Download - 2011 American Folk Festival Official Program

2 THE AMERICAN FOLK FESTIVAL ON THE BANGOR WATERFRONT | FRIDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 26-28, 2011

Wow — 10 years! The expression of “time passes fast when youare having fun” could not be more true when you think ofthe American Folk Festival.

Over the 10 years we have:• Presented 193 performing groups, representing over 100 different

cultural traditions, on its stages.• Created an annual economic impact exceeding $9 million each

year.• Gathered the resources of more than 800 volunteers each year.• Showcased diverse components of Maine’s traditional culture;

Native basketmakers, coastal boatbuilders, woodcarvers and manymore.

• Partnered with the Maine Discovery Museum, the Convention &Visitors’ Bureau, the City of Bangor, and other community groups toensure the Festival’s part in our community strategic growth.

I’ll never forget in year one, while looking over the beautiful Penob-scot River, the person next to me was doing the same “the first time.”She commented that this was such a great community and the water-front was just perfect for the National Folk Festival. I asked whereshe was from expecting at least southern Maine or one of the 50states that visit us, she said “Brewer.” I think that when it hit homethat the festival allows folks right here in our region to appreciatewho we are.

Yes, we can’t wait to welcome people from Portland, Maine andPortland, Oregon, Washington, Maine and Washington, D.C. At thesame time we welcome high-school class reunions, UMaine and Hus-son returning students, and those now-common family reunions thatall revolve around the American Folk Festival.

We are constantly reminded by the founders of successful concertseries like Kah-Bang and the waterfront concerts that the AmericanFolk Festival showed that we in this area could pull this off. All ofthis is thanks to all of you — the volunteers, the contributors, andclearly the folks who attend year after year. It’s a fantastic event thatevery single one of us can take great pride in.

Let’s all celebrate the great music, the food, and the dancing — andof course don’t forget those dedicated “bucket heads” let’s do $10 for10 years and ensure that we all have another decade of the greatexperience of the American Folk Festival.

Welcome back to the American Folk Festival — our Festival

John RohmanAFF Board

Welcome to the American Folk Festival and the 10thanniversary of this wonderful event on the BangorWaterfront. As we mark a decade of celebrating diverse

cultures, music, food, dance, and storytelling at the Festival, weare also celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Maine DiscoveryMuseum. It is exciting to see the success and growth of bothorganizations! It is fitting that both are growing up together, for,at their heart, both share a commitment to discovery, explo-ration, and fun.

As one of the founding partners of the Folk Festival, the Dis-covery Museum has been organizing the Children’s and Familyarea at the Festival each year. It is a pleasure to see children andfamilies spending time together by the waterfront, and enjoyingall that the Festival and Bangor have to offer. Now located at theconfluence of the Kenduskeag and Penobscot Rivers, this “meet-ing place” is a perfect spot for families to come together andenjoy hands-on learning about the customs and traditions of dif-ferent cultures.

This year we are taking a slightly different approach to thearea... featuring different “neighborhoods” within a Children’sVillage that will represent some of the cultures that help com-pose our Maine communities. Children of all ages will be able tomake a traditional craft, observe a performance, or participate inan activity associated with those cultures. Also, each child willbe able to pick up their own Passport to bring around the Festivalto get stamped, personalize, and keep as a reminder of their dis-coveries. It is their ticket to exploring the world from right herein Bangor, Maine and, as we like to say at the Discovery Museum,have “too much fun” doing it!

While a great deal has changed in Bangor over the last 10 years,the generosity of its people and supporters of these organiza-tions remains the same. We couldn’t do it without you. Congratu-lations to the American Folk Festival. We are happy to be turning10 with you, and proud to be part of such a remarkable annualcelebration.

Cheers!

Niles ParkerExecutive DirectorMaine Discovery Museum

On behalf of our City Council and citizens, welcometo Bangor. The American Folk Festival on the Ban-gor Waterfront brings the world to Bangor by pre-

senting music and dance from many cultures. Outstand-ing performing groups will share the traditional arts oftheir region and heritage on multiple stages presentingcontinuous music and dance. Also featured are the Folkand Traditional Arts areas where you will find exhibits,demonstrations, and discussions on various Maine FolkArt traditions, food vendors offering ethnic food andregional specialties, and a Folk and Craft marketplaceoffering handcrafted items for sale.

First visited by Estevan Gómez, a Portuguese mariner,in 1525, Bangor was incorporated in 1791 and became acity on February 12, 1834. Our history is closely tied tothe Penobscot River. By the 1850s, the port of Bangor wasone of the busiest on the East Coast, shipping lumber andice throughout the world.

Today, we are transforming our waterfront from theindustrial past to its future as a community focal pointproviding access to the river and a place to gather andcelebrate. Each year, improvements have continued, andthis year is no exception as we work to expand out water-front park downriver with new features and amenities forall to enjoy.

Today, Bangor remains a regional center for commerce,education, government, and the arts. From the Universityof Maine Museum of Art and the Maine Discovery Muse-um in downtown to the Bangor Symphony Orchestra andthe Penobscot Theatre, we offer an exciting range of cul-tural and artistic opportunities for both residents andvisitors — all in the context of a small urban communitywhere everyone knows your name.

Whether you are in Bangor for a day, a week, or a life-time, we urge you to sample what we offer. Enjoy yourvisit to Bangor and the festival.

Susan M. Hawes, Mayor

FOLK|WelcomeOfficials extend warm greetings to residents and visitors for the 2011 American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront

Mark Your Calendars Now!

August 24-26, 2012and

August 23-25, 2013Bangor Waterfront, Bangor, Maine

The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront willreturn to the Penobscot riverfront in August 2012 and 2013.Mark your calendars now for another fantastic weekend of

music, dance, fun and food for the entire family. Both entertainingand educational, the festival is an outstanding blend of arts, musicfestival, hands-on activities and celebration of multiethnic heritage.

To continue The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfrontas a FREE family-friendly event, sponsorships are being sought con-tinually from public and private sources. The festival has receivedpledges of cash and in-kind support from many sources, but we needmore to continue offering this broad array of activities and program-ming.

For information on donating, volunteering, or getting involvedwith The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront, pleasecontact:

The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront40 Harlow Street, Bangor, ME 04401

(207) 992-2630 www.AmericanFolkFestival.com

IndexFolk Festival Events

Map & Schedule/22-23

Sponsor List/21 & 24

Who’s Who at the AFF/20

Folk Info/4

Folk Music/6-31

Folk Food/34

Folk Kids/35-36

Folk Demos/37

Folk Marketplace/41-43

Feature Stories

Donations Needed/4

Please, Leave Your Pets Home/5

Volunteers/5

Ten Years of the AFF/5

Ten Years of the Music/5

This statewide American Folk Festival supplementwas produced and published by the

Editor and Layout:David M. Fitzpatrick

Copy Editing: Janine Pineo

Stories: David M. Fitzpatrick, Sheila Grant, Janine Pineo,Richard Shaw, Greg Westrich, and others.

Photos: Photos from the Bangor Daily News. Manyphotos provided by performers and other photographers.

Cover: Bob Powers

Center Map: Shelley Sund, Bangor Daily News

Sales: Bangor Daily News Advertising Sales staff

Special Thanks to Heather McCarthy,executive director of the American Folk Festival.

If you’d like to participate in next year’sAFF supplement, contact Mike Kearney

at (207) 990-8212 or [email protected].

