ECHO: A Survey at 25 Years of Sounds, Art and Ink on Paper

ECHO: A Survey at 25 Years of Sounds, Art and Ink on Paper
280 Pages
ISBN: # 979-8-21809624-3
Higher Ground
2023

In honor of Higher Ground's 25th anniversary, the South Burlington Vermont music venue has collaborated in the curation of ECHO: A Survey at 25 Years of Sounds, Art and Ink on Paper. Since founding the club in a strip mall in Winooski Vermont, HG's owners worked closely with Solidarity of Unbridled Labour and Iskra Print Collective to bring concert goers the unique experience of a free commemorative poster at the end of a show. Until now, none of these items were available for authorized purchase at merch stands or online.

The result of this partnership totaled 367 posters and, as presented in this tome, 280 pages of images are centered around Burlington's venerable independent music outlet and the artists that have populated its stages. It is crucial to point out, however, that it's not necessary to know the backstory here to savor the often vibrant artwork inside the hardboard covers.

ECHO is something of a work of art in and of itself, not to mention a history of Higher Ground (all of its shows prior to publication are delineated in miniscule font within foldouts af the front and back). By extension too, it's something of a history of contemporary music, albeit one filtered through the preferences and taste of the curators involved at the creation of the posters.

In that regard, it's confounding there are no pieces to commemorate some of the most memorable events. For instance, nothing appears to mark any of the multiple appearances of Los Lobos, the August 1999 one of which included an extended encore with Trey Anastasio; an integral figure in Higher Ground's germination, not to mention this book, there are otherwise four inserts to devoted to this most prominent member of Phish.

More to the point, the guitarist/vocalist/composer's appearance early in the Higher Ground timeline stands as the source for the optical illusion of the black-and-white cover design. An enticing household display, coffee table or otherwise, the 10" by 10"' dimensions of the book also make it an easily maneuverable read, whether in close perusal or casual browsing. The plethora of varied imagery, from the sparse (Buckethead) to the dense (Steve Kimock Band ) certainly compels repeated examinations.



Both methods reveal how easy on the eyes are the book's inner design and layout. The poster replications are arrayed on a dark background, but that approach also calls into question a few of the decisions about which selections to highlight in near full-size—The The Wood Brothers in 2016 and Gary Clark, Jr.. two years prior—and which to minimize. For instance, the reduction in ratio serves to camouflage some of the dense detail in the My Morning Jacket poster from '05.

As is also the case for the Hot Tuna item from December of the year before. The latter marked the first show at Higher Ground's second location and its diminution begs the question of the significance of the event; is it not worthy of more (or at least equal) prominence with The Sea & Cake or Paolo Nutini (whose respective legacies may be based on the posters devoted to them in 2007)?.

Those choices, however, do highlight the astute decision to restrict the amount of text in A Survey at 25 Years of Sounds, Art and Ink on Paper. For the most part, it's a wise move to only denote the date of show and the artist as the fundamental means to emphasize the graphics. But some historical perspective, perhaps supplied by attendees, might also cement this chronology more clearly.

To that end, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy's soporific intro doesn't serve that purpose, but co-owner Alex Crothers does, as does his enlightening interview complete with stage shots of artists in action. An explication of the screen printing process is nevertheless a valuable addition to ECHO as is the original missive the aforementioned co-founder submitted in 1998 for the purposes of the poster initiative.

Perhaps the next edition of ECHO—an inevitability based on the definition of the title plus the incremental growth in print since a similarly-conceived ten-year effort—will be based on just such a concept of words and pictures. The appropriately complementary blend of content would achieve an end as transcendent as the most striking imagery in this limited edition, that is, a pair of Medeski Martin & Wood posters that, especially in the case of the 12/4/2003 occasion, conjure up the evocative mystery of their music as fully as the artists/designers intended.

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