This VersoFest, be sure to explore The Westport Library’s first mixed-media art installation, Thinking Inside the Box. Born from an idea put forward by artist and author Melissa Newman, Thinking Inside the Box is a unique installation that brings together more than 20 artists from around the area to create original works that will be displayed from March 18 through May 5 in the central grandstand in the Library’s Trefz Forum.

Participating artists are set to include: Tina Puckett, Chris Perry, Marc Zaref, Tiara Trent, Rebecca Ross, Janine Brown, Darcy Hicks, Nina Bentley, Miggs Burroughs, Sooo-z Mastropietro, Tom Bernsten, kHyal, Melissa Newman, Mary Ellen Hendricks, Katherine Ross, Five Fingaz, Tammy Winser, S’aint Phifer, Linda Colletta, Mollie Keller, and Norm Siegel.

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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!

Since its inception in 2022, VersoFest has been building to become one of Connecticut's premier music festivals and conferences, featuring a diverse array of local and global talent that has included The Smithereens, Sunflower Bean, renowned producer Steve Lillywhite, Norton Records/Kicks Books/Kicksville Radio co-founder and original Cramps drummer Miriam Linna, Alice Cooper Group Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Dennis Dunaway, Aretha Franklin/Ray Charles songwriter Joshie Jo Armstead, Psychedelic Furs frontman and painter Richard Butler, and hip hop pioneer DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore.

Spanning five days for this year's edition, April 3 through April 7, The Westport Library's annual music and media festival and conference features Verso Visionaries: Chuck D in conversation with Akashic Books publisher Johnny Temple (Wednesday, April 3), and David Bowie, T. Rex, and Thin Lizzy music producer Tony Visconti in conversation with WFUV's Paul Cavalconte (Saturday, April 6, at 1 pm), both previously announced, and now adding music legend John Densmore in conversation with CNN's Alisyn Camerota Saturday afternoon at 4:30 pm.

John Densmore by Jeff Katz Photography

Densmore is the drummer for the legendary rock band The Doors, which has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and since then, he has earned a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Densmore's latest book, The Doors Unhinged, details his conflict with bandmates over the right to use The Doors’ name, revealing the ways in which this struggle mirrors and reflects a much larger societal issue.

Tom Waits said of the book, "There are some of us out there who still have principles and cannot be bought. John Densmore is one of them. He is not for sale and that is his gift to us.”

Camerota joins Densmore, returning to The Westport Library on the heels of her March 27 memoir launch event of Combat Love. While known for her reporting presence, Camerota came of age during late 1970s punk rock, forming close bonds with Red Bank, New Jersey band Shrapnel. The band's 1979 single "Combat Love" features backing vocals from Shrapnel confidant Joey Ramone and is being reissued as a limited 7-inch record with Camerota's memoir.

The Lemon Twigs, DJ HYSTERICA, Nick Depuy, and Spin Doctors: Concert headliners of VersoFest 2024

VersoFest 2024 concerts and performances include recent Tonight Show featured rockers The Lemon Twigs with DJ HYSTERICA on Thursday April 4, and '90s hitmakers Spin Doctors with singer-songwriter Nick Depuy on Friday April 5.

Audrey Golden, author of "I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women At Factory Records" with "New Haven Independent's" Karen Ponzio

Rooted in Connecticut's burgeoning music and arts scenes, VersoFest also features panels and workshops all day Saturday and Sunday. Highlights include a midday Saturday Verso Book Club event featuring Audrey Golden, author of I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women At Factory Records, in conversation with New Haven Independent's Karen Ponzio; a Sunday panel on the wild lore of WPLR's 1975 Fleetwood Mac broadcast from Trod Nossel Studios featuring an early incarnation of the Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham era with broadcaster Dick Kalt and special guests, moderated by singer-songwriter Dr. Jennifer Dauphinais; and a Pitch Your Podcast Panel by CT Public with CT Public Senior Director Meg Dalton and Peabody Award winning Uncivil podcaster and writer Jack Hitt.

L to R: Christine Ohlman and Cindy Dunaway, Tish & Snooky of Manic Panic

Sunday, April 7, features the return of VersoFest's popular live music oral history podcast with "Glam to Punk — A Fashion Round Table: Alice Cooper, Bowie, Blondie and Beyond" featuring Cindy Dunaway, Tish & Snooky (Manic Panic), and special guest Dennis Dunaway (original Alice Cooper Group bassist), moderated by SNL Band singer and frequent Westport Library collaborator Christine Ohlman.

“From a first-year participant in 2022, I’ve watched VersoFest’s super-cool evolution, spreading its colorful wings in an increasingly unique way to touch and enrich the artistic life of the community," said Ohlman. "And in the process, to offer some phenomenal, top-of-the line entertainment. I'm delighted to once again be a part of VersoFest 2024.”