If you’d like to communicate your organization’s messageto a broad audience, either locally or statewide, consider

running your own custom publication.

THE AMERICAN FOLK FESTIVAL ON THE BANGOR WATERFRONT | FRIDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 26-28, 2011 3

COLLINS CENTER FOR THE ARTS


Welcome to the 2011 American FolkFestival on the Bangor Waterfront,the tenth year of an annual celebra-tion of authentic traditional arts. Wehope that you enjoy this year’s Festi-val, and that you’ll make your plansto experience this grand event withthe help of the information in thisprogram guide.

From 2002 to 2004, the city of Ban-gor was host to the 64th, 65th, and66th National Folk Festivals, cele-brating traditional performing artsfrom cultures across the globe andentertaining tens of thousands ofpeople each year. After a very suc-cessful three-year run, the communi-ty launched the American Folk Festi-val on the Bangor Waterfront in 2005,carrying on the tradition establishedby the National Folk Festival.

The nonprofit Bangor Folk Festi-val produces the AFF. The produc-tion is in partnership with the city ofBangor, Eastern Maine DevelopmentCorporation, the Maine DiscoveryMuseum, and the Maine Folklife Cen-ter at the University of Maine. TheAFF has proven that authentic tradi-tional arts have a long-lasting placein the heart of Bangor.

This year’s American Folk Festivalfeatures 16 performing groups foryour enjoyment.

Plus, mark your calendars forAugust 24-26, 2012, for next year’sAmerican Folk Festival on the Ban-gor Waterfront.

FFeessttiivvaall AAddmmiissssiioonnThere is no admission fee to attend

any of the festival’s programs,including performances, demonstra-tions, and children’s activities. How-ever, presenting the festival free-of-charge costs nearly $1 million, andwe need your help to cover these pro-

duction costs. The suggested dona-tion is $10/day per person, $20/dayper family. When you see the Dona-tion Buckets, please consider a gift tosupport the event!

BBuucckkeett VVoolluunntteeeerrssThe volunteers who make up the

Bucket Brigade and the DonationStations are a happy corps of com-munity volunteers who encouragefestivalgoers to support the Ameri-can Folk Festival. The Donation Sta-tions are at the two main Festivalentrances (at Railroad and Washing-ton Streets). The Bucket Brigadetravels throughout the Festival site.Please drop your contribution (sug-gested donation: $10 per person perday) in the bucket to help cover thecost of the festival.

FFeessttiivvaall PPaarrkkiinngg People familiar with downtown

Bangor are invited to park in anystreet-side parking, surface lots, orthe Pickering Square ParkingGarage. Or you may want to use theconvenient parking at the Bass Parkcomplex off Buck Street. Parkingfees are $8 per vehicle per day, or $20per vehicle for a three-day parkingpass. The Folk Festival is pleased tobe working with the Anah Shrine tofacilitate parking at Bass Park. Onehundred percent of your parking feesupports these two Bangor area non-profit organizations: the Second Sec-tion of Anah Shrine and the Ameri-can Folk Festival.

Free shuttle service will transportpeople from Bass Park to the Festivalsite on the Penobscot River water-front.

BBiiccyycclleessFree bicycle parking will be avail-

able on the Folk Festival site in a spe-cial bicycle parking area overseen byFolk Festival volunteers.

Remember that Maine law requiresa headlight and rear red reflectorsvisible from at least 500 feet whenriding at night. Flashing taillightsand light-colored and/or reflectiveclothing are highly recommended.The law requires helmets for anyoneunder 16 but everyone should wear ahelmet to prevent head injury.

IInnffoorrmmaattiioonn BBooootthhss,,FFeessttiivvaall SScchheedduulleess

General festival information, theschedule of performances, and areainformation will be available at fourinformation booths: near the DanceTent, near the Railroad Stage portal,near the Food Court, and near theChildren’s Village.

WWhhaatt ttoo BBrriinnggYou may want to bring comfortable

walking shoes, sunscreen, and sun-glasses. A credit card may come inhandy to buy festival memorabiliaand CDs of performing artists.

Collapsible chairs and a blanketwould come in handy. Some stageswill have seating, but others, such asthe Railroad Stage, require that youbring your seating.

Don’t forget your prescription med-ications and, just in case, bring yourinsurance and Medicare cards.

WWhhaatt iiff iitt RRaaiinnss??Tents cover many festival stages

and presentations. If the weatherappears threatening, bring anumbrella. The show will go on, rainor shine, unless there is a concernfor public safety.

PPeettssPlease do not bring pets (other

than service animals) to the Ameri-can Folk Festival. The large crowds— many of whom will be seated onthe ground — will appreciate youranimals staying at home. Your petswill be more comfortable at homethan in the midst of the Festival

crowds. Please read the pets article onthe facing page.

SSmmookkee--FFrreeee,, PPlleeaasseeYou can help everyone enjoy the

Folk Festival even more this year byhelping to keep the air smoke-free.By not lighting up, you’ll be givingchildren and those with breathingdifficulties a break, and you’ll behelping everyone breathe easier,including yourself.

Smoking is prohibited under anyFestival tent, and in the food courtsand picnic areas. Throughout otherareas of the Festival, please be cour-teous and refrain from smokingwhen in a crowd of people.

MMeeddiiccaall aannddEEmmeerrggeennccyy SSeerrvviicceess

Minor medical emergencies will betreated at the First Aid Center, locat-ed on the road that leads to theDance Tent. Eastern Maine Health-care Systems sponsors and coordi-nates the First Aid Center.

LLoosstt PPeeoopplleeChildren who lose track of their

caretakers should find a festival vol-unteer or staff member, who willcontact security escort them to theFirst Aid Center (on the road leadingdown to the Dance Tent). All lost peo-ple will be directed to the First AidCenter unless their parties havemade arrangements to meet else-

where.

RReessttrroooommssPortable restroom facilities and

hand-washing stations are located atnumerous spots throughout the festi-val site. See map for facilities closestto you.

HHaannddiiccaappppeeddAAccccoommmmooddaattiioonnss

Handicapped parking facilities willbe available at Bass Park.

Several stage performances anddemonstrations will be translated inAmerican Sign Language. See theschedule in the center of this pro-gram or check at an informationbooth.

BBaabbyy--CChhaannggiinngg SSttaattiioonnThe Festival’s baby-changing sta-

tion is located near the Children’sVillage.

RReettuurrnnaabblleessFor your convenience, there are

bins for returnable bottles and cans(and other recyclables) placedthroughout the festival.

SScchheedduullee SSuubbjjeeccttttoo CChhaannggee

Programs and performances wereaccurate at press time, but couldchange. Check at information boothsfor performance and schedulingupdates.

FOLK|InfoWhat to know and where to go to enjoy the 2011 American Folk Festival

?

BY DAVID M. FITZPATRICKBANGOR DAILY NEWS

There’s nothing more key thandonations to keep the American FolkFestival happening. In addition tothe strong support from festivalsponsorships that get it all rolling,the money kicked in to the on-siteBucket Brigade during the festival isvital, and AFF Executive DirectorHeather McCarthy said everyoneattending should keep in mind justhow vital it is.

