Musicians Participate In 'Rock Lottery'

(Host) If you're a musician, imagine this: 

You're thrown together with four other randomly chosen players and given one week to come up with a set of music that you'll perform onstage along with five other similarly assembled bands. 

That's the idea behind the "rock lottery" happening this week in Central Vermont.

VPR's Steve Zind explains.

(Zind)  The first part of the rock lottery is pretty simple:  30 musicians toss their names into a hat and randomly draw out six groups with five members each. 

Then comes the hard part.  Each band has one week to work up a 20 minute set of music and perform it live.

This isn't the first rock lottery. There was one last week in the Burlington area - and another last spring in Montpelier.  Mike Donofrio organized that one. He says he brought the idea from Texas, where he'd seen it done.  When he moved to Vermont several years ago, he was struck by how many people played music.   

(Donofrio) "It just seemed like every person that I became friends with in any walk of life, as I got to know them, it turned out they were a great player of some instrument. I said, ‘we have to do a rock lottery here someday'." 

(Zind)  The rules allow each band to do one cover song, but the rest of their set has to be original music, so it's not just a matter of practicing a few songs - they have to write them, too.    

(Clark) Everything's two verses.  Two verse, chorus, two verse, chorus..."

(Zind) One night this week in a farmhouse  outside of Montpelier five newly joined rock lottery band members were crowded into a cozy room full of amps and instruments.  surgery. 

(Band)  "Carter Stowell, drums.

Brian Clark, guitar. Tom Sabo, bass.

Miriam Bernardo, vocals. Geoff Hurley, harmonica bells and whistles and vocals.

(Zind) Singer Miriam Bernardo says it's the second time the group has gotten together. 

(Bernardo) "The last rehearsal, which was our first was about laying down ideas.  And now it's tightening them up, so hopefully by the third and final rehearsal we'll have a finished product that isn't perfect, but it's raw and delightful."

(Zind)  Some of these musicians are in bands, but others just don't have the time to get together and practice week in and week out.  Drummer Carter Stowell says family commitments put an end to his band days.

(Stowell)  "I used to play out a lot.  At least three of us in this band have young children."

(Zind) For them the idea of a band that breaks up after just a week together is perfect.   

That same evening, in a small rehearsal space a few miles away in Middlesex, another rock lottery band is working on its set.

(Band) "Ken Tonnissen, guitar. Derrick Carrier, drums. Carl Witke cello. Gary Miller, guitar. Ed Canty, guitar."

(Zind)  The mood here is decidedly jolly, inspired in part by the songs they're doing.  One is a version of the Motown chestnut My Girl.  The other is an original with lyrics ‘ripped from today's headlines'.

"(Tonnissen, singing) "Influenzaaaa. Try a high note. Influenzaaaa."

(Zind)  Ken Tonnissen says he got the idea for the H1N1 Breakdown after standing in line for a flu shot last weekend.   

In the midst of the fun Drummer Derrick Carrier sees a serious side to the lottery.  It's about how music brings people together.   

(Music) "You can't do it with plumbers.  You can't do it with lawyers.  What other vocation could you do this with, to have the whole community get together."

(Zind)  For guitarist Gary Miller, the lottery is like a fantasy camp.  He gets to lead an entire rock and roll life at time lapse speed.

(Miller) "I've never been in a rock band, but in one week we're going to get together in this room, we're going to write our greatest hits and then we go Saturday night, its our opening show, its our farewell tour and its our reunion tour all in one and then we're done."

(Music) "Influenza vaccine is makin' the scene. I go from high risk to completely immune. I'm waiting in line for my H1N1."

(Zind) With the deadline bearing down, the rock lottery bands have their work cut out for them.  But these guys don't seem nervous about it. 

Singer Ken Tonnissen says his only worry is  what he'll bring to the pre-concert potluck Saturday night.

For VPR news, I'm Steve Zind.

(Host)  The rock lottery bands will perform their 20 minute sets Saturday evening beginning at 8:30 at Lamb Abbey in Montpelier.

 

PHOTOS: STEVE ZIND