Dunaway served as costume designer to the Alice Cooper Group from their formative Phoenix, Arizona, days to stadium shows. The band's Liberace- and Busby Berkeley-inspired glitter wear caught the eye of David Bowie and Elton John, cementing the style and aesthetics of the "glam" era. In a parallel universe, Tish and Snooky's gorgeously Punk’d costumes — self-designed, razor-bladed, safety-pinned and schoolgirl-skirted — lit up stages (along with their vocals, beginning with the earliest lineup of Blondie), in NYC and beyond, leading then to open the nation’s first punk boutique and found the groundbreaking Manic Panic cosmetic line. 

L to R: VersoFest Record Fair presented by Record Riots; Paul Breton's "Diamond Dogs at 50" David Bowie exhibit with stage designer Mark Ravitz

Saturday and Sunday also feature a record fair curated by Record Riots, set up in the Hub on the Library's main floor. In addition, collector and curator Paul Brenton is bringing a "Diamond Dogs at 50" David Bowie exhibit, featuring the original stage models from the 1974 Diamond Dogs tour and other rare ephemera. Pioneering stage designer Mark Ravitz will be in attendance, having designed numerous Bowie tour sets (Diamond Dogs, Glass Spiders, and Serious Moonlight tours) as well as stages for KISS, Whitney Houston, and Backstreet Boys.

"Wild Style" and Fairfield County native Tony Tone of the Cold Crush Brothers

The festival concludes with a celebration of hip hop's first motion picture, Wild Style, featuring Tony Tone of the Cold Crush Brothers, the return of Grand Wizzard Theodore, as well as Prince Whipper Whip, DJ Ultamite, Grand Master Caz, JDL, Easy AD, Almighty Kay Gee, and Rodney C.

Food trucks will be on site throughout the weekend in the library parking lot to supplement the many offerings of the Library Café.

All VersoFest performances, panels, and workshops are free or at market rates thanks to the generous support of donors, community partners, and Library programming funds. A selection of events will be recorded by Verso Studios Crew Call and available on-demand at a later date.

The complete VersoFest 2024 schedule and information can be found here.

"Two Princes" and "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" are just two of the '90s rock anthems that will be chiming through the Trefz Forum at Verso Studios in The Westport Library on April 5, as the iconic rockers the Spin Doctors headline the Friday Night Concert presented by Webster Bank at VersoFest 2024, the Library's annual music and media festival.

Local singer-songwriter Nick Depuy opens at 7 pm, with Spin Doctors taking the stage at 8 pm. Doors open at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $50 and available now.

VersoFest is The Westport Library's annual music and media festival and conference, spanning five days for this year's edition, April 3 through April 7. Converging local with global, previous VersoFests have presented concerts with The Smithereens and Sunflower Bean, as well as events with renowned producer Steve Lillywhite, Norton Records/Kicks Books/Kicksville Radio co-founder and original Cramps drummer Miriam Linna, Alice Cooper Group Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Dennis Dunaway, Psychedelic Furs frontman and painter Richard Butler, author and journalist Rachel Felder, and hip hop pioneer DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore.

VersoFest 2024 luminaries announced so far include legendary musician, activist, and author Chuck D, acclaimed David Bowie, T. Rex, and Thin Lizzy music producer Tony Visconti, and electric power pop rockers The Lemon Twigs, with the full VersoFest schedule to be released next week. All VersoFest performances, panels, and workshops are free or at market rates thanks to the generous support of donors, community partners, and Library programming funds.

Verso Studios present state of the arts concerts with a d&b sound system rivaling the finest venues in the state, an 18 foot HD screen, and multicamera recording capability. Standing capacity is 600-plus, providing audiences with an intimate and unique experience.

With more than 12 million albums sold, the GRAMMY-nominated Spin Doctors are rounding 30-plus years in rock 'n' roll with a seventh studio album and world tour on the way. The band's mythology began at New York’s New School University in the fall of ’88, when a fateful door-knock sparked the first meeting of drummer Aaron Comess and guitarist Eric Schenkman. Performing as the Trucking Company, Schenkman, John Popper, and Chris Barron were creating buzz. But when Popper committed himself to Blues Traveler, the remnants sought new direction. Having assured Schenkman that he’d “check them out,” Comess formed a ferocious rhythm section with Bronx-raised bassist Mark White. “When I first met them,” recalled White, “I thought, ‘These are some funky-assed white boys.’"

The nascent Spin Doctors lineup hit the Lower Manhattan music scene. Flexing their musicianship and announcing their elastic approach to live performance with jams that stretched to the outer reaches, the band’s glorious ability to supercharge a tune was in evidence on 1991’s debut live release, Up For Grabs, where some tracks stormed beyond 10 minutes. They didn’t know it yet, but the Spin Doctors — alongside peers like Blues Traveler, Phish, and Widespread Panic — would drag the jam-band ethos into the ’90s era, their DNA later dripping into the scene’s post-millennial resurgence.

