VFMF Music Program

Afternoon Outdoor concert

Saturday, June 4 • Alchemist Brewery

This tremendous program of music will take place on the lawn outside the Alchemist Brewery with gates opening at 1:30 PM. The program will open with Vermont-based Francesca Blanchard and will then present Dwight & Nicole, with the headliner Buffalo Nichols closing out an afternoon/early summer evening of music. Enjoy the musical elements of our portraits of America.

Francesca Blanchard

Francesca is a French-American singer-songwriter & producer based in Burlington, Vermont. Her work blends soaring pop arrangements with complex emotional subtleties - most recently demonstrated in her critically acclaimed 2020 full-length album “Make It Better” and its “Redux EP” follow up, both co-produced with fellow Vermonter and musical collaborator Christopher Hawthorn; a record that redefined Blanchard’s sound and style since the release of her 2015 debut bilingual LP “Deux Visions,” which catalyzed national and international touring opportunities in the early stages of her career. Her work has been featured on WBUR’s syndicated program “Here and Now,” Los Angeles NPR music affiliate KCRW, and on a number of hit tv shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Workin’ Moms, and Trinkets. When Francesca isn’t on stage or in the studio, chances are she’s hiking a mountain somewhere.

Dwight & Nicole

The Boston Herald described them as, "a retro soul band, contemporary blues act, roots rock duo and R&B dynamo all at once... simple, hypnotic... 'The Next Go-Round' works nicely as a calling card for Dwight + Nicole’s sound. It resembles a gospel tune written a century ago and would also fit nicely on Brittany Howard’s 2019 experimental pop album." You can check out their music video for “The Next Go Round” here.

Buffalo Nichols

Since his earliest infatuations with guitar, Buffalo Nichols has asked himself the same question: How can I bring the blues of the past into the future? After cutting his teeth between a Baptist church and bars in Milwaukee, it was a globetrotting trip through West Africa and Europe during a creative down period that began to reveal the answer. “Part of my intent, making myself more comfortable with this release, is putting more Black stories into the genres of folk and blues,” guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist Carl “Buffalo” Nichols explains. “Listening to this record, I want more Black people to hear themselves in this music that is truly theirs.” Watch Buffalo on the Late Show here. Learn more about him here.