What Kind of Content and Columns Can I Find on Valley Advocate?

Valley Advocate is a local alternative news publication for the Pioneer Valley region of western Massachusetts, and its content mixes reporting, arts and culture coverage, music writing, personal columns, and community information. If you are looking for a specific type of story — a profile, a music interview, an advice column, or local ads — the sections below describe what the site actually publishes, based on its current front page.

News and feature reporting

The site runs reported stories on local people and institutions, often framed around a single subject.

• Leadership and institutional news — for example, a profile of Ray Dumont, the new executive director at the Academy of Music in Northampton, who stepped into the role on July 1, replacing Debra J'Anthony after her 18 years in the position.
• Arts and exhibition coverage — for example, a story on a new art show that reimagines Medusa's story, drawing on Ovid's account of the Gorgon in Greek mythology.
• Longer features with sensitive subjects — for example, a piece on Montague-based songwriter Jamey Wolff, whose story covers suicide and addiction and carries an editor's note pointing readers to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
• Design and community storytelling — for example, coverage of Smith College's Isabel Strauss after winning an international design competition, and of new murals capturing local memories, values, and culture.

These pieces are typically bylined, and several of the examples above are credited to Carolyn Brown.

Music coverage: Mixtape

The Mixtape column is the site's main music franchise. It combines interviews with artists and short reviews or recommendations.

• An interview with Sebastian Bach, framed around the idea that "who doesn't want to rock?" — the kind of piece built on a direct conversation with a touring musician.
• A roundup focused on EPs, covering releases from Murder (sword), a self-titled record from an Easthampton-based band, and from Joshua David Thayer.

Both are credited to Jennifer Levesque. If you follow local and touring rock music, this is the column to check first.

Life and opinion columns

Two recurring personal columns appear on the front page:

The V-Spot is written as an advice column answering submitted letters. Monte Belmonte Wines mixes tasting notes with travel and personal reflection — the Rías Baixas piece is framed as finally visiting wine country after roughly a decade of writing the column and tasting wines on the radio before that.

Local ads and community information

The site carries a Local Ads section, and its own description lists "Local Ads" among its functions. This is where you find community-level notices and advertising rather than editorial content. The publication describes itself as "The Valley's source of alternative news and information," and its stated editorial stance is that it is "never afraid to take risks, pick fights, indulge our artistic & literary inclinations or push our points of view" — which explains why opinion and personal voice run alongside straight reporting.

How to decide where to start

• Want local institutional or arts news? Start with the feature reporting — profiles of people and exhibitions.
• Want music? Go to Mixtape for interviews and release roundups.
• Want advice or a personal essay? The V-Spot and Monte Belmonte Wines are the two named columns.
• Want community notices or advertising? Look at Local Ads.

One practical note: the front page mixes all of these together under a "The Latest" heading, so the fastest way to find a column you like is to search the writer's name or the column title rather than scrolling the feed.