May 29, 2025 – Vermont State University – Castleton
I’m sitting here on a hillside overlooking the campus of Vermont State University, Castleton, Vermont. The Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps are in residence for spring training for the 2025 season. It is 2:30 in the afternoon, and the horns are in block, meaning each section is dispersed around the immediate area. Professor Steve is with his crew under the trumpet trees, the mature maples in the quad. The baritones are under the huge white pine to my left. The tubas and euphoniums are in the lot across the street, within earshot. The mellophones are out of sight in a more secluded location, as usual. I can faintly hear them from across the campus. Each section is working on the warm-up exercises and encore pieces, such as Sweet Caroline, Conquest, and Game of Thrones. I have not yet heard any show music, and I have absolutely no idea yet what the music will be. Taking my walk around the 1.6-mile trail through the woods around the campus, I could still hear the snippets. Strolling the campus provides glimpses of sections working, trucks parked, and people met during my interloping visit.
The baritones are now noodling what I think is show music. Now begins the acclimation and familiarization of the 2025 show that will enchant me all season long. Now, the trumpets are articulating more snippets, as yet unrecognizable to me. Instructors give measured directions as they work through the book, one measure at a time. The tubas play a chord that sounds like a warning. Low and haunting tones emanate from all brass in all directions, not orchestrated but somehow cohesive. What is this about? The mood evokes mystery and wonder.
I have enjoyed this annual experience since discovering they were in spring training here, only 75 minutes south of my humble home along the Mill Brook in Waitsfield. Today, I arrived early enough to join the sewing crew for lunch. The uniforms are here from FJM. Volunteer sewers joined the FJM representative Michelle and momma-sewer Kate to fit all 165 kids before the end of spring training. Kate will tour with the corps all season long to keep the uniforms fitting and clean and to make any necessary and planned modifications throughout the season. Her son is a member. The fellow fitters were volunteers from other places who came together for the task. I was immersed in the love of DCI, quite by serendipity, by meeting them on their way to lunch. Meeting up with Jack, who is always doing something, was the first encounter of the BAC team. Seeing Gino and Steve was another happy reunion in the cafeteria. I am proudly wearing my Wicked Games t-shirt today. I have found that if you are lucky and wear the right shirt, you can get a free lunch.
I’m now in the stadium where the brass is together for a rehearsal of part one on the move. Gino is up high on the scaffolding with his trusty microphone in hand. What comes out of the speaker is heard, acknowledged, and obeyed. This is day 6, so the kids are as green as the trees around them. Whitish skin tones and additional girth are a contrast to when I saw them last in rehearsal back in August. They will transform in body, mind, and soul from here. Not to give too much away at this early time, I think this will be another concept show rather than a storytelling one. It has the energy and feel from where they made the last Conquest statement in Indy last summer. It’s six o’clock, and time for dinner. For me, it’s time for another walk. I will put this computer away for the rest of the visit. I am a guest at these early rehearsals. It is time to clam it up. I will not be taking photos.
June 2, 2025 – Castleton, VT
Another bonus day to head down to Castleton for the day. The Silver Bullet is in the shop for the day for some needed repairs at Almartin Volvo in Burlington. Climate change has been tough on Vermont’s roads. Some suspension work is needed with a good alignment before I take her on the road for DCI later this summer. The zippy 2025 Volvo XC60 hybrid loaner is a sweet ride to traverse the pastoral countryside. Heading south along Route 30 past Middlebury provides views of the Green Mountains to the left and the Adirondacks to the right. Ben and Jerry’s cows dot the green-scaped countryside. I arrived around 10:30 AM and watched the morning block with the brass on the field, working through new choreography. I got the call from brother Garry that he is on his way to spring training from his summer home on Lake Ontario in Northern New York. My self-adopted drum corps brother is one of the many people that I will see again after a long off-season of 8 months. This post will be the first of the 2025 season to cover DCI. During each of those eight lonely months, I have had the pleasure of reliving my drum corps tour by preparing a blog entry for publication as a series in Drum Corps World Magazine. Publisher Steve Vickers likes my take on the activity. Perhaps those who are not as free to tour can appreciate the experience vicariously through these words.
Attending spring training is the most profound part of my annual obsession. The magic that happens between takes and reps is astounding. Gino, Aaron, and Colin are masters of the field exercises before me down below as they give direction from above. The kids pay attention to every direction. Occasionally, there is some tough love employed. “The only thing you need to be paying attention to is what is going into this microphone and coming out of this speaker,” said Gino when some of the corps members were kibitzing amongst themselves on the field. It is early in the season. Absolute focus will become the norm.
This is my eighth year since discovering that BAC was so close to my home each spring. Little did I know that in 2017, when I decided to Run Away with the Drum Corps, it would spark an obsession that caused me to write one hundred and sixty thousand words to try to tell this amazing story of America’s little-known but most exceptional youth endeavor. DCI Junior Drum and Bugle Corps, marching music’s major league, or as I like to say, art in motion with music on steroids. I am not able to give much insight into what I am hearing and seeing, so I will let it go for now. There will be plenty to write about in the coming weeks.
June 7, 2025 Along the Mill Brook
Oh, my god! DCI 2025 will be one wild ride for this drum corps fanatic. I just returned this morning from another trip down to the epicenter of world-class drum corps in Vermont – Castleton. The Boston Crusaders have endured intermittent rainstorms, but they continue to move further through the magical book in preparation for the 2025 DCI season. Saturday was a board meeting of Inspire Arts Inc., the non-profit organization that fosters youth music education and a most incredible drum corps – BAC. Since 2017, I have been immersed in this insane activity since getting to know them as a volunteer. The 2016 season ended with a squeak-out for 12th place. In 2017, little did I know that there was almost an entire new staff of creators and instructors. Claiming 6th place that year was an incredible leap up in the rankings. Since then, I have followed DCI and BAC, particularly, much like a vagabond groupie, with this mission of relating the experience for others to enjoy, vicariously, perhaps. It’s an excuse to scratch my itch for being part of something stupendous. It is a story that needs to be told about these amazing young people who toil in the sun for hours. “Let’s do it again.” “Reset!” “Here we go.”