“It’s really important that they con-sider that suggested donation,” shesaid. “It’s the last piece of the puzzlethat needs to fall into place to make

this a successful event. We’ve got theartists lined up. We’ve got the soundlined up. We’ve got the volunteers onboard. We are counting so much onthe festival-goers who come to theevent giving us that last push of sup-port — in the Bucket Brigade, at theT-shirt sales tent — all those placeswhere the festival is counting on thatrevenue, we absolutely want to repli-cate the success of last year. And alot of people helped us have that suc-cess. We just really need them to dothat again.”

Consider that you’ll see as many asall 16 of the performers this year.What would you pay if you saw themindividually? If you spent $20 per act

— a highly unlikely low amount —you’d spend $320 per person. TheAFF suggests a donation of $10 perperson per day, or $20 per family.That’s an incredibly small amountfor the wide variety of acts you’regoing to see.

If $10 went into the Bucket Brigadefor every individual who attendedthe festival, the festival would notonly pay for about two-thirds of itsentire production but pay down exist-ing debt and set things up for nextyear. And if every person put in $10per day, the entire festival this yearcould be paid for. That’s a dream thatwould be neat to try to make cometrue.

DONATIONS NEEDED!



It began as three years as theNational Folk Festival, spearheadedby the National Council for the Tra-ditional Arts, and then became theAmerican Folk Festival. And it’shard to believe it’s been 10 yearssince the first folk festival on theBangor Waterfront, but it’s a mile-stone Executive Director HeatherMcCarthy says is happily attained.

“Back in 2000, when we startedtalking about bringing the festival toBangor, we had a vision that it wouldcontinue after the three years of theNational,” McCarthy said. “But Idon’t really think anybody knew justthe impact it would have.”

There have only been two weatherglitches in all that time. In year two,a massive deluge hit — for about 20minutes — then it was over. The nextoccurred in year eight, 2009, when anentire Saturday was rained out. Thestaff took emergency measures torearrange stages, reschedule per-formance, and give the people theirfestival.

It was a frightening day. In its firstseven years, the festival had operatedat a loss, and the organization was indebt. Sponsorships were down, andfestivalgoer donations were vital.With the bulk of the festival rainedout, it looked as if the chances for

that were shot.But something magical happened.

That year, despite the rainout, dona-tions from festivalgoers hit a recordhigh. It was as if the people realizedthe gravity of the situation. And thefollowing year, total donationsexceeded the festival costs for thefirst time. The festival not only paidfor itself but was able to pay downsome outstanding debt.

“A lot of people stepped forward tohelp us make it last year,” McCarthysaid. “We hope that they’re going tostep forward again, because thisevent is just as great, just as impres-sive, just as powerful this year as itwas last year.”

Quality has been the theme: quali-ty of the artists, the diversity, thesound system, the chair layout at thedance tent, the volunteers, the infor-mation the volunteers have. It hasbeen quality in everything littledetail that has contributed towardsthe overall masterpiece that is theAmerican Folk Festival.

“When quality is one of thosethreads that runs through it all,that’s a great thing to always be com-ing back to,” McCarthy said.

Board Chair Maria Baeza looks for-ward to another 10 years. “Ten yearsfrom now, if the quality of music andthe celebration of community andthe coming together of neighbors —if we’re still doing that, that’s as

good as it gets,” Baeza said. “To me,the essence of music on the water-front, eight or nine hundreds volun-teers from the community, peoplecoming together under this beautifulBangor sky, rubbing shoulders withwhoever that person is next to them,and enjoying music from all over theworld — what is there to improve on,except to continue it?”

Baeza, involved with the AFF sincethe beginning, says she hopes thatthe festival helps people becomemore relaxed and open to other cul-tures. “I think that, with that lan-guage of music, you get close tosomebody and... you get to experi-ence the difference, but you also getto experience the sameness.”

Connecting across those differentcultures is what the folk festival is allabout, and Baeza hopes it hasallowed people to experience therichness of other cultures. “I thinkout of that comes a deeper under-standing,” she said.

Baeza was ecstatic over last year’sfinancial success, because she saysthe festival truly belongs to the com-munity. “Last year I felt like the com-munity got the message: This is ourfestival, and we’re going to sustainit,” she said. “We’re going to sustainit with our attendance, we’re going tosustain it with our financial support.And so, to me, that was a great suc-cess, and that was wonderful to see.”

BY JANINE PINEOBANGOR DAILY NEWS

It all comes back to the music.No matter the language, custom or instru-

ment, no matter whether it rains or shines,no matter if you shop or eat, our folk festi-val revolves around the sounds.

This is the 10th festival here on the evolv-ing Bangor Waterfront, and I have attendedeach one, marveling at the sheer ingenuitywe humans have if we nurture talents andrespect cultures.

That first year of the National Folk Festi-val in 2002 was a curiosity for me. I had noidea what to expect when I marched downMain Street and then along a rough andbumpy waterfront to find a swelling crowdat the Heritage Stage. I found myself frontand center in the audience and satenthralled as the first performer, BillKirchen, launched into “dieselbilly,” arockin’, riffed-filled show that set the bar ofexcellence we’ve come to expect.

The fun continued with The Papantla Fly-ers, who flung themselves off an 80-foot pole

to twirl and spin their way down to theground — all set to religious music based onAztec culture.

At the end of the first wildly successfulfestival, I found myself shouting “zydeco”to the infectious music of Nathan and theZydeco Cha Chas.

I still hear it in my head.When the second festival rolled out along

the waterfront in 2003, I discovered I had athing for French-influenced song, loving theAcadian group Barachois and reveling inCajun with the teenage band La Bande Feu-follet.

I also felt the blues up and down my spinewith Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown.

And I fell in love with a cowboy. Not justany cowboy, but a lanky, Wrangler-wearing,bespectacled, yodeling cowboy. WylieGustafson sang his way into my heart. Hecalled me ma’am when I bumped into him (Iswear it was an accident), I introducedmyself and we talked. I went to all his per-formances I could manage over three days

The American Folk Festival at 10

Ten years of the great music


The American Folk Festival wantsto remind visitors that the festival isnot the place to bring pets of anykind. And the festival has seen themall, including a leashed lizard oneyear. But, of course, dogs are themost popular pets to bring. AFFExecutive Director HeatherMcCarthy noted that while the festi-val site is big, when you pack inthousands of people, it can get tight.

“It’s not so big that we’ve really gotroom for dogs to do all the thingsthat dogs do — with room for thehumans, too,” McCarthy said.

“There’s just not a whole lot of elbowroom, particularly at the stages, forthe dogs to be comfortable, to be safe,and for the people around them to besafe from deposits on the ground.”

There’s not just the risk of step-ping in something you’d rather not;many people sit on the ground, andnobody wants to sit in dog waste,whether solid or liquid.

There are also safety issues. Yourdog may be absolutely fine in a lessstressful or less crowded place, butfor a dog, the festival is an over-whelming world of people, surprises,noises and changes. “It’s just terriblyunpredictable, and it’s really notgreat for the dog to have to put upwith that,” McCarthy said.

Of course, service animals areallowed. But when it comes to pets,they just aren’t right for the situa-tion. Other than authorized serviceanimals, leave the pets home.

McCarthy said that many peoplehave good intentions when theydecide to bring Fido along, butthey often don’t consider that ifproblems arise, they can’t justtake him indoors or send him tothe doghouse.

“And we certainly don’t wantpeople showing up and then decid-

ing to leave the dog in the car,”McCarthy said. “That’s absolutelynot an option either. So please, leavethe dog at home.”

Leave Your Pets at Home!