The Spin Doctors' craft and originality carried them into a deal with Epic Records, setting up the Pocket Full Of Kryptonite album that defined early-90s rock. “There was a feeling of magic in the band,” reflected lead singer Barron, “and a belief in the air. That first record felt really innocent."

The success of Pocket Full Of Kryptonite blossomed at the height of music industry popular monoculture. The dominance over format (CDs and cassettes) and media outlets (MTV, print, radio) was the one-two punch leading to an explosion of album sales.

"When we were selling 50,000 records a week," Barron said. "I’d walk into a mall to buy underwear and 300 kids would surround me."

"Two Princes" rose to #4 on the Top 100 singles chart as one of the top rock 'n' roll radio singles of 1993. The band cinched a Rolling Stone cover and Sesame Street appearance.

The follow-ups to Pocket Full Of Kryptonite were 1996's You’ve Got To Believe In Something and 1999’s Here Comes The Bride, both of which featured lineup changes within the band. Just two weeks before Bride's release, Barron was struck with a rare acute form of vocal cord paralysis that affected him for a year.

In 2001, with Barron recovered, the Spin Doctors classic lineup reconvened to play the closing of Manhattan's legendary Wetlands club, where the band cut their teeth in their formative days. 2005's Nice Talking To Me found the Spin Doctors working with esteemed producer Matt Wallace (Faith No More, The Replacements, O.A.R., Maroon 5) at L.A.'s historic Sound City studio, and their 2013 release, If The River Was Whiskey, featured gritty blues songs harkening back to their origin.

Spin Doctors live, Photo by Krupek Paweł Krupka

All that sets the stage for what's to come, with a new album in the works.

“For the next album,” said Barron, “I kinda want to stay spontaneous. I’d personally like to make a quarter-turn and do a rock record. But I have a feeling it’s gonna get funky. Y’know, there’s that great quote from Keith Richards when he went to meet Mick Jagger at AIR Studios to make Steel Wheels. And he told his wife, ‘I’ll either be back tomorrow or in a month.’"

Opening the VersoFest April 5 concert is Connecticut singer-songwriter Nick Depuy, who boasts a unique sound rooted in old time folk, country rock, jazz, and blues. At 16, Depuy was mentored by Bruce Lundvall of Blue Note, Elektra, and Columbia Records, who called Depuy "the next James Taylor."

Depuy has shared the stage with legendary singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb, Neil Finn of Crowded House, and art-rock legends Procol Harum. Depuy's music has been featured on WPLR 99.1, ABC Channel 8, CBS WTIC 1080, and in performance at tri-state area venues including Fairfield Stage One, the Bijou Theater, Ridgefield Playhouse, the Gathering of the Vibes Music Festival, The Rockwood Music Hall, The Living Room, Arlene’s Grocery, Joe’s Pub in NYC, and the Connecticut Folk Festival, where he was both a “new artist” and “new songwriter” finalist.

Depuy’s debut LP, Don't Be Sorry, is available on streaming services.

All VersoFest 2024 concerts are co-produced with the Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce.

Buy Tickets

Iconic rock band the Spin Doctors are headlining the Friday Night Concert presented by Webster Private Bank at VersoFest 2024, the Library's annual music and media festival. Local singer-songwriter Nick Depuy opens at 7 pm, with Spin Doctors taking the stage at 8 pm.

Tickets purchased in advance of the show are $50 and available at the link above. If there are any tickets remaining the evening of the show, they will be sold for $60 at the door.

VersoFest is The Westport Library’s annual music and media festival and conference, spanning five days for this year’s edition, April 3 through April 7. Among the luminaries scheduled for this year's event are legendary musician, author, and activist Chuck D, renowned David Bowie, T. Rex, and Thin Lizzy music producer Tony Visconti, and electric power pop rockers The Lemon Twigs, with more to come.

Converging local with global, previous VersoFests have presented concerts with The Smithereens and Sunflower Bean, as well as events with renowned producer Steve Lillywhite, Norton Records/Kicks Books/Kicksville Radio co-founder and original Cramps drummer Miriam Linna, Alice Cooper Group Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Dennis Dunaway, Psychedelic Furs frontman and painter Richard Butler, author and journalist Rachel Felder, and hip hop pioneer DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore.

***

With more than 12 million albums sold, the GRAMMY-nominated Spin Doctors are rounding 30-plus years in rock 'n' roll with a seventh studio album and world tour on the way. The band formed at New York’s New School University in 1988, when a fateful door-knock sparked the first meeting of drummer Aaron Comess and guitarist Eric Schenkman. Performing as the Trucking Company, Schenkman, John Popper, and Chris Barron were creating buzz. But when Popper committed himself to Blues Traveler, the remnants sought new direction. Having assured Schenkman that he’d “check them out,” Comess formed a ferocious rhythm section with Bronx-raised bassist Mark White.

