACT. He's clearly power-mad for total media domination, somebody do something quick.

Looking forward, our normal schedule grid only has six holes in it through the end of 2022. It's probable that we'll be adding special dates to accommodate some of the 40ish acts that had been scheduled but didn't get to play because of the stupid thing.

Just posted 

 (not a dud in the bunch), and boy howdy are we ever eager to start using those new cameras. Highly stylized presentation is fun, but in all honesty it's just an attempt to hide bad source video. A big part of the problem with more recent material shot during evening shows was the new stage lighting, simultaneously stronger and weaker than the poor cameras knew how to handle. This is being addressed with gusto from both sides of the difficulty. We'll continue to deploy and embrace the nastycams, but being able to use that stuff by artistic choice instead of default will be huge.

Other new sets posted lately include

,

,

, and

. Our pal Mike Attardi from Running Fox Recording is working in fits and starts on the audio from the evening with Tracy Grammer & Jim Henry, and other sets in the production queue include The Sky Blue Boys, John Stowell & Draa Hobbs, Dave Richardson, Tom Pirozzoli, Emily Lyons, and maybe a couple more that have managed to escape attention.

Dan and Faith will not be taking the stage tomorrow (assuming you're reading this on Saturday). Nor will Decatur Creek on May 9.