While you’re at the festivalthis year, you’ll see volunteerseverywhere. You’ll be able toidentify them by their festival T-shirts. They might be carryingbuckets as part of the donation-seeking Bucket Brigade, work-ing the various booths sellinghats and T-shirts and bottledwater, or working the stages tohelp the crowds and the per-formers. But what you might notrealize is just how many ofthem there are, and just what ittakes to pull this incredible fes-tival off — and that’s some-where in the neighborhood of

800 to 900 volunteers.“We have hundreds of volun-

teers contributing their timeand their skills and their talentto making this festival happenin so many different ways,” saidAFF Executive Director HeatherMcCarthy. “They’re all gettingexcited, they’re all geared up,and they’re all coming togetherfestival week and festival week-end to make this thing happen.We appreciate every single mem-ber of that team.”

Mary Turner, who has beenthe volunteer coordinator sincethe second year, got involved thefirst year, and worked the Buck-et Brigade. “I was very nervousabout it,” she recalled. “I wanted

to do a really good job, and Iwasn’t even really sure whata good job was with it,because it was our first yearand we didn’t really knowwhat to expect.”

She was told the BucketBrigade goal was $12,000 —which worried her. “I waslike scared to death like Ican’t even tell you,” she said.“Before the next day, we hadsurpassed that, and I wasover the moon. People thatcome here are very generous,too — that come to watch it.It’s awesome. It’s an awesomething.”

Last year, the donations —collected by the BucketBrigade and in the SuperBuckets — topped $100,000.That’s the level of supportthe festival needs to see every

year.It all comes down to volun-

teers, Turner says, and it takes800 to 900 people who give theirtime. “We could not do it with-out them,” she said. “And wehave a great return — these peo-ple come back year after yearafter year. They love it, theyhave a great time, and… theyreally are the faces of the festi-val.”

One thing you’ll notice at theAFF is that all the festivalgoersseem to be having a good time.But the same is true of the vol-unteers who are working the fes-tival, who are also enjoying itjust as much. These folks don’thave to give up their time to vol-unteer; they could still attendand enjoy the festival withoutworking it. That’s what hasimpressed Turner so much for10 years.

“I am very amazed by the waythat this runs,” she said. “Wehave a great team of volunteerleaders that come back yearafter year after year, and that isimmensely valued. And they’rewilling to do just about anythingto make this thing go. They’rejust remarkable.

“They come because they loveit, and they want it to be suc-cessful — they own it,” she said.“I’ve learned that just aboutanybody can help, and thatthere’s something for everybodyto do. I think if you get the rightbase of people to get it startedand you have enthusiasm, it’scontagious. And it just spreads.”

All this fun requires 800+ volunteers

See MUSIC, Page 32

WERU to broadcast theFestival on the radio

If you just can’t get to the festival, WERU at 89.9 in Blue Hilland 99.9 in Bangor will be broadcasting from the PenobscotStage, as it has for years.

“WERU-FM Community Radio is very excited to broadcastand stream live the American Folk Festival once again,” saidGeneral Manager Matt Murphy. “This year we’ll continue totransmit the music of the Penobscot stage over the airwavesand Internet. The tremendous musical and cultural diversi-ty is always a major summer highlight for the radio stationand our audience, and our partnership with the AmericanFolk Festival is indeed a special one.”


FOLK|MusicThe American Folk Festival presents a diverse mix of artists performing song and dance

2011 Index ofPerformers

BBiinngg XXiiaaChinese Guzheng

Page 26

TThhee BBrrootthheerrhhoooodd SSiinnggeerrssAfrican-American

a cappella GospelPage 30

EEddeenn BBrreennttBlues and Boogie-Woogie Piano

HHoott CClluubb ooff CCoowwttoowwnnWestern Swing

Page 18

LLeerrooyy TThhoommaass aannddTThhee ZZyyddeeoocc RRooaaddrruunnnneerrss

ZydecoPage 15

LLooss TTrreess rreeyyeessMexican Trio Romantico

Page 27

NNuunnaammttaa YYuupp’’iikk EEsskkiimmooSSiinnggeerrss aanndd DDaanncceerrss

Native American Central Yup’ikPage 16

PPeeddrriittoo MMaarrttiinneezz GGrroouuppAfro-CubanPage 29

RRéévveeiilllloonnss!!QuébécoisPage 14

RRhhyytthhmm ooff RRaajjaasstthhaannRajasthani Music & Dance

Page 12

RRiicchh IInn TTrraaddiittiioonnTraditional Bluegrass

Page 10

SSaammbbaa NNggooCongolesePage 31

SSééaammuuss CCoonnnnoollllyywwiitthh DDaammiieenn CCoonnnnoollllyy,, FFeelliixx DDoollaann,,

aanndd KKeevviinn DDooyylleeIrish

Page 6

SSttooooggeess BBrraassss BBaannddNew Orleans Parade Band

Page 11

SSuuppeerr CChhiikkaannBlues

Page 28

ZZiikkrraayyaattEgyptian Music

Page 25

The American Folk Festival onthe Bangor Waterfront celebratesthe rich traditional folk, ethnic andtribal cultures of the people ofMaine and the United States. Thenation’s earliest immigrants andsettlers brought the music, arts andcustoms of their countries of origin

with them to their new homeland,where they encountered the land’sFirst Nations.

These peoples worked to maintaintheir unique traditions while at thesame time adapting to new condi-tions and a rich confluence of cul-tures. Those musical traditions that

we think of as quintessentially“American”— jazz, blues, gospel,bluegrass, old-time, Tex-Mex, Cajun,zydeco, cowboy, and others—springfrom the interaction and intertwin-ing of these varied cultural roots.

Today, renewed immigration froman even wider range of nations

brings new sounds, dances, foodsand customs to enrich our Ameri-can cultural landscape. The Ameri-can Folk Festival celebrates thisdiversity through performances byour nation’s finest traditionalartists.

Séamus ConnollyIrishNorth Yarmouth, Maine

SSaattuurrddaayy:: 1:15 p.m. (Railroad); 4:15 p.m. (Two Rivers,Violin Traditions, Connolly and Dolan).

SSuunnddaayy:: 3 p.m. (Two Rivers); 5:15 p.m. (Penobscot)


So you like fiddling music, huh? You’veprobably never heard it played like this.

Séamus Connolly, a master Irish folk fiddlerliving in North Yarmouth, Maine, transcendsjust playing Irish folk. There’s a deep, multi-layered backstory behind what Connolly doesthat goes beyond the marvelous tunes you’llhear him play in Bangor.

Watching him, you cannot help beingamazed. He makes it look so easy, but the com-plexity of what you hear says otherwise. Con-nolly is fully involved; his hands move likelightning, his body rocks to the tune, and hisfoot keeps time. He works his bow in a mind-bending variety of ways, weaving togethercountless styles into one brilliant perform-ance.

And when he plays, his face seems to conveythe entire folk history of Ireland — whetherhe’s seriously immersed in a classic piece orsmiling as he belts out a jig that makes youwant to leap up and dance. His performanceevokes images of the Emerald Isle — of cas-

tles and rolling hills, or rockbound coasts andpastoral scenes, of hard-working men andbeautiful Gaelic lasses.

All that’s not bad for a guy who’s deaf in hisleft ear — his fiddle ear. He has to turn hishead differently these days so he’s able toproperly hear what he’s playing. It doesn’tslow him down.

