Ryan Miller is proud of “Ooh La La,” the new album from his long-running rock band, Guster. He’s excited at the prospect of Guster’s concert this weekend at the Shelburne Museum, not far from Miller’s home in Williston.
Recording albums and playing concerts are, of course, what Guster does. “Ooh La La” is the band’s ninth studio album. The Shelburne concert will be the latest of a couple thousand shows Guster has played since forming more than three decades ago.
Miller is, however, taking on one big project unlike any he’s done before. He’s writing the music and lyrics for an off-Broadway musical based on the 2012 film “Safety Not Guaranteed” that will open in previews in September at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Miller wrote the soundtrack for that movie and has followed with more than a dozen film scores. But a musical? That’s uncharted territory.
Miller called himself a “51-year-old dude/neophyte” in the world of New York musicals who doesn’t fully know what he’s doing as he works with seasoned Broadway and off-Broadway veterans. He said he’s had nightmares about the musical failing. He likes to stretch himself for projects that keep him occupied for weeks or months at a time, but a musical that might take years to fully develop sounds daunting.
And exciting.
“It’s a fascinating process,” Miller said. “I am just learning so much in real time.”
Miller spoke June 21 with the Burlington Free Press on his houseboat on Lake Champlain. If a houseboat sounds like another case of rock-star excess, know that it’s a 57-year-old houseboat Miller bought with three friends for $3,000. It’s also more house than boat; like most abodes, it is incapable of locomotion.
The scruffy floating retreat fits Miller’s persona to a T. For his chat with the Free Press, he wore a cartoonish T-shirt touting the Hudson Valley, flannel pants festooned with floral prints and vibrant socks bearing the logo for the soft drink Topo Chico. His hair maintained its perpetually tousled status.
Nothing about Guster is so haphazard. “Ooh La La,” which came out May 17, is a meticulous-sounding record, brimming with brightly toned tunes with soft edges of melancholy. Miller said the lyrics reflect his own experiences but ideally bypass the “hyper-personal” to let the listener in on his perspective.
Miller, who’s married with two teenagers, has heard from fans who say it’s amazing that Guster can still relate to where they are in life after three decades.
“When that happens, that has something to do with why we’ve been able to maintain our place” of popularity with fans, Miller said, noting that the band sold out the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in one day and the Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre outside Denver in three days. “I do think we are in conversation with people.”
“Ooh La La” is a very Vermont-y record, and not just because Miller and bandmate Luke Reynolds, an Addison County native, live in Vermont. Grammy-winner Rich Costey, a Waterbury native, mixed, co-engineered and co-produced the songs “When We Were Stars” and “All Day.” University of Vermont graduate Peter Katis mixed most of the album’s songs and played keyboards. Part of the album was recorded in southern Vermont at Guilford Sound.
The Shelburne Museum performance will be very Vermont-y as well. “Let’s go full Vermont as much as possible,” Miller said of his approach to the concert.
Guster will be joined onstage by James Kochalka Superstar, the Burlington band led by the big personality of the vocalist/cartoonist, and the Zeno Mountain Band from Zeno Mountain Farm in Lincoln that supports people with disabilities. Miller is counting on nice weather as opposed to last summer, when Guster’s plans to perform on the Shelburne Museum lawn were continually washed out.
“We need to go back to the scene of the crime,” he joked.
Miller will spend much of the summer cramming to get “Safety Not Guaranteed” ready for its BAM run from Sept. 17-Oct. 20. He became involved with the film a dozen years ago after striking up a friendship with Colin Trevorrow, the director of that time-travel-themed movie who at the time lived in Burlington. (Trevorrow, a Guster fan who would go on to direct films including “Jurassic World,” now lives in London.) That well-received film and score launched Miller’s career in writing music for movies, most recently for the Ilana Glazer comedy “Babes,” which came out the same day as “Ooh La La.”
Another Guster fan, Nick Blaemire, approached Miller with the idea of contributing music for a stage version of “Safety Not Guaranteed.” “My answer was, ‘Sure,’” Miller said, though he had no real idea what writing the songs for a musical might entail.
He traveled to New York and found that Blaemire, who’s writing the book for “Safety Not Guaranteed,” assembled several Broadway and off-Broadway actors and a guitar player to present a version of the production with Guster songs as placeholders. Miller said he was impressed by the narrative of the story but didn’t want “Safety Not Guaranteed” to be a jukebox musical framed by Guster songs, so he chose to write more than an hour’s worth of original songs for the production.
Miller said he’ll work on a film soundtrack for four to 12 weeks, but a multi-year musical is a different animal for someone who likes to take on a variety of projects. “I respect the medium,” he said, “but it’s not my workflow.”
