2008 Woodie Awards
Winning them over with music
Woods tea Company back at CSC, but without founding member
Terry Badman
Issue date: 9/12/07 Section: Campus Life
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As the sun set over Castleton's campus center on Aug. 29, people could be heard clapping and chanting like a bunch of sober drunks.
Spartan students, faculty members, and area locals crowded the Fireside amphitheater pit to take part in what has become a tradition at Castleton State College for many years.
Woods Tea Company, a group of Vermont-based musicians made famous by their stirring combination of folk, Celtic, and often alcoholically inspired tunes, opened up the 2007-2008 school year in their own signature style.
"This has always been one of our favorite places," said the suspender-strapped banjo player and vocalist Mike Lussen.
Numerous instruments ranging from mandolins to Irish drums and fiddles scattered the stage as the band tore through a set list that, at first, seemed dampened by recent events.
Just two weeks before the show, Rusty Jacobs, one of the band's founding members, died of a heart attack. Jacobs was known for his unwaveringly dry New England humor, and was always a hit with students when he performed his signature penny whistle solos during the band's set.
The band's performance at Castleton was one of the first since Jacobs' death.
"It's the best thing in the world for us to be here," said visibily-saddened vocalist/guitarist Howard Wooden, who sported a David Ortiz Red Sox jersey.
Two giant, green, handmade "Thank You" cards stood along the sidewalk above the pit, reading "Thank you for all the years of music and memories." Those in attendance were encouraged to sign the cards in memory of Jacobs.
Yet as the night progressed, the band's spirits were raised by the reactions of the originally less receptive audience.
The crowd, made up of mostly freshman Soundings students with yellow cards in tow, sat on its hands for the first 20 minutes of the performance in typical freshman style.
Yet in traditional Woods Tea Company fashion, the band soon won over the flock of slightly insecure students with the one thing that seems to motivate many college students:
Alcohol.
The band received its first big pop from the audience after its swaggerly rendition of "The Wild Rover," a traditional Irish drinking song that calls for coordinated clapping on cue from the audience members.
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