The nascent Spin Doctors lineup hit the Lower Manhattan music scene. Flexing their musicianship and announcing their elastic approach to live performance, in 1991 the band released its debut live release, Up For Grabs. That debut earned them a deal with Epic Records, and their follow-up, Pocket Full Of Kryptonite, hit big.

“Two Princes,” the hit single off the album, rose to #4 on the Top 100 singles chart as one of the top rock 'n' roll radio singles of 1993. The band cinched a Rolling Stone cover and Sesame Street appearance.

The follow-ups to Pocket Full Of Kryptonite were 1996's You’ve Got To Believe In Something and 1999’s Here Comes The Bride, both of which featured lineup changes within the band. In 2001, the Spin Doctors’ classic lineup reconvened to play the closing of Manhattan's legendary Wetlands club, where the band cut their teeth in their formative days. 2005's Nice Talking To Me found the band working with esteemed producer Matt Wallace (Faith No More, The Replacements, O.A.R., Maroon 5), and If The River Was Whiskey (2013) featured gritty blues songs harkening back to their origin.

***

Opening the VersoFest April 5 concert is Connecticut singer-songwriter Nick Depuy, who boasts a unique sound rooted in old time folk, country rock, jazz, and blues. At 16, Depuy was mentored by Bruce Lundvall of Blue Note, Elektra, and Columbia Records, who called Depuy “the next James Taylor.”

Depuy has shared the stage with legendary singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb, Neil Finn of Crowded House, and art-rock legends Procol Harum. Depuy's music has been featured on WPLR 99.1, ABC Channel 8, CBS WTIC 1080, and in performance at tri-state area venues including: Fairfield Stage One, the Bijou Theater, Ridgefield Playhouse, the Gathering of the Vibes Music Festival, The Rockwood Music Hall, The Living Room, Arlene’s Grocery, Joe’s Pub in NYC, and the Connecticut Folk Festival, where he was both a “new artist” and “new songwriter” finalist. Depuy’s debut LP, Don't Be Sorry, is available on streaming services.

***

All VersoFest 2024 concerts are co-produced with the Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce.

More Resources...

Photo by Travis Shinn

Revolutionary, hip hop icon, social activist, author, film producer, and digital music pioneer. Few can hold these titles with the impact and influence that Chuck D has had on modern pop culture and philosophy.

The leader and co-founder of legendary group Public Enemy, and part of the supergroup Prophets of Rage, will discuss his life, work, and recent graphic novel STEWdio: The Naphic Grovel ARTrilogy of Chuck D on Wednesday, April 3, at 7 pm in the VersoFest 2024 Kickoff Conversation presented by Darcy Travlos.

Chuck D will be in conversation with Akashic Books publisher Johnny Temple, with media host, entrepreneur, and music executive June Archer introducing the guest of honor.

The event will be held in the Library's Trefz Forum. Tickets are $50 and available for purchase here.

VersoFest is The Westport Library's annual music and media festival and conference, spanning five days from April 3 through April 7. Converging local with global, VersoFest has presented concerts with The Smithereens and Sunflower Bean, as well as events with renowned producer Steve Lillywhite, Norton Records/Kicks Books/Kicksville Radio co-founder and original Cramps drummer Miriam Linna, Alice Cooper Group Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Dennis Dunaway, Psychedelic Furs frontman and painter Richard Butler, author and journalist Rachel Felder, and hip hop pioneer DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore. Initial VersoFest 2024 luminaries include Legendary David Bowie, T. Rex, and Thin Lizzy music producer Tony Visconti, and electric power pop rockers The Lemon Twigs, with a full VersoFest schedule to be released in coming weeks. All performances, panels, and workshops are free or at market rates with the generous support of donors, community partners, and Library programming funds.

"We are absolutely thrilled to have Chuck D of Public Enemy join us at The Westport Library," said Westport Library Executive Director Bill Harmer. "His groundbreaking contributions to music and social activism have made a profound impact on our culture, and we can't wait for our community to engage with his incredible insights and talent."

Chuck D first rose to acclaim in the 1980s with a string of critically lauded and commercially successful albums that addressed weighty issues about race, rage, and inequality. Present day, The New York Times has named Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back to their list of the “25 Most Significant Albums of the Last Century,” and in 2005, The Library of Congress added Fear of a Black Planet to its National Recording Registry. 

In 2013, Public Enemy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., began curating its archive, the group was asked to donate iconic items from its history. In 2020, Public Enemy received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the GRAMMYs. This year, “Fight The Power” was named #2 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2021 list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (which also included “Bring The Noise”).

