Brent Hallenbeck

Ayres named new First Night director

burlingtonfreepress.com — Tom Ayres, former marketing director for the Flynn Center, was announced Tuesday afternoon as the new executive director of First Night Burlington. Ayres, who was elected to Burlington City Council in March, replaces Jennifer Crowell. Crowell, a native of southern Vermont, has moved to western Massachusetts to be closer to family.

Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for the Doors, has died at 74

music-mix.ew.com — Ray Manzarek, the founding keyboardist for the Doors, passed away this morning in Germany, according to a statement from his publicist. The cause was bile duct cancer.

Flynn Center schedule trickles out

blogs.burlingtonfreepress.com — The Flynn Center usually unveils details of its lineup for the next season in July, but it also typically teases the schedule with an ad in the annual Burlington Discover Jazz Festival program. I just started leafing through the program, thinking I'd find cool club shows to go to during the festival, and found the Flynn's ad on page 8.

Vermont-made music: Anais Mitchell & Scott Tournet

blogs.burlingtonfreepress.com — Higher Ground is not normally the place to go to hear local music. They get all the cool touring bands up there on the hill in South Burlington, but you usually want to head to Nectar's or Radio Bean or The Monkey House for a good dose of made-in-Vermont sounds.

Nocturnals' guitarist Scott Tournet grapples with change on new album

burlingtonfreepress.com — It makes sense that the new, restrained solo album by Scott Tournet sounds like a change in direction for the guitarist known for rocking out in Grace Potter & the Nocturnals and rocking out even harder in his side project, Blues & Lasers. The entire album, titled "Ver La Luz," is about going through change.

Grand Point North schedule announced

blogs.burlingtonfreepress.com — Think summer's over by mid-September? No, sir, not with the Grand Point North festival led by Vermont-born rockers Grace Potter & the Nocturnals returning to Waterfront Park in Burlington on Sept. 14 and 15. The schedule for the third-annual soiree was announced this morning, and here it is: Saturday, Sept.

Waking Windows wows Winooski

blogs.burlingtonfreepress.com — I gotta say, I love music festivals. If you're a music-lover, the only thing better than going to a concert is going to several concerts. I'm not real excited at the prospect of camping in the dirt with 80,000 sweaty people, but I love a smaller festival where it's you, a few hundred or few thousand other people and music, music, music.