For more than 80 years Weston Theater Company has been one of Vermont’s crown jewels. A beloved tradition and home for exceptional theater in a charming community, it’s stocked with talented artists who come from near and far.
Thanks to funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, and citizens who believe in the arts, the nonprofit organization has kept its doors open, but it suffered a big blow this past summer. The theater was severely damaged by flooding, almost to the point of no return, and called on its community to help.
Enter, eighth-generation Vermonter and renowned blues player Bob Stannard. He’s been singing the blues since 1969 when he quit the drums and took up the harmonica, playing for audiences around the world with music heroes like BB King and Isaac Hayes.
Stannard retired two years ago but when he ran into an old friend and heard about the struggles at Weston he reconsidered.
“I said I’ll do a benefit show to raise some money,” Stannard said recently. “I said, ‘You talk to the theater, see if they’re interested.’ I got a call the next day.”
Bob Stannard and Those Dangerous Bluesmen return to the stage to support Weston Theater Company with a fundraising concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, at Walker Farm. All proceeds benefit the company’s ongoing flood-relief efforts.
“Here’s why I’m doing this,” Stannard said. “For most of my time in music I played as a side man with other bands in bars. And I made a decision that I didn’t want to be a bar man. I wanted to play in theaters. I wanted people in the audience that are there to hear me, not to watch football or play pool or hit on chicks.
“Well, you can still hit on chicks at my show,” he said. “But I want them there to listen to me and the only way you can do that is to get into theaters.”
“So I’m reaching out to theaters and they’re going, ‘Who are you again? What’s your name?’ Nobody knew who I was,” Stannard said. “And I was getting kind of depressed. I went to Weston and I said, ‘If you book me I’ll fill this place, take a chance.’ And they did and I filled the place.”
“Weston completely changed the course of my musical career in Vermont.”
Susanna Gellert, Weston’s executive artistic director, said, “Music has always brought people together in times of need, and the blues have always been about resilience and rising in the face of adversity. We’re so grateful that Bob Stannard, the Bluesmen and their music are here to unite our community and help rebuild what’s been lost.”
A little about Bob Stannard: He’s got a million stories and a youthful spirit that belies his 72 years.
“At 72, decades become months,” he said. “It goes by quick.”
He’s been on stage with legends like BB King, John Hammond, Lynard Skynard and Isaac Hayes, but surprisingly his own music career “started off kind of ugly,” he said.
His mother was a concert pianist who auditioned at Carnegie Hall at age 14 — “She just had a stunning voice,” Stannard said — and when he was 6 years old she pushed him to learn piano. He suffered through years of lessons while his friends played softball. “I just really hated it,” he admitted. So at 11 he traded the piano for the drums — “a terrific way to torture my parents.”
When he headed to Castleton State College, drums in tow, an angry dorm parent intervened. “He said, ‘If you do that one more time you and your drums are going to Vietnam,’” Stannard recalled. “This was 1969 and a really bad time to go there. So I took that threat rather seriously.”
He went right to Reed’s Music store on Merchants Row in Rutland and bought a harmonica for $1.75.
“I walked around the woods going heehaw “heehaw” on the harmonica, and 54 years later I’m still doing that, except I’m actually on stage now.”
He’s lived in Manchester for the last 44 years and spent most of his professional life in politics trying to find solutions, so the Weston benefit was a perfect fit.
“I spend a lot of time thinking where’s the cavalry? Where’s the life raft?” he said. “You’ve got to be the guy working the lifeboat if you’re able to, if there’s anything you can do.”
Tickets went on sale Nov. 1 and sold out almost instantly.
“This is the only show I’ve ever done that has sold out six weeks in advance,” Stannard said. “Last week they were issuing tickets for standing-room-only. So I hope everybody that wants to be there gets a chance to see this.”