"I wanted to curate, present, navigate, teach, and lead the hip hop art, making it something that people would revere," Chuck D told Kelefah Sanneh of The New Yorker in February 2023. "I was educated in the arts ever since I was a little kid. My mother started Roosevelt Community Theater in 1973 in Roosevelt (New York). I was under Frank Frazier's tutelage as an art teacher [in] 1972. I go to Adelphi University to become a commercial artist. But as what? I had no idea. Hip hop as an idea got me through college."

In June 2016, Chuck D debuted Prophets of Rage, a new “supergroup” with former Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk, plus Cypress Hill’s B-Real and DJ Lord of Public Enemy. He formed Enemy Radio in 2019, the DJ-MC sound system component of Public Enemy and toured throughout Europe with Wu-Tang and De La Soul.

Ever the media polymath, Chuck D is also a visual artist whose work has been shown in galleries nationwide, a best-selling author (including 2017’s 300-page This Day In Rap and Hip Hop History), a highly sought-after speaker on the college lecture circuit, a prominent member of music industry nonprofit organizations MusicCares and Rock The Vote, and a record label founder of SpitSlam.

Chuck D also has served as national spokesperson for Rock The Vote, the National Urban League, the National Alliance of African American Athletes, and Hip Hop Public Health. In 2018, he was named the chairman of the Celebrity Board for the Universal Hip Hop Museum in New York.

In February 2020, Chuck D turned his gaze once again to the page and filled three 5x8 journals with his written and drawn reflections of a world beginning to unravel. STEWdio: The Naphic Grovel ARTrilogy of Chuck D recreates the format of his original art, combining three full-color paperback bound books into a beautiful box set. The box set is the inaugural offering from Enemy Books, the new Akashic Books imprint curated by the artist and author himself.

As Akaschic Books characterizes the volume: "Spanning the onset of COVID-19 through the first year of the Joe 'Bye-Don' administration, Chuck D lends his powerful artistic voice to one of the most tumultuous periods in American history, and puts it in a capsule. Like the neo-expressionist graffiti art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Chuck D’s energetic “Naphic Grovels” marry text with drawings, commenting on contemporary events with the same activist instinct that propelled Public Enemy’s 'music-with-a-message' reputation. His inventive, Amiri Baraka–esque language and accompanying art is also occasionally used as a tool for introspection, providing unparalleled insight into one of the most important cultural figures of our time."

Buy Tickets

VersoFest 2024 Schedule

Chuck D, leader and co-founder of legendary group Public Enemy and acclaimed hip hop icon, social activist, author, film producer, and digital music pioneer, will discuss his life, work, and recent graphic novel with Akashic Books publisher Johnny Temple in the VersoFest 2024 Kickoff Conversation presented by Darcy Travlos.

Local media host, entrepreneur, and music executive June Archer will introduce Chuck D. Tickets purchased in advance of the show are $50 and available at the link above. If there are any seats remaining, tickets will be sold for $60 at the door.

Copies of Chuck D's new book, STEWdio: The Naphic Grovel ARTrilogy of Chuck D, will be sold at the event, and he will be signing copies afterward. (To avoid long lines, we suggest you purchase your copy prior to the start of the event.)

Chuck D first rose to acclaim in the 1980s with a string of critically lauded and commercially successful albums that addressed weighty issues about race, rage, and inequality. Present day, The New York Times has named Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back to their list of the “25 Most Significant Albums of the Last Century,” and in 2005, The Library of Congress added Fear of a Black Planet to their National Recording Registry.

In 2013, Public Enemy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., began curating its archive, the group was asked to donate iconic items from their history. In 2020, Public Enemy received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the GRAMMYs, and this year, “Fight The Power” was named #2 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2021 list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (which also included “Bring The Noise”).

In June 2016, Chuck D debuted Prophets of Rage, a new “supergroup” with former Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk, plus Cypress Hill’s B-Real and DJ Lord of Public Enemy.

Ever the media polymath, Chuck D is also a visual artist whose work has been shown in galleries nationwide, a best-selling author (including 2017’s 300-page This Day In Rap and Hip Hop History), a highly sought-after speaker on the college lecture circuit, a prominent member of music industry nonprofit organizations MusicCares and Rock The Vote, and a record label founder of SpitSlam.

Chuck D also has served as national spokesperson for Rock The Vote, the National Urban League, the National Alliance of African American Athletes, and Hip Hop Public Health. In 2018, he was named the chairman of the Celebrity Board for the Universal Hip Hop Museum in New York.

In February 2020, Chuck D turned his gaze once again to the page and began to fill three 5x8 journals with his written and drawn reflections of a world beginning to unravel. The result is STEWdio: The Naphic Grovel ARTrilogy of Chuck D, which recreates the format of his original art, combining three full-color paperback bound books into a beautiful box set. The box set is the inaugural offering from Enemy Books, the new Akashic Books imprint curated by the artist and author himself.