“I had a friend who was blind — a greatmusician, a great flute player, a great singerand whistle player,” Connolly recalled. “Iasked him one time what it was like beingblind. And he said to me, ‘Séamus, wouldn’t itbe worse if I was deaf ? I couldn’t hear themusic.’”

GGrroowwiinngg UUpp iinn IIrreellaannddThat makes sense to Connolly, who learned

to play by ear while growing up in Killaloe,County Clare. Connolly came from a musicalhome; his father played the flute and the whis-tle, and his mother the accordion and piano;she could also “scratch a few tunes on the fid-dle.” But he primarily learned by listening to78-rpm records of fiddle masters, but sloweddown so he could try to visualize what the fid-dler was doing with his bow and his fingers.After 10 months of earnest work, Connollythought he’d gotten pretty good. He had, butwhen he played for a fiddler at his uncle’s bar-ber shop, he discovered he was doing it allwrong.

“I thought that I didn’t have to use my little

Eden BrentBlues and Boogie-Woogie PianoGreenville, Miss.

FFrriiddaayy:: 9:30 p.m. (Penobscot).

SSaattuurrddaayy:: 4:15 p.m. (Penobscot); 5:15 p.m. (Penobscot, Saturday Night, SundayMorning: Blues & Gospel Traditions).

SSuunnddaayy:: 1:15 (Penobscot); 3 p.m. (Railroad).


Listening to Eden Brent isn’t like any typical musical experi-ence. Her versatile voice — husky, confident, and rich — grabsyou fast and takes you for a ride. At times she’s breathy and sul-try, evoking images of smoky bars and seductive women; at oth-ers it’s explosive and soaring, bringing to mind roaring, dance-filled juke joints. It’s full of lush, raw talent, delivered as if she’snot even trying. Imagine a mix of Norah Jones and ShemekiaCopeland with a whole lot of Janis Joplin, and you’ll have agood start to what she’s about. And she’s more real, more power-ful, and better than any of them. And it’s a bonus that this ele-gant Southern lady is drop-dead gorgeous.

It isn’t just her singing, because this lady knows her wayaround a piano. Her elastic style changes from one song to thenext, or even from verse to chorus. Brent easily encircles a hostof genres in her singing and playing, and if you aren’t spell-bound by her, you’re just not paying attention. It’s practically

“My riches are what’s inmy heart fromthe music.”

—SéamusConnolly

See CONNOLLY, Page 9

See BRENT, Page 8

“I feel like it belongs tome and I belong to it.”

—Eden Brent, on her music






If our landscapes aren’t painted,If our stories aren’t told,

If our dramas aren’t expressed,If our music isn’t heard,

what good is having money?

Bangor Savings Bank is proud to sponsorthe American Folk Festival.

The creativity and spirit of Maine’s musicians, performers, and artists transcends economic benefit to Maine.It makes us feel good. And proud to be from Maine.

And that’s worth a lot.

www.bangor.com 1.877.Bangor1 Member FDIC


impossible not to succumb to theinfectious experience that is EdenBrent.

If her latest album, “Ain’t Got NoTroubles,” of which she wrote eightof 12 tracks, is any indication, herperformance at the American FolkFestival will shine. She’ll hook youwith real stories in many styles, fromclassic blues in “Blues All Over” tothe bittersweet ballad of love’s end in“Leave Me Alone.” There’s a power-ful tale of deep and beautiful opti-mism in “Beyond My BrokenDreams,” while the iconic “Let’s Boo-gie-Woogie” may just qualify as theofficial theme song of boogie-woogiemusic. We can only hope she’ll beltthat one out on the Bangor Water-front. (She takes requests from theaudience. I highly recommend askingfor it… or anything off this album.)

Whether melancholy blues or toe-tapping jazz, deep soul or snappypop, Brent does them all with herunique brand of performing. Shebrings her talents formidably to bearand makes sure you get a dose ofwhat life in her world is like, justnorth of Greenville, Miss., alongHighway 1 in a bend of the Missis-sippi River. That’s a few hundredmiles from New Orleans, but withher voice, at times it seems muchcloser.

Brent began her career through

kitchen-table sing-alongs with a fam-ily steeped in music. Her father wasinto country, a big fan of the likes ofHank Williams and Marty Robbins.Her mother was a big-band singer inthe Fifties. “There was a good bit ofmusic history to explore,” Brentrecalled. “Daddy had a backgroundin country… and Mom knew all theclassic jazz tunes.”

Although her father was a huge fanof blues great Big Bill Broonzy, thefamily didn’t get much into blues.That was okay. “When you considerthe classic and traditional stuff,there’s a good bit of crossover withearly country music and early bluesmusic,” Brent said.

Brent’s family was fairly well-off;her grandfather had started a busi-ness in the 1950s that became one ofthe largest privately owned river-transportation companies in thecountry. Their decent financialmeans that enabled young Eden totake piano lessons and go off toNorth Texas State at age 17. She hadno specific designs to be an enter-tainer, perhaps going into musicteaching — but fate had other plansin the form of her partnership withbluesman Abie “Booglaoo” Ames.

Boogaloo, born sometime by 1921(nobody knows for sure), first madehis mark in Detroit from the 1930suntil the 1960s, including earlyrecordings at Motown Records. Heeventually followed his love, Gracie,to Mississippi, and after her death inthe 1980s settled in Greenville, wherehe became a local legend.

Brent saw him perform at variousvenues, including her sister’s wed-ding reception. And in 1984, after onesemester in college, she realized sheneeded more than just an academicmusic education — she needed toimmerse herself in real experience.Boogaloo was her first thought, eventhough she’d never considered itbefore. “As youngster, it probablynever occurred to me to ever askhim,” she said. “I held him in a cer-tain high esteem, and would havebeen intimidated to even inquire.”

She wanted a one-on-one appren-ticeship, and she got it. “Boogaloowas able to take that academic educa-tion I was getting and put a practicalapplication to it, which made moresense to me,” she said, noting thatthe two forms complemented eachother perfectly, and shaped her intothe artist she is today. It was the bestof both worlds, and “I feel really for-tunate to have had that,” she said.

She worked with Boogaloo whilehome from college on breaks, when-ever she could get with him. Aftercollege, she returned to Mississippi,and they worked together steadilyand soon began performing together.The two formed a powerful bond thattranscended teacher and student andwent beyond fellow musicians.“Music school taught me to think,”Brent said, “but Boogaloo taught meto boogie-woogie.”

He was always teaching her. Therewas always a moment during a showwhen he’d require her to do some-thing by herself. That was part of the

master/pupil relationship, and sheneeded that — but Boogaloo, shesaid, needed it, too. With no childrento whom he could pass on his knowl-edge, and no students who had stuckaround beyond a few lessons, he tookhis protégé’s dedication seriously.

Brent also became his caretaker —helping secure higher fees for Booga-loo’s appearances, take care of hisfinances, and just get around. “Ilooked out for his basic needs: food,shelter, and plenty of whiskey — andsometimes the whiskey came first,”she said with a laugh.

Boogaloo’s death in February 2002,after 16 years with him, was very dif-ficult for her, but she saw the silverlining in that dark cloud. “Boogaloowas preparing me to continue with-out him, I’m just sure of that,” shesaid. “It was emotionally difficult,but he had prepared me — and, in away, I had prepared myself.”