He’s getting into the flow now as “Safety Not Guaranteed” makes its way to BAM’s 875-capacity Harvey Theater. Miller would like to see the show move to Broadway one day. “We’re not trying to be done with it at BAM,” he said.
“Safety Not Guaranteed” has already influenced Miller’s work with Guster. He said the band’s recent “We Also Have Eras” tour, which told the story of Guster in a theatrical-styled musical performance, was shaped in part by the work he’s doing on “Safety Not Guaranteed.”
“I almost felt like maybe we’re more of an art project than a band,” Miller said. “This sort of theater experience I’m having will remain conversant with the band.”
His work on film scoring, off-Broadway shows and presenting “super-special” shows with Guster “gets kind of gooey,” blending in one creative pot, according to Miller.
“It helps me to recontextualize what the band can be,” he said.
WHAT: Guster with James Kochalka Superstar and the Zeno Mountain Band
WHEN: 6 p.m. Saturday, June 29
WHERE: Shelburne Museum
INFORMATION: $55 in advance, $59 day of show; free for children 12 and under. www.highergroundmusic.com
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.
Investigators say a tip led to the arrest Sunday of a man accused of shooting a Vermont police officer on Friday afternoon.
Scott Mason, 38, of St. Johnsbury was taken into custody around 2 a.m. Sunday after he was located inside a residence at 251 Portland St. in St. Johnsbury, the house next door to the location where St. Johnsbury police Capt. Jason Gray was shot and seriously injured on Friday afternoon.
At a press conference Sunday afternoon, Vermont State Police Maj. David Petersen said tips from the community were “integral to the investigation.” In particular, one tip that pointed investigators to the home next door to where Mason lived, which is where he was ultimately apprehended 32 hours after the shooting occurred.
“Late in the evening Saturday night, we had a tip about a possible location of where Mason was located on Portland Street. We had detectives with the Criminal Division interview this individual, which led to the issuance of a search warrant,” Petersen said. “Coinciding with that, we had members of our Tactical Services Unit respond and secure the perimeter.”
He said police were able to draw out a number of people from inside the property, who were interviewed by police. The Tactical Services Unit then used technology and other means to investigate what was inside the residence.
After that, police prepared to deploy a K9 unit to enter the residence. Warnings were given, and once those warnings were announced and the dog started barking, Mason announced his presence and came out.
“He was confrontational, he damaged some equipment of Vermont State Police,” Petersen said. “We had to use control and restraint techniques to secure him.”
State police said weapons were recovered, though they have not confirmed that any of them were the one that was used to shoot Gray.
Mason was initially brought to state police barracks in St. Johnsbury and later to the hospital for a medical evaluation. He was then returned to the barracks and brought to jail on the arrest warrant, where he was held without bail pending his arraignment at 1 p.m. Monday in Vermont Superior Court in St. Johnsbury.
Authorities said it is too early to say if anyone else could face charges in conjunction with the investigation.
The town of St. Johnsbury and the FBI had each offered $25,000 rewards for information leading to Mason’s arrest. State police said no reward money has been handed out yet, and it will ultimately be up to those agencies to decide whether anyone receives that money.
St. Johnsbury Police Chief Joel Pierce said Sunday that Gray is hospitalized in stable condition and continues to receive treatment. He noted that Gray was wearing a vest at the time of the shooting.
“He’s still sedated, intubated, chest tubes… He’s still got a lot going on,” Pierce said. “We’re hoping he’ll make a recovery. They’re still in the very beginning stages of that whole process, making sure he’s OK.”
“I also do want to say too that his family does feel the support of the community,” he said. “Hopefully, he’ll see it too.”
State police said this is the first time Vermont has put out a Blue Alert since the system was put in place in 2019. It is designed to spread information to the public when a law enforcement officer has been seriously injured, killed or gone missing in the line of duty, and if suspects involved have fled or continue to be a threat.
The alert went out to law enforcement agencies across New England, though state police said the search was mostly focused on Vermont, New Hampshire and New York.
Petersen also addressed the fact that Mason was ultimately found in the home next door to where he lived, saying investigators searched that property on multiple occasions throughout their investigation. He said they searched it right after the scene was cleared Friday and multiple times on Saturday as well.
“At this point I can’t conjecture about whether he was there or not the whole time,” he said. “But I can tell you that our resources were in that property multiple times before he was apprehended.”
CARY, N.C. — The stakes are the highest they’ve ever been for Vermont soccer: Win Monday night and claim an NCAA national championship.