***

About VersoFest

VersoFest is The Westport Library's annual music and media festival and conference, spanning five days from April 3 through April 7. Converging local with global, VersoFest has presented concerts with The Smithereens and Sunflower Bean, as well as events with renowned producer Steve Lillywhite, Norton Records/Kicks Books/Kicksville Radio co-founder and original Cramps drummer Miriam Linna, Alice Cooper Group Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Dennis Dunaway, Psychedelic Furs frontman and painter Richard Butler, author and journalist Rachel Felder, and hip hop pioneer DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore.

Initial VersoFest 2024 luminaries include Legendary David Bowie, T. Rex, and Thin Lizzy music producer Tony Visconti, and electric power pop rockers The Lemon Twigs, with a full VersoFest schedule to be released in coming weeks.

All performances, panels, and workshops are free or at market rates with the generous support of donors, community partners, and Library programming funds.

More Resources...
Hip-Hop
History of Music
Verso Studios

Buy Tickets Now!

VersoFest 2024 Schedule

The indie rock/pop band The Lemon Twigs will lead the VersoFest 2024 kickoff concert on Thursday, April 4, in the Library’s Trefz Forum.

Doors open at 7 pm with WFMU and WHUS favorite DJ HYSTERICA spinning her all-vinyl oeuvre of power pop, punk, greasy soul, and yé-yé. The show begins at 8 pm.

Tickets are $20 and available at the link above. If there are any tickets remaining the evening of the show, they will be sold for $30 at the door.

The Lemon Twigs pull from a wide range of multigenerational inspirations, darting from twee chamber pop balladry to full-on glam punk, mixing plaintive singer-songwriter confessionals with an almost Syd Barrett sense of outré pop. Their sound has said to harken back to the vocal melody of Art Garfunkel and chamber pop of Brian Wilson, and they cite among their influences Moondog and Arthur Russell.

The New York-based group is led by the brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario and is currently touring behind its fourth full-length studio release, Everything Harmony. That follows their 2016 debut, Do Hollywood, and their follow-ups Go to School (2018) and Songs for the General Public (2020).

The Lemon Twigs have toured extensively nationally and internationally, bringing their eclectic sound to a variety of venues, including the Black Cat in Washington, D.C., the Majestic Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, and the Space Ballroom in Hamden, Connecticut. They’re touring the West Coast this winter, with stops in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles, where they’ll be playing the Regent Theatre.

In addition to their original records, The Lemon Twigs have appeared on recent albums by Weyes Blood and Todd Rundgren, who said that the band has “a built-in appreciation for music that is of a couple of generations before theirs. I think they were bored by the music of their own generation, and since you can’t fast forward to the music of the future, you just start going backwards to music that was made before you were born.”

***

All VersoFest 2024 concerts are co-produced with the Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce.

More Resources...
History of Music
Verso Studios

“They’re so out of left field in their songs. They don’t have any rules in their songs and that’s sometimes the way it should be. … Hey guys, I’m dying to meet you, keep making great music.”

-Elton John, on The Lemon Twigs

The indie rock/pop band the Lemon Twigs will lead the VersoFest 2024 kickoff concert on Thursday, April 4, in the Library’s Trefz Forum. Tickets are on sale now for $20. Doors open at 6:30 pm with WFMU and WHUS favorite DJ HYSTERICA spinning her all-vinyl oeuvre of power pop, punk, greasy soul, and yé-yé. The show begins at 7:30 pm with a forthcoming local opener.

The Lemon Twigs pull from a wide range of multigenerational inspirations, darting from twee chamber pop balladry to full-on glam punk, mixing plaintive singer-songwriter confessionals with an almost Syd Barrett sense of outré pop. Their sound has said to harken back to the vocal melody of Art Garfunkel and chamber pop of Brian Wilson, and they cite among their influences Moondog and Arthur Russell.

The New York-based group is led by the brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario and is currently touring behind its fourth full-length studio release, Everything Harmony. That follows their 2016 debut, Do Hollywood, and their follow-ups Go to School (2018) and Songs for the General Public (2020).

The Lemon Twigs are longtime friends and tourmates of Sunflower Bean, which headlined the Thursday night VersoFest 2023 slot. This past October, Local WPKN DJ Alec Cumming of Snap Crackle POP! (father of Julia Cumming from Sunflower Bean) produced a radio documentary of the Lemon Twigs, weaving songs and an exclusive interview with the D’Addario brothers.

The VersoFest 2024 kickoff concert date is preceded by 2023 California winter dates with legendary dB’s singer-songwriter/producer Chris Stamey. From VersoFest, the Lemon Twigs are slated to perform at Primavera Sound Barcelona 2024, one of the world’s premier pop/rock/underground electronic and dance music festivals, alongside Pulp, PJ Harvey, the National, Lana Del Ray, and Amyl and the Sniffers.