Shortly before his death, the pairworked together on a South African-produced documentary about the Mis-sissippi Delta, which helped immor-talize him. “He didn’t just fade away,”she said. “He went out being celebrat-ed, which was important to me… Iwanted him to be celebrated and rec-ognized for the great musician andthe great person that he was.”

Despite all she learned from him,and her reverence for the man, heraim is to not be a carbon copy ofBoogaloo but to take what she hadlearned and continue it, with her

unique style, into the 21st century —not mimicking what he was, but giv-ing her the tools to apply her uniquestyle and make the music her own. “Ifeel like it belongs to me and I belongto it,” she said. “It’s a way to expressmyself and hopefully express some-thing that the audience needs orwants to hear… Music is about shar-ing — it’s much more of a conversa-tion when I’m performing than amonologue. If the audience is notwith me, if they’re not participating,then I’m not enjoying it in quite thesame way.”

Brent has performed across thecountry and around the world. In2006, the Blues Foundation namedher the winner of the InternationalBlues Challenge. She visited Maine’sMidcoast in 2009 when she played atthe North Atlantic Blues Festival,and she’s excited about returning tothe Pine Tree State.

“I love Maine… It’s beautiful, and itreally has just some of the nicest,most down-to-Earth people — espe-cially that deep in Yankee country!”she said with a laugh. “I’m reallylooking forward to coming to Bangor.”

For more about Eden, visitwww.EdenBrent.com. To learn more abouther and Boogaloo, check out the 1999 PBS

documentary “Boogaloo & Eden: Sustainingthe Sound” and the 2002 production “Forty

Days in the Delta,” by viewing clips onYouTube from Boogaloo & Eden Sustaining

the Sound.

BrentContinued from Page 6 “Music school taught me to think, but

Boogaloo taught me to boogie-woogie.”

Photos courtsy of Eden Brent


finger when I played, and of coursethe little finger’s a big part of play-ing the music, so I had to start allover again,” he said. “I also had thefiddle tuned in fourths instead offifths.”

This minor setback didn’t slow himdown. Before his 13th birthday, Con-nolly entered his first Irish NationalFiddle Championship — and won. Helater won nine more in various cate-gories, including two senior titles, afeat unmatched by anyone before orsince. He also won the coveted Fid-dler of Dooney title, a competitionnamed for a poem by famous Irishpoet William Butler Yeats.

His success solidified him as one ofIreland’s premiere fiddlers, and wasable to meet and play with many ofhis musical heroes.

“It was an exciting time,” he said.“But for me it wasn’t just about win-ning competitions. For me it wasabout learning and meeting fiddlersand other musicians from around thecountry… It was about learningmore about the tradition.”

He worked hard to learn all hecould. He brought a reel-to-reelrecorder to the competitions so hecould listen to the players later, andin fact still has those recordingstoday — and they’re important,because they reach back to earliergenerations. One woman he record-ed, a fiddler named Nell Galvin, hadbeen born in 1887; his recordings fea-ture her playing slow airs, jigs, andreels. Another, Mary Ann Daly, wasborn in 1866 and sung many songs.She lived in his hometown, and shewas 90 years old when he recordedher. Some of those songs areunknown today; others are knownbut with verses otherwise lost to his-tory. (More on that later.)

His playing emulated the greatmusicians he heard on his records,such as Paddy Killoran, James Mor-rison, and Michael Coleman. Like

Connolly, other Irish fiddlers emulat-ed these masters, which kept themusic alive but caused regionalstyles to fade. Connolly endeavoredto learn many styles, and to try tokeep them alive through his playing,adapting many different bowingstyles instead of working with justone.

But when he was growing up, folkmusic wasn’t a popular thing. “Iwouldn’t be seen with a fiddle in myhand. I’ve have it under my over-coat,” he recalled. “It was almost likewe were ashamed to play.”

Tough treatment for what some ofthe higher-class folks called “bogmusic.” But as embarrassed as youngSéamus was, it didn’t slow him down,because he was hungry for it. “That’swhat I wanted to do — that’s whatI’ve been doing,” he said. “I love it.Now I’m teaching it, passing it on, sothat’s what I enjoy.”

CCoommiinngg ttoo AAmmeerriiccaaConnolly came to America in 1972

on an Irish musical tour and met hisuncle, who had immigrated here in1954, and learned some tunes fromhim. He liked the country so muchhe decided to apply for immigration.He immigrated in 1976, and eventual-ly became a U.S. citizen.

In 1988 and 1989, he participated inthe National Council for the Tradi-tional Arts’ “Masters of the Folk Vio-lin” tours, touring with such folks asKenny Baker, Josh Graves, ClaudeWilliams, and the now-famous Alli-son Krauss.

But it was at the first year of thefolk festival in Lowell, Mass. in 1986when he met a lovely young womannamed Chrysandra Walter. She wasthe superintendent at the LowellNational Historical Park, and shewas instrumental in getting the Low-ell festival started. She was totallyenamored with folk music and, at thetime, another musician — but, in theend, Connolly got the girl.

He and “Sandy” were together for24 years, but soon after she retired asdeputy director for the NationalParks Service in the Northeast in2006, and they moved to Maine. She

had been diagnosed with cancer in2002, and her condition deterioratedslowly over the following years.Sandy died in March 2011, leaving agaping hole in Connolly’s life.

“When we met, she said, ‘Baby, allyou have to do when you’re with meis breathe,’” he said. “She did every-thing for me. I miss her so much.”

In the old days in Ireland, whensomeone passed, loved ones wouldmourn for a whole year, but Sandywouldn’t want him to do that. “She’dbe mad if I didn’t play,” he said.“When times are rough, there’ll bethe music that brings you into awhole new place in your life, even ifit’s only for an hour. You go up toyour room and you play, and you takeyour fiddle out, or you put on arecording. It takes you away fromwhat you’re thinking when thingsare kind of tough. The music isgreat. It’s great for the soul.”

He did a festival in Montana inearly July, and is eager to meet theaudiences in Bangor.

“She’d be after me to get out thereand play and teach,” he said. “Shewas a great educator and she alwayswanted me to teach these kids, teachthese people, pass on what you know.And so I’m ready to go again.”

Today, he’s the director of theBoston College Irish Studies Music,Song and Dance Program, anAdjunct Professor in the MusicDepartment, and the director of theGaelic Roots Music, Song, Dance andLecture Series. But his commitmentto Irish folk music goes beyond his

performances and teachings.And remember all those recordings

he made as a youth? He’s working onan ambitious project to collectrecordings with music notation andthe history of the tunes and songs toassemble perhaps the most authorita-tive collection on Irish traditionalmusic ever. It will feature digitalrecordings of many of the best-known musicians and singers in thegenre. It’s still in the planning stages— interested publishers, take note —but he views it as a vital project tocarve those traditions in stone, andperhaps generate scholarship moneyfor eager students of Irish music.

“I love what I do,” Connolly said.“I get enjoyment out of what I do. Itputs me in a different place. I loveIreland, I love the people from whomI learned it, and I wanted to be ableto pass that along through my teach-ing — and I think that’s important.”

VViissiittiinngg BBaannggoorrConnolly will be joined in Bangor

with his nephew, accordionistDamien Connolly. Damien’s father,Connolly’s brother, is a renownedaccordion maker in Ireland, andDamien has become quite a musi-cian. Damien lives in Connecticutand also teaches.

