Out and About for the Bangor Lakes Region of Maine Sept. 26-Oct.2

Out and About for the Sebago Lakes Region of Maine Sept. 19-25
September 18, 2019
Out and About for the Mid Coast Lakes Region of Maine Sept. 26-Oct.2
September 25, 2019

Out and About for the Bangor Lakes Region of Maine Sept. 26-Oct.2

“Bangor Celtic Crossroads Festival 2019,” Bangor

Sept. 26, Thursday, 6-7:45pm, “Jazz Night-Swingmatism,” featuring: Jay Bregman, saxophone; Dan Barrett, trombone; Bob Roman, bass; David Clarke, guitar; Lincoln Blake, keyboard; Mike Borja, drums, free, Bangor Public Library, 145 Harlow Street, Bangor. FMI: 207-947-8336, www.bangorpubliclibrary.org.

Sept. 26-29, Thursday-Sunday, 7pm/Thurs.-Sat, 3pm/Sun, “Woody Guthrie’s American Song,” before Dylan, before Cash, there was Guthrie. Adapted from the songs and writings of America’s premier folk poet, American Song uses Woody Guthrie’s own storytelling to create narrative contexts for his music. As he roamed the country singing such songs as “Bound for Glory”, “This Land is Your Land”, and “Hard Travelin’”, Guthrie gave voice to the powerless. Woody Guthrie’s American Song brings the challenges of the past into striking relief with the issues still faced today. Journey with us as we celebrate an American visionary. Starring Jeremy Sevelovitz (Ring of Fire, Last Dance) and Red Blissett (George Jones)! A Maine Premiere, see site for ticketing details, Penobscot Theatre, Bangor Opera House, 131 Main Street, Bangor. FMI: 207-942-3333, penobscottheatre.org.

Sept. 27, Friday, 7pm, “Bangor Celtic Crossroads Festival 2019,” Irish Fiddler Gerry O’Connor heads the 2019 Bangor Celtic Crossroads Festival. The festival kicks off Friday night with a concert at the Bangor Arts Exchange (189 Exchange St) ballroom at 7 pm with master Irish fiddler Gerry O’Connor and Kevin McElroy. Gerry O’Connor and Kevin McElroy in Concert Celebrated Irish fiddler Gerry OConnor (Skylark, Lá Lugh) will be joined by Freeport, ME-based guitarist and singer, Kevin McElroy. Gerry grew up in a family of musicians, dancers, and singers and plays in the fluid, lyrical style of the great Sligo masters. He has recorded 14 albums and toured with various members of legendary Irish ensembles including Planxty and the Chieftains and is considered one of the great fiddlers of his generation. He has just released his second solo album “Last Night’s Joy”. Guitarist, singer, banjo and fiddle player Kevin McElroy has performed regularly in New England for three decades as a soloist and with such luminaries as Seamus Connolly, Brendan Tonra and Joe Burke. Combined wit, prodigious talent and infectious sincerity promise enjoyment for seasoned aficionados of the music and newcomers alike.” $20/advance, $25/day of, Bangor Arts Exchange, 193 Exchange Street, Bangor. FMI: 207-884-7902, bangorceltic.org.

Sept. 27, Friday, 7pm, “Space Aliens: Looking for Life in the Universe,” does life exist beyond planet Earth? Follow cosmic clues from the ocean floor to a journey across the galaxy! What might extremophiles here tell us about the ability of life to thrive in other locations in our universe? Learn how new discoveries of exoplanets and water in our own solar system plays into this cosmic quest for other life forms beyond our planet. The program includes a tour of the night sky visible here in Maine, $6/adults, $4/under 12, Emera Astronomy Center, 167 Rangeley Road, Orono. FMI: 207-581-1341, astro.umaine.edu.

Sept. 27, Friday, 8pm, “Focus Group,” come out for a night of improvised, comedic theatre performed by a group of friends who have formed an improv troupe, which performs their version of The Harold! A guaranteed night of laughter and fun for all. Beer and wine available for purchase for those 21+, $10, Next Generation Theatre, 39 Center Street, Brewer. FMI: www.nextgenerationtheatre.com.