The Catamounts, who have knocked out three of the top-seven seeds in this NCAA Tournament, are ready for another big-stage chance. Vermont (15-2-6) meets No. 13-seed Marshall (15-1-7) at 8 p.m. Monday at WakeMed Soccer Park on ESPN2 and ESPN+.
“It doesn’t matter what is their record or what is their ranking. We just believe in ourselves,” Vermont star striker Yaniv Bazini said.
Vermont would be the first unseeded national champion since Marshall accomplished the feat during a field-shortened 2020 tournament. Akron, in 2018, was the last unseeded team to reach a full tournament of 48 teams. And the 2006 UC Santa Barbara squad was the last unseeded champion in a full field.
“Now it’s the final game. I’ve been saying that every single round since the knockout, and now it’s the best time to show Catamount soccer,” Bazini said.
Here’s what to know about the Vermont-Marshall matchup:
Playing in their 14th NCAA Tournament and fourth in a row, the Catamounts rocked Iona 5-0 at home in the opening round before going on the road for their next three victories to advance to the College Cup semifinals.
Vermont outlasted seventh-seeded Hofstra 2-1, beat San Diego 1-0 in overtime and then dropped No. 2-seeded Pittsburgh 2-0 in the quarterfinals. Vermont’s quarterfinal appearance was its second in three seasons after a three-decade wait between bids.
At the College Cup, Vermont rallied to force overtime before outlasting Denver 4-3 in the penalty shootout to book a spot in the program’s first championship game.
Vermont’s 10 NCAA tourney victories since 2022 are the most of any team in the country over that span, and the Cats’ 11 goals in this year’s tourney lead all teams.
After earning a first-round bye, the Herd cruised past Furman 4-0 at home in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In the third round, also at home, Marshall struck twice in the first half to earn a 2-1 victory over North Carolina State.
The Herd traveled to Dallas for their quarterfinal showdown vs. No. 12-seeded SMU. Marshall turned a 1-0 halftime lead into a 3-1 advantage by the 76th minute, holding on for a 3-2 triumph to seal its College Cup berth.
In the semifinals, Marshall banked on an early strike to stun No. 1 Ohio State for a 1-0 decision.
► Goals scored: Vermont (46), Marshall (45).
► Goals per game: Vermont (2.0), Marshall (1.96).
► Goals allowed: Vermont (18), Marshall (19).
► Goals allowed per game: Vermont (0.78), Marshall (0.78).
► Shots: Vermont (338), Marshall (275).
► Shots on goal: Vermont (142), Marshall (119).
► Corner kicks: Vermont (131), Marshall (104).
► Fouls: Vermont (280), Marshall (252).
► Yellow cards: Vermont (35), Marshall (59).
► Red cards: Vermont (0), Marshall (4).
► Yaniv Bazini: 14 goals, 2 assists.
► Maximilian Kissel: 10 goals, 2 assists.
► Sydney Wathuta: 1 goal, 14 assists.
► Max Murray: 4 goals, 4 assists.
► David Ismail: 3 goals, 3 assists.
► Marcell Papp: 4 goals, 1 assist.
► Zach Barrett: 1 goal, 5 assists.
► Niklas Herceg (goalie): 6 shutouts, 10 goals allowed in 15 games and 85.5% save percentage.
► Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos: 15 goals, 5 assists.
► Marco Silva: 5 goals, 2 assists.
► Tarik Pannholzer: 2 goals, 5 assists.
► Pablo Simon: 4 goals, 1 assist.
► Rai Pinto: 4 goals.
► Alexander Stjerngaard: 2 goals, 4 assists.
► Aleksa Janjic (goalie): 8 shutouts, 10 goals allowed in 15 starts and 79.6% save percentage.
Two former Burlington High School stars have played a role on this year’s Catamounts: Redshirt sophomore Nash Barlow and redshirt junior Karl Daly.
Daly has appeared in eight matches this fall, picking up his first career point, an assist, in the 5-0 win over Fairfield. Barlow made his college debut on Sept. 7 vs. American and has seen action in 12 more games. He scored his first goal in the 5-0 triumph over Harvard.
And associate head coach Brad Cole is a South Burlington High School graduate who played for the Catamounts from 2010-14. He was a senior captain for Vermont as a senior.
Cole returned to the Vermont staff ahead of the 2023 season for his second coaching stint with the Catamounts.
Vermont soccer vs. Marshall will broadcast nationally on ESPN+, which is ESPN’s subscription-based streaming service.
The Vermont soccer vs. Marshall game starts at 8 p.m. eastern Monday at WakeMed Soccer Park at Cary, North Carolina.
Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5.
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Marshall will face Vermont for the 2024 NCAA Division I men’s title on Monday night when they meet in the Men’s College cup final in Cary, North Carolina.
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