Jamming at the Whammy

The Whammy Bar is a tiny venue in the back of the Maple Corner Store in Maple Corner, Calais, VT, USA. There’s a small L-shaped bar, a few tables and chairs, guitars on the wall, some sound equipment, all reached by making your way past the groceries and the to-go food offerings and turning right. Twenty-five people is about max for the audience. They can cram a full Bluegrass band into the performance spot, but it would elbow-to-elbow tight. Last Friday, local Jim Ventresca played and sang just about anything the audience asked for, with Felix Grassmann helping out, as it snowed hard outside. Calais residents and friends recently bought the store, which was in danger of closing, and transformed it, and the Whammy Bar, into a community-run entity, which has to make it one of the very few such operations in the country. Stop by if you’re in the greater metropolitan Maple Corner/Kents Corner/Gospel Hollow/Old West Church vicinity.