The Northeast Kingdom’s Lake Willoughby has a lot of claims to fame. It’s Vermont’s deepest lake. It’s the star of countless stunning photos showcasing its dramatic, fjord-like landscape, nestled between Mount Pisgah and Mount Hor.  

Now, it’s also the subject of an internationally recognized song by area youth band the Kingdom All-Stars. 

“Willoughby Nights,” written by high school student Jazmine Bogie and performed by the Kingdom All-Stars, won the “People’s Voice” category of the International Songwriting Competition in May 2023. First released in February, “Willoughby Nights,” already has almost 10,000 views on YouTube in just the first six months.  

The song pays tribute to the peace and tranquility found by the shores of the popular Vermont swimming, boating, and hiking destination. Bogie, whose family bought White Caps Campground when she started high school, says it’s a love song to her favorite place. 

“You always write love songs, whether it’s for a boy or for someone else, and I just think the thing I really, truly loved was Lake Willoughby,” said Bogie, 17, who goes to Lyndon Institute in Lyndonville, Vermont. “It’s so hard to capture your love for your family and your love for where you live. It’s so much harder to capture that than for one person.” 

Love is the central thread running through the song.  

“Cause I’ve been to the city, I’ve been through it all, and nothin’ compares to this at all. Love and light and beauty, mountains so tall. So take a step and take a deep breath, no need to worry about the rest, ’cause we’re here and that’s the best,” Bogie sings on the song’s chorus. 

Bogie says her family invested in the campground because of their love and nostalgia for the lake, from swimming and camping there as young kids to hiking and exploring the area as they got older. Now, she loves working at the campground and being part of her family’s business. 

“It had been our dream for a really long time. I had been going there since I was really little and we all just kind of fell in love with it. We all achieved this impossible thing as a family. We’re just a little family from Vermont, and we’re all just really at home here. I was so inspired by my love for family and for the place that I thought, ‘This should be what’s in a song,’” Bogie said. 

The song came together in one sitting in just a few hours, Bogie said, “just me and my guitar. 

“Then I take it to the band and then my friends in the band come up immediately with guitar parts and drum parts and harmonies and anything you can think of and it becomes this effortlessly wonderful thing.” 

Listeners will hear Bogie’s musical influences in the interplay of acoustic and electric guitar and a slow drum build toward a crescendo near the end of the song; her soft but crystal-clear vocals and songwriting stylings, she says, were influenced by the likes of Taylor Swift, Grace Potter, and early 2000s country music.  

Right now, the Kingdom All-Stars has 10 members, most in high school. The band auditions new members every year.  

Macey Mawhinney, 16, sings backing vocals on the track and echoed Bogie’s sentiments, saying she’s glad she grew up with the close access to outdoor recreation that Vermont provides. 

“I like living in Vermont because I like the community here and I like the opportunities and all the activities that I get to do. I do sports here, so I run cross country, which is a sport that really gets you outside and in nature all over Vermont. It’s really fun. A lot of the runs that we do are trail runs and it’s nice to get out in the woods and enjoy the outdoor space that we have here,” Mawhinney said. 

“It’s just a really beautiful place,” said Macey’s brother Zane Mawhinney, 18, who played guitar on “Willoughby Nights.”  

“I see it from a distance a lot because I work at Burke (Mountain Resort) as a ski instructor and that’s always one of the things I point out, trying to connect with people who might not be from here. Willoughby is one of the big landmarks I point out.” 

Asked to describe her love for Lake Willoughby, Bogie paused. 

“I don’t even know how to describe it because there’s so much beauty to it. It’s so clean. The lakes are beautiful and the mountains are beautiful, but then you have the people and the culture. People work hard and they play hard. It’s taught me a lot about being independent,” she said. 

She and both Mawhinneys think growing up in Vermont instilled self-reliance, a deep appreciation for the natural world, and a sense of community in them. 

“I definitely think that having that feeling of community is a good thing to grow up with because you’re able to make connections to a lot of people and learn those communication skills from a younger age. Because of the nature of the Northeast Kingdom and Vermont, everyone knows each other, there’s a good community feeling, and that’s just a very supportive environment to grow up in,” said Zane. 

“I think that people who really appreciate nature and who want sort of a more relaxed, slower lifestyle would really enjoy Vermont because everything’s so spread out, it’s so green, and in the fall, you have the reds and the yellows. It’s just a very beautiful, natural place, and since everything is so spaced out with those smaller, more tight knit communities, there’s a smaller sense of urgency,” he added. 

“I get that moving to Vermont could be scary because the winters are long and they’re extreme and you can get pretty far north, but it’s easy to make relationships and it’s easy to find a good community and when it’s beautiful, it’s absolutely stunning,” Bogie said. 

Macey also says her community’s support for the arts, including St. Johnsbury’s Catamount Arts, has enabled the band to make huge strides, including this year’s big international win. 

“I still kind of am not really believing it,” Bogie said with a laugh.