Recently playing numerous tracks from Everything Harmony on his BBC6 Iggy Confidential radio show, proto-punk icon Iggy Pop exclaimed, “Lemon Twigs, they’re over-talented, that’s all I can say about the Lemon Twigs. Wow! These guys can do a whole lot of things, and they do. They leave me scratchin’ my head always, but it’s always super fine.”

The Lemon Twigs have appeared on recent albums by Weyes Blood and Todd Rundgren, who said that the band has “a built-in appreciation for music that is of a couple of generations before theirs. I think they were bored by the music of their own generation, and since you can’t fast forward to the music of the future, you just start going backwards to music that was made before you were born.”

All VersoFest 2024 concerts are co-produced with the Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce.

Register Here

VersoFest 2024 Schedule

Legendary music producer Tony Visconti will headline VersoFest 2024 at The Westport Library, appearing in the Library’s Trefz Forum on Saturday, April 6.

Visconti will be in conversation with WFUV's Paul Cavalconte for The Westport Library's third annual music and media festival, discussing his art and career as one of pop music’s longest working and most influential producers. This event is free and requires registration.

Beyond music, Visconti has created moments blooming into cultural movements (glam rock) and art linked to collective memory in David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World,” “Rebel Rebel,” and “Heroes,” and T. Rex’s “Get It On (Bang A Gong),” “Cosmic Dancer,” and “20th Century Boy.”

Lifetime achievements, GRAMMY Awards, film and TV soundtracks, and many other honors celebrate Visconti’s production and arrangement vision, which also includes collaborations with Thin Lizzy, Paul McCartney & Wings (for their famed Band on the Run album), U2, Bert Jansch, Angelique Kidjo, Luscious Jackson, Alejandro Escovedo, the Strawbs, Fall Out Boy, Gentle Giant, Mercury Rev, Sparks, Badfinger, The Moody Blues, The Alarm, Kristeen Young, and D-Generation.

In addition, Visconti recently arranged the strings on New Haven musician and former Verso Studios Connecticut Music Oral History Podcast guest Kelly Reilly’s “Happiness Lasts.”

Visconti is currently touring the globe celebrating the release of the new 77-track box set, Produced by Tony Visconti. He is also the author of the book, Tony Visconti: The Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy, published in 2007.

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David Bowie, T. Rex, Thin Lizzy — titans of rock ‘n’ roll music, all connected by the iconic touches of legendary producer, arranger, and VersoFest 2024 keynote subject Tony Visconti.

Visconti will be in conversation with WFUV's Paul Cavalconte for The Westport Library's third annual music and media festival on Saturday, April 6 at 1 pm, discussing his art and career as one of pop music’s longest working and most influential producers. This event is free and requires registration, tickets are available now via this link.

Beyond music, Visconti has created moments blooming into cultural movements (glam rock), art linked to collective memory in T. Rex’s “Get It On (Bang A Gong),” “Cosmic Dancer,” and “20th Century Boy” and Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World,” “Rebel Rebel,” and “Heroes.” Lifetime achievements, GRAMMY Awards, film and TV soundtracks, and many other honors celebrate Visconti’s production and arrangement vision, which also includes collaborations with Paul McCartney & Wings (for their famed Band on the Run album), U2, Bert Jansch, Angelique Kidjo, Luscious Jackson, Alejandro Escovedo, the Strawbs, Fall Out Boy, Gentle Giant, Mercury Rev, Sparks, Badfinger, The Moody Blues, The Alarm, Kristeen Young, and D-Generation. In addition, Visconti recently arranged the strings on New Haven musician and former Verso Studios Connecticut Music Oral History Podcast guest Kelly Reilly’s “Happiness Lasts.” 

“Now in its third year, VersoFest 2024 is shaping up to be another impressive and inspiring weekend for creators and fans alike. Announcing the legendary Tony Visconti, who has been at the helm of countless cultural touchstones is a tremendous launch for our 2024 program,” said Westport Library Executive Director Bill Harmer. 

VersoFest 2024 is a four-day music festival and conference happening Thursday, April 4, through Sunday, April 7. VersoFest includes panels where experts share their perspective and vision. Intimate workshops provide creators the opportunity to deconstruct, improve, and hone their craft. Performances entertain and inspire.

Previous years have featured a diverse and eclectic mix of performers and subjects including the Smithereens, Sunflower Bean, Grand Wizzard Theodore (inventor of scratch DJing), producer Steve Lillywhite (U2, Talking Heads, Dave Matthews Band), Richard Butler (Psychedelic Furs), Dennis Dunaway (Alice Cooper), Miriam Linna (Norton Records, Kicks Books, Kicksville Radio), actor/producer Michael Jai White, Little Steven’s TeachRock Foundation, Connecticut Public, and many more.  