Sept. 28, Saturday, 7pm, “Bangor Celtic Crossroads Festival 2019,” Ceilidh /Andrew Finn Magill and Dan Faiella Saturday night performance and Scottish Country dancing 7-9pm. Refreshments. Multi-instrumentalist, All-Ireland fiddle finalist and Ropeadope Recording artist Andrew “Finn the fiddler” Magill has watched his career surge ever since the 2016 release of his 2-disc concept album Roots (which debuted at #46 on the Folk DJ charts) & Branches. Raised at The Swannanoa Gathering, Magill has learned and carved out a name for himself in Irish, American and Brazilian music, collaborating with everyone from Rising Appalachia to John Doyle. He has toured five continents and self-released four albums in everything from traditional Irish music to African fusion. Dan Faiella has been building a reputation throughout New England’s traditional music communities for his sensitive and innovative interpretations of traditional tunes and songs from the Celtic traditions. His harp- and banjo-inspired approach to fingerstyle guitar playing brings grace and energy to the music, and his skill as an accompanist for traditional melody players is increasingly in demand. He studied with folk musician David Surette and classical guitarist David Newsam and he has performed with some of the Northeast’s premier fiddlers including Dan Foster, Alden Robinson, and Winifred Horan, among many others. • Scottish Country Dance-Members of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society from the Belfast Maine class will demonstrate and teach the dances. Scottish Country Dance is the traditional social dance form of Scotland. It involves sets of couples dancing a sequence of figures to Jigs, Reels and Strathspeys. The dancers move through the patterns, which are related to those used in English, Irish and Contra dancing, but using specific footwork technique, the pointed toe and foot placement influenced by ballet. The dance form has been standardized by the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society and one can go anywhere in the world and find a class or dance to take part in, $20/advance, $25/day of, $25/adult + child, Unitarian Universalist Church of Bangor, 120 Park Street, Bangor. FMI: 207-884-7902, bangorceltic.org.

Sept. 28, Saturday, 8pm, “Bobby McFerrin,” For decades Bobby McFerrin has broken all the rules. The 10-time Grammy winner has blurred the distinction between pop music and fine art, goofing around barefoot in the world’s finest concert halls, exploring uncharted vocal territory, inspiring a whole new generation of a cappella singers and the beatbox movement. His latest album, spirityouall, is a bluesy, feel-good recording, an unexpected move from the music-industry rebel who singlehandedly redefined the role of the human voice with his a cappella hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” his collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea and the Vienna Philharmonic, his improvising choir Voicestra, and his legendary solo vocal performances. It’s been the quietest and most polite of revolutions. Bobby McFerrin was always an unlikely pop star. He created a lasting ear-worm of a #1 hit early in his career. Then he calmly went back to pursuing his own iconoclastic musical journey, improvising on national television, singing melodies without words, spontaneously inventing parts for 60,000 choral singers in a stadium in Germany, ignoring boundaries of genre, defying all expectations. Most people don’t know that Bobby came from a family of singers. Bobby’s father, the Metropolitan Opera baritone Robert McFerrin, Sr., provided the singing voice for Sydney Poitier for the film version of Porgy & Bess, and his mother Sara was a fine soprano soloist and voice teacher. Bobby grew up surrounded by music of all kinds. He remembers conducting Beethoven on the stereo at three, hiding under the piano while his father and mother coached young singers, dancing around the house to Louie Armstrong, Judy Garland, Etta Jones and Fred Astaire. He played the clarinet seriously as a child, but he began his musical career as a pianist, at the age of 14. He led his own jazz groups, studied composition, toured with the show band for the Ice Follies, played for dance classes. Then one day he was walking home and suddenly he understood that he had been a singer all along. Bobby’s history as an instrumentalist and bandleader is key to understanding his innovative approach to mapping harmony and rhythm (as well as melody) with his voice. “I can’t sing everything at once,” he says, “but I can hint at it so the audience hears even what I don’t sing.” All that pioneer spirit and virtuosity has opened up a great big sky full of new options for singers; so have Bobby’s experiments in multi-tracking his voice (Don’t Worry, Be Happy has seven separate, over-dubbed vocal tracks; Bobby’s choral album VOCAbuLarieS (with Roger Treece) has thousands). But virtuosity isn’t the point. “I try not to “perform” onstage,” says Bobby. “I try to sing the way I sing in my kitchen, because I just can’t help myself. I want audiences to leave the theatre and sing in their own kitchens the next morning. I want to bring audiences into the incredible feeling of joy and freedom I get when I sing.” $41-$76, Collins Center for the Arts, 2 Flagstaff Road, Orono. FMI: 207-581-1755, collinscenterforthearts.com.

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