After 29 years, Vermont music series turns out the lights one last time

After 29 years, 312 concerts and nearly 900 different performers on stage, the Ripton Community Coffee House will conclude its run with one last show.

The Addison County concert series inside the 1864 Ripton Community House ends Saturday, May 18, with a performance by the folk duo Green Heron. Folk, Americana and traditional musicians, often noteworthy performers native to or based in Vermont, have played the venue’s tiny platform stage. That list includes Anais Mitchell, Michael Chorney, Paul Asbell, Caitlin Canty and Jamie Masefield.

Richard Ruane and Andrea Chesman, a married couple living in Ripton, came up with the idea for the series nearly 30 years ago. They wanted to bring life to a largely neglected white clapboard building in the small Addison County town and give town residents a chance to mingle.

The concept flourished for a quarter-century. Then a pandemic hit.

“COVID kind of reminded us that we’re getting older,” Ruane told the Burlington Free Press, noting that the volunteer pool had begun dwindling. “It just felt like it was more work than we used to do.”

Coffee house begins in 1995

According to a history of the series written for its website by Ruane, the Ripton Community Coffee House launched May 6, 1995, with a concert featuring Ruane, Rick Klein and Sallie Mack. A half-dozen open-mike performers appeared as well. Tickets cost $3 for adults, $1.50 for children and seniors. More than 100 people showed up. Organizers sold baked goods and beverages.

Ruane told the Free Press that when the series began, only the now-defunct Burlington Coffee House presented similar programming in the region. Similar events, ranging from the After Dark Music Series in Middlebury to the Champlain Valley Folk Festival in Burlington and Ferrisburgh, have gone in the meantime.

Attendance in Ripton averaged more than 100 people per concert, with a few shows a year selling out. According to Ruane’s online historical account, crowds ranged from “babes in arms” to “the over-eighty crowd,” from local families to Middlebury College students.

Prices have climbed – the base admission charge is now $15-$25 – but crowds continued to stream to the once-a-month performances. Speaking of streaming, virtual performances during the COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020 also did well, according to Ruane.

Those virtual concerts petered out in popularity as the world began returning to in-person concerts in 2021. The Ripton Community Coffee House relocated to roomier Burnham Hall in nearby Lincoln to give participants a safer space to gather as the pandemic eased gradually.

Organizers talked of ending the series. As a result, Beth Duquette and Mark Mulqueen, longtime volunteers at the Ripton Community Coffee House, decided last year to start their own like-minded series in Lincoln, titled Burnham Presents.

Ruane and others with the Ripton Community Coffee House, however, missed having concerts in what he called “that more intimate setting” in the town where they began. They decided to give it another go in the Ripton Community House.

Music series in Richmond, Westford

Some volunteers, according to Ruane, were “soft” on the idea of returning to Ripton. Once the Ripton Community Coffee House had its annual meeting this winter, the feeling took hold that the series’ long run was done.

“It just turned into a much more serious discussion than we normally would have had at our annual meetings,” Ruane said. “At the end of it, it just seemed like maybe this is a good time to end.”

Chesman echoed that sentiment in an email to the Free Press. She wrote that “the pool of volunteers has grown smaller and older, and it is time to stop.”

Ruane emphasized that, despite what some have wondered, there was no rift between him and Duquette leading her to set up a similar concert series that, in effect, replaces the Ripton series. “There’s absolutely none of that,” Ruane said, noting that he and Duquette remain in a band together.

The number of acoustic music series has increased in the time since the one in Ripton began 29 years ago, according to Ruane. Aside from the new series in Lincoln, monthly events such as P.M. Sundays in Richmond and the Westford Music Series have established themselves in the region.

Ruane knows he’ll miss the Ripton Community Coffee House. He’d like to spend some of his newfound spare time checking out those other music series.

“I hoping to go see more music,” Ruane said. “The truth is there’s a lot of music that happens that I would love to go see that I wasn’t able to go see because I was presenting.”

If you go

WHAT: Concert by Green Heron

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 18

WHERE: Ripton Community Coffee House

INFORMATON: $15-$25 or “pay what you can.” www.rcch.org

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont music series comes to an end after 29 years with one last show