Visconti is currently touring the globe celebrating the release of the new 77-track box set Produced by Tony Visconti. Visconti told popular music blog Super Deluxe Edition, “This boxset covers five-and-a-half decades of my efforts in the art of making iconic recordings. Some of it is familiar and some will have a eureka moment, ‘I didn’t know Visconti produced that one!’” 

Near the end of their set during the VersoFest 2023 kickoff concert, Sunflower Bean lead singer and bassist Julia Cumming posed a rhetorical question to the audience: “Did you know this isn’t the first time we’ve played in a library? But it wasn’t as cool as this library. This is the COOLEST library!”

For four days, The Westport Library was indeed the coolest library, playing host to its annual VersoFest — a celebration of music, media, and creativity featuring concerts, panel discussions, workshops, and so much more.

The festival truly had something for everyone, from the rollicking keynote conversation between renowned producer Steve Lillywhite and Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer Chris Frantz to the insightful Malloy Lecture in the Arts with artist and Psychedelic Furs frontman Richard Butler to the emotional oral history interview with the legendary Miriam Linna and Beehive Queen Christine Ohlman.

And that is just a portion of all that was showcased at VersoFest 2023. The concerts with Sunflower Bean (Thursday), with DJ HYSTERICA opening, and the Smithereens featuring Marshall Crenshaw (Friday), with Amilia K Spicer opening and Linna serving as DJ, drew more than 750 people to the Library’s packed Trefz Forum. Hundreds more assembled over the weekend for panels ranging from rock fashion and rock photography to vinyl record collecting, podcasting and radio, and the business of music, culminating Sunday afternoon with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip hop in Connecticut that regularly brought the capacity crowd to its feet.

VersoFest also carved out space for a record fair featuring vendors from across the tri-state area as well as intimate workshop sessions on songwriting, screenwriting, photography, and TV and media production. There was also a hands-on TeachRock session utilizing a 1:4 replica of the Grateful Dead’s “Wall of Sound” PA system that entertained throughout the weekend with a steady diet of the Dead’s best.

In addition to the Wall of Sound, VersoFest’s other installation was a museum of Alice Cooper Group artifacts courtesy Alice Cooper bassist Dennis Dunaway, who closed out the festival with a showing of Live from the AstroTurf, the Alice Cooper Group reunion documentary.

In the Q&A following the documentary, Dunaway echoed Cumming’s words from three days’ prior, pointing to the Library’s forum, lit up for the evening show with a kaleidoscope of colored lights and decorated with Alice Cooper fans young and old, and said, “You call this a library, but this is WAY more than a library.”

Keynote Conversation: Steve Lillywhite with Chris Frantz
Malloy Lecture in the Arts: Richard Butler
Legends, Beats, and Grooves
Music Oral History: Miriam Linna with Christine Ohlman
Vinyl Record Panel Brunch
Rock Photography Panel
Rock Fashion Panel
Business of Music Panel
Live from the Astroturf Q&A

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Photos: Chad Anderson of Chad Anderson Photography & Brendan Toller

VersoFest 2023 will feature two headlining concerts and an array of experts in the fields of music, media, and more, providing a multitude of opportunities to explore and create over a four-day immersive experience.

And if they play their cards right, attendees could leave with an autographed album to boot.

Some of VersoFest’s headliners and guests, including legendary producer Steve Lillywhite, Psychedelic Furs frontman Richard Butler, and Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth, will be autographing copies of their vinyl records that will be up for giveaway and auction during the festival.

Two of those albums will be part of the VersoFest record giveaway. Festivalgoers can submit their entries for the giveaway starting with the March 30 kickoff concert featuring rising American rock band Sunflower Bean, with submissions open through the festival’s completion on Sunday April 2 — a day that will include a record fair, presented by Record Riots, from 11 am to 4 pm, and a vinyl record panel brunch featuring WPKN DJ Alec Cumming, producer Dooley-O, Kraftjerkz Records’ Kid Ginseng, WFUV DJ and House of Wax host Eric Holland, New Haven Independent arts reporter Karen Ponzio, and moderated by the Zambonis’ Dave Schneider.

Additionally, there will be a silent auction held Saturday and Sunday of the festival (April 1-2). Those in attendance will be given an opportunity to bid on a wide variety of signed albums associated with several of the festival’s speakers and guests. The highest bidder will receive the signed copy, with all proceeds going to support future VersoFest endeavors.

“This is a really cool opportunity to bring home some of the best vinyl albums produced in the last 50 years,” said Westport Library Executive Director Bill Harmer. “Beyond that, these signed copies are collector’s items — a keepsake to enjoy for its own sake, to commemorate what we think will an unforgettable four days celebrating music, media, and creativity, and a unique way to raise money so we can bring this festival back to Westport and the tri-state area next year and again in the years to come.”

To learn more about this year’s festival, including to buy concert tickets and register for workshops, visit the VersoFest 203 landing page

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