Maine

Tomorrow I head to Lubec, Maine. It’s a wee bit o’ paradise that boasts the fact that it’s the eastern-most town in the United States. Yeah, I know; it’s January and it’s always cold there this time of the year, but I do it anyway and there really is a great reason and his name is Fred Pierce.

Three years ago, I received an email from Fred. I know Fred through a group of acoustic guitar enthusiasts on the Usenet discussion group RMMGA (rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic) and that, in itself is a blog post for another time. Fred asked me if I’d be willing to come up to Lubec and do a concert just to try yo get some of the local folks out of their abodes and try to dispel a bit of the cabin fever and doldrums that seem to happen up there in deepest darkest winter. I said yes and we planned on a concert for  Thursday night at the Cobscook Bay Community Learning Center.

So I drove on up there and we had 30 or 40 hearty souls come out in a snowstorm and we all had a great evening. The next day I went over to a small school just outside of Lubec and did my “Silly Songs and Funny Folk” program for a classroom full of kids.

All in all, a great couple of days.

Guess Fred got inspired. Since that event three years ago, Fred has been inviting traveling musicians to perform in Lubec and for the town’s bicentennial he put on an outdoor concert with Schooner Fair, a group that is known far and wide and two of Maine’s native sons.  Fred is busy transforming the community in and around Lubec into an Arts Mecca and it’s amazing to see what he has accomplished just in three years.

This weekend, Fred decided to pull out all the stops and his organization, Cobscook Bay Music is hosting an event called the Winter Wail.  I’m not the only performer; besides myself there will be a Contra Dance with the highly acclaimed group Sassafras Stomp, featuring Adam Nordell, Johanna Davis with Kim Roberts calling. There will also be many of the local musicians that live in and around Lubec who will be participating.

I’ll be doing a school program with the kids at the Lubec School on Friday morning and then we kick off the Winter Wail with a concert at the Community Center on that night at 7 PM. So if you happen to want to venture up to Downeast Maine for lots and lots of music come on by! Thanks to Fred Pierce for his energy and commitment to bringing events like this to his community.

Lighthouse at Quoddy Point

On Sunday evening, I’ll be doing a house concert for So. Portland House Concerts in South Portland, Maine. You can send an email to mehouseconcert@aol.com to get more information and to reserve a seat.

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