Felix Dolan of New York City willjoin the pair on piano — anotherchildhood hero of young SéamusConnolly. “Felix is probably the mostrespected piano player in the countryfor piano accompaniment with Irishtraditional musicians,” Connolly

said, calling Dolan ‘the Great Gentle-man of the Piano.’

And dancer Kevin Doyle will alsobe there to round out the Irish per-formance. “[He’s] a wonderful Irishdancer with old and new dancesteps,” Connolly said. “He is steepedin tradition. He learned his dancingfrom his Irish mother. The audiencewill love him.”

Connolly is excited about comingto Bangor, and hopes everyone enjoysthe jigs, the reels, the hornpipes, theslow pieces, and the airs.

“I’d like them to get a feeling forwhat the traditional music is about,and maybe if they can get enjoymentfrom at least one of the tunes, I’d behappy,” he said. “If there’s one piecethat we play that they [say] — ‘Oh,my God, that was beautiful, wherecan I hear that again?’ — that’s whatI would like.

“I want them maybe to say ‘Oh,that was different than what Ithought Irish music was,’” he contin-ued. “It’s not all rowdy music andsitting with pints in your hand... it’sa music of the people. There’s agreat respect for it; it should berespected.”

There’s a quote by John Adamsthat Connolly displays in his NorthYarmouth home: “Think of no othergreatness than that of the soul. Noother riches but those of the heart.”

“That means a lot to me for themusic that I have, and the peoplefrom whom I got it,” he said. “It’sgreat, isn’t it? My riches are what’sin my heart, because of the music.”

American Folk Festival 2011Husson University Celebrates the

Husson offers graduate and undergraduate programs in business, health,education, pharmacy, and science and humanities. Husson is also home to the Bangor Theological Seminary and the New England School of Communications.

www.husson.edu

ConnollyContinued from Page 6

REMEMBER...When you’re at the Festival, don’t forgetto kick in to the Bucket Brigade! Yourdonations help keep the Festival free.


Rich In TraditionTraditional BluegrassNorth Carolina

FFrriiddaayy:: 7:30 p.m. (Railroad).

SSaattuurrddaayy:: Noon (Penobscot, Guitar Slingers & Song Singers - MickeyGalyean); 2:15 p.m. (Two Rivers); 4:15 p.m. (Two Rivers, ViolinTraditions - Jordan Blevins).

SSuunnddaayy:: Noon (Penobscot, World Strings - Jay Adams [banjo]and GregJones [mandolin]); 4 p.m. (Railroad).

BY RICHARD R. SHAWBANGOR DAILY NEWS

Audiences who like their bluegrass music pure andpowerful will be thrilled to learn who’s appearing at thisyear’s American Folk Festival. Rich In Tradition, a five-member band from the heart of North Carolina’s blue-grass country, is making its first New England appear-ance. Three performances in three days, with a coupleworkshops tossed in, should keep the boys busy and theirfans satisfied.

“We work really hard on getting accurate harmonies,”

said banjo player Jay Adams. “We don’t rely on studiotricks; it’s the real thing up there on stage. We love themusic. Bluegrass musicians strive to make the music thebest it can possibly be.”

Straight, tight and rocking are some of the superlativescritics have used to describe the band’s latest CD, BlackMountain Special. The song titles say it all: “Lost, Heart-broke and Lonesone,” “Now I’m Losing You,” “Weather’sGot To Change.” The quintet’s Christian influences arereflected in “Preachin’, Prayin’, Singin’” and “I’ve JustSeen the Rock of Ages.”

All five musicians are Bible-believing Christians.Adams is active in a Baptist church near his Pine Hallhome, serving as deacon and adult Sunday-school teacher.He and his family perform there and many of Rich InTradition’s five monthly appearances are in churches.

“I came up with the band’s name,” Adams said. “Meand Greg Jones, the mandolin player, guitarist MickeyGalyean, bassist Brad Hiatt and fiddle player Tim Martinfounded the group in the spring of 2006. We threw theband together at a school.”

A biblical quotation on the Rich In Tradition Web siteexplains the name’s meaning. It’s 2 Thessalonians 2:15,

See RICH, Page 16


Stooges Brass BandNew Orleans Parade BandNew Orleans

FFrriiddaayy:: 6:30 p.m., opening parade from WestMarket Square to Railroad Stage.

SSaattuurrddaayy:: 3:30 p.m. (Dance Pavilion); 6:45p.m. (from Heritage to Railroad).

SSuunnddaayy:: 2 p.m. (Railroad).

BY SHEILA GRANTBANGOR DAILY NEWS

The Stooges Brass Band aims to bethe life of the party at the AmericanFolk Festival.

“We don’t know how to performwithout having fun,” said Walter“Whoadie” Ramsey, founder andleader of the Stooges Brass Band.“We live up to the name. We create afun atmosphere for the audience tobe part of. We want people in Bangorto say, ‘Whatever is going on in mylife today, I’m going to go have funwith the Stooges.’ We’re a very enter-taining band, and we’re good at it.”

The group comes by its playfulnature honestly. Ramsey and fellowfounding member Ersell Boganattended high school together in NewOrleans.

“One of the band members chosethe name, but we all have lived up toit,” said Ramsey. “We clownedaround a lot in school. When peoplecome out to see us, we are like abunch of comedians.”

Stooges Brass Band current mem-bers are trombonists Alfred Groweand Ersell Bogan; trumpeters ChrisCotton, Glenn Preston, and Eric Gor-don; Antoine Coleman on snare;Thaddeus Ramsey on bass drum;John Dotson on percussion; and Clif-ford Smith and Walter Ramsey onsousaphones. Ramsey also playstrombone, and while he doesn’tremember a time in his life when hedidn’t love the music of NewOrleans, he does remember themoment he felt it call to him.

“When I was a baby, they musthave had me sitting by the radio,” hesaid, laughing. Ramsey’s grandfatherplayed in the Dirty Dozen BrassBand, and Ramsey’s father was presi-dent of a New Orleans social clubthat hired brass bands. One day Ram-sey, who had not yet learned to playan instrument at the age of nine,heard the Rebirth Brass Band play athis elementary school — and thebrass bug bit him, too.

“After I saw them, my parents gotme a trombone, and I went to schoolcarrying that big old horn everyday,” Ramsey said.

Most of the band members grew upin New Orleans, but because theyattended different high schools andcolleges, and played in marchingbands for their alma maters, there issome good-natured competition thatraises the bar for their music. Whilethe Stooges do play traditional NewOrleans big-brass sounds, they are

also known for blending hip hop intothose traditional tunes, and Ramseysays, “We play all genres of music, alittle bit of all kinds of things.

“We grew up in the era of hip hop,so we take that and put it into themusic,” he said. “But our hip hopmusic is nice, not like hard, coldgangster rap. It’s feel-good music.And don’t be surprised if you see usdown in the audience with ourhorns.”

The Stooges are proud that theyhave sent many former members onto success.

“The Stooges is like Brass Band101, a mentorship of brass band andthe culture,” said Ramsey. “We’vebeen around for 15 years, and for thelast 12 years we’ve been getting dif-ferent individuals in, and as theywant to venture out on their own orwant their own band, we help them.”

Stooges alumni include SamWilliams, frontman for Big Sam’sFunky Nation, and Troy “TromboneShorty” Andrews, who Ramsey pro-claims is “a phenomenal musician.”The most recent fledgling is EricGordon, who started the band Eric Gand the Lazy Boys.

“It becomes one of those bandswhere we help, we teach, and hope-fully they grow successful,” saidRamsey.

Members of the Stooges haveenjoyed a good portion of successalready. The band has touredthroughout the United States, Asia,

Europe and South America. TheStooges have performed with singerJessica Simpson and rapperJadakiss. In April, the Stooges wereawarded the title of Best Contempo-rary Brass Band at the Big EasyMusic Awards. Last fall, the bandbattled for the title of Red Bull StreetKings and came out on top, winning

an all-expenses-paid recording andmentorship with a producer at RedBull Studios in California. They’ll goto L.A. for that in September.

“Winning that was pretty good,”said Ramsey. “So far, so good – I’mone of the music ambassadors forRed Bull now, and it’s been a good

See STOOGES, Page 14

“Working in studios is something welove, but performing in front of people is

the thing we most love to do.”—Walter “Whoadie” Ramsey


Rhythm of RajasthanRajasthani Music & DanceRajasthan, India

SSaattuurrddaayy:: 9:45 p.m. (Penobscot).

SSuunnddaayy:: Noon (Penobscot, World PercussionTraditions - Faqir Khan on dholak); 2 p.m.(Two Rivers); 4:15 p.m. (Penobscot)


It’s hot in the Thar Desert, most ofwhich falls within the region ofRajasthan — arid, expansive, andburning. But don’t let the desolationand remoteness fool you — there’s arich folk tradition found here, andit’s one of the most dynamic in theworld.

There is a song and a story forevery event, from tales of love andloss to those of war and peace, andfor every emotion. The Rajasthanipeople celebrate them all, perhapsfinding refuge from the challenges ofthe desert, and happily keeping theirtraditions alive. Thanks to that, we’llall be able to enjoy Rhythm ofRajasthan when the group performs

here at the Festival.“In Rajasthan, the folk arts are still

flourishing and surviving because ofthe constant attention from particu-lar communities,” said Rhythm ofRajasthan founder and promoterNitin Harsh. “There’s a very interest-ing combination of the arts in anycommunity… In every occasion it isa matter of pride for them. If theyare not, it is very bad for them.”

In Rajasthani communities, thegroups often perform for leaders andat religious ceremonies, so theirwork is highly revered and veryimportant. “For 500 years, this isvery important for them, so that’swhy this music still continues on,”Harsh said.

Just a few moments of listening toRhythm of Rajasthan singing andplaying Rajasthani folk music isenough to pull you in. Their soulfulvoices, often soaring, sometimesreserved, are always full and mes-merizing. They bring their instru-ments to life with energy and enthu-siasm, and the performance evokespowerful emotions within you —without you even knowing why.

And when you think it can’t get

any more entrancing, thedancer appears. She epit-omizes grace and beauty,elegance and allure, inher colorful outfits andskillful movements as shemoves and sways, turnsand spins, bends anddances. The dancer,Dhapu, began learningthe intricate and coordi-nated movements at age8. She’s quite acrobatic,able to bend over back-wards and pick up smallitems in her teeth, andshe’s extremely talentedat balancing things onher head. In one perform-ance, she balanced astack of baskets nearlyher height, all while mov-ing around. At the end ofone performance, whenshe breaks out the speedand spins like a cyclone,you can’t help but wonderhow she does it all with-out getting dizzy.

“That’s interesting tosee the first time, theinstrumental music and techniques,”Harsh said. “And to experience thedance — that creates magic. You willse a lot of tricks and balancing —she is whirling like dervish fromTurkey.”

The outfits are colorful and intri-cate, and Rajasthani music includesmore than 100 instruments; there ismeaning behind everything. “Intri-cate” takes on a whole new meaningwith Rajasthani culture, with everydetail in the outfits to every note andword in the songs having deep mean-ing. “Rajasthani is one of the richestfolk-music traditions,” Harsh said.

When talking about howRajasthani music has been exposedto the Western world, Harsh saidproper credit must be given the latePadam Bhushan Komal Kolthari, alegendary folklorist from Jodhpur,Rajasthan, who was a pioneer in thestudy of Indian folklore — in partic-ular that of the Rajasthan region,and how it was connected to its

music and instruments.In 1960, Kolthari co-founded the

Rupayan Sansthan to document thefolklore, music, art, puppetry, oral,and other traditions of Rajasthan.His work, and his dedication torecording these traditions, is prima-rily responsible for why it’s so widelyknown outside India today, as he pre-sented more than 300 Rajasthaniartists to the Western world. Koltharidied of cancer in 2004.

Harsh began as a documentaryfilmmaker, but has had the pleasureof working with Rhythm ofRajasthan to help spread this uniqueand exciting music and dance aroundthe world. He conceived of Rhythmof Rajasthan to collaborate with theRajasthani folk performing artists,and he’s done so with over 100 ofthem in the past 10 years. Harshworked with Kolthari and has contin-ued the man’s mission, creating ajuggernaut of folk power featuringthe top artists, who have dedicated

their lives to their art, performing onan international stage.

His documentary filmmaking hashelped in his preservation endeavor.His first film, “Rajasthan: A FolkMusic Journey” (2006) served as atribute to Kolthari, and he’s sinceproduced a series of documentariesabout Rajasthani folklore and cul-ture. His latest film, “Colors ofRajasthan,” covers the folklore of theManganiar (meaning “those who askfor alms”) and Langa (meaning“music giver”), Muslim communitiesin Rajasthan, and their unique tradi-tions.

Rhythm of Rajasthan first per-formed in the U.S. in 1990 atCarnegie Hall, and later appeared atthe Kennedy Center for a celebrationof Indian music. The closest they’vecome to Bangor, Maine has beenBoston, but Harsh said every newvenue is a welcome event.

See RAJASTHAN, Page 14


Réveillons!QuébécoisQuebec

FFrriiddaayy:: 8:30 p.m. (Penobscot).

SSaattuurrddaayy:: 12:30 p.m. (Dance Pavilion); 4:15 p.m. (TwoRivers, Violin Traditions - Richard Forest); 8:30 p.m.(Railroad).

SSuunnddaayy:: Noon (Penobscot, World Percussion Traditions -Jean-Francois Berthiaume); 2 p.m. (Dance Pavilion)

BY JANINE PINEOBANGOR DAILY NEWS

Québécois should come with a warning whenplayed by the quartet Réveillons! from Montreal.

“Beware,” says David Berthiaume, “Quebectraditional music has many side effects, includ-ing causing happiness and contagious feet tap-ping.

“The public may feel an irresistible need totap their feet on the floor (even if it’s a grassfloor), swing their partner aside (even if it’s astranger), or respond to the singer in French(even if they don’t speak French),” he wrote inan email interview.

Berthiaume is a founding member of Réveil-lons!, whose name means “wake up.” He andhis brother, Jean-François, the other founder,come from Laval, the biggest suburb of Mon-treal.

“Like many suburbs, Laval is a sleepy citywhere all the houses look about the same; thereare many swimming pools, many barbecues,but little culture,” Berthiaume said. “Tradi-tional music looks like a very strange animalthere. We wanted to reawaken the tradition andculture that lie dormant within each citizen.We wanted to shake their body and open theirmind on traditional music. We wanted themto know that traditional music is a modernmusic. We wanted to say: ‘Wake up!’”

When asked to describe Québécois,Berthiaume said that it is