8/25 Summervale: Steady Betty
By Brenna Lewis-Slammon, Summervale Music Intern
This week’s Summervale at the Intervale is sure to transport you into a late Summer’s dream with
taking the main stage. The all-female power group plays classic Rocksteady music, the sound of 1960’s Jamaica.
Rocksteady formed as a genre following the ska musical movement and predates the more modernly prevalent genre of reggae. Rocksteady brings together elements of R & B, Jazz, Ska, Bebop, and Afro-Caribbean drumming. Steady Betty is a group of talented and well-practiced Vermont-based musicians that have, each through their own unique paths, come to love the retro, tropical sounds of Rocksteady music. The band is diversely composed of professional musicians, students, and professionals who reside within the Burlington area. On the odd occasion that Kat Wright is free (of Kat Wright and the Indomitable Soul Band), she joins Steady Betty for a night of musical fun.
The group’s sound is marked by reggae-esque rhythms that encourage a slow, steady sway to sweep through any assembled audience. However, that is not to say the group can’t energize a crowd. The lovely voices of the group’s vocalists are driven by the rhythm section and highlighted by the horns. With Steady Betty, dancing is inevitable - slow, fast, rhythmic or spastic - you’ll be moving along to the music. Their sound calls to mind dreams of warm Caribbean evenings, young love, and a simpler time, the perfect daydream to get lost within as Fall approaches. Come eat, drink, chat, dance, and rejoice in the uplifting jams of Steady Betty!