Album Description
During the Fall of 2015, we had the opportunity to play a wedding ceremony at the beautiful and historic Round Church in Richmond, Vermont. Built between 1812-1814, the sixteen sided building offers a rare glimpse into a piece Vermont’s rich history and as Vermonters and musicians, we were very excited for the unique opportunity to explore the Church with instruments in hand.
With the first pluck of a string we very quickly learned of the structure’s amazing acoustics, and proceeded to have a rather memorable musical experience once the ceremony had commenced. Afterwards we agreed it rather worthwhile to explore the possibility of recording music in this magical space. Following a wonderful email exchange with members of the Richmond Historical Society we came to somewhat unique arrangement: access to the building for a whole day in exchange for helping wash the upper windows of the Church during the 2016 Spring cleanup day held each year.
Being somewhat new to multi-story window washing, we weren’t entirely sure what we were getting ourselves into, but very quickly it became apparent that there was a reason the upper windows had not been washed in recent history. Suspended twenty feet above the ground, leaning well outside normal safety limits to reach the far side of the windows, a man quickly comes to terms with certain powerful emotions. Life seems to become a lot simpler, priorities become clearer…regular phone calls to grandma and grandpa become infinitely more important.
But we survived! And had a blast doing it. Windows were cleaned, laughs were had, tunes were cranked, seltzer was drank.
It wasn’t until October 30th, 2016 that we were able to nail down a day that worked for all parties, but boy it was worth the wait. Semi-circling around two microphones, we hit record, ultimately ending up with four takes that we feel best represent the special coming togetherness of time and space that happened that day (pterodactyl calls notwithstanding). We hope that you enjoy these homemade recordings as much as we enjoyed making them. And hey, they might even spark some curiosity to go out and explore the local history around you, as you’ll never know what gems are hidden in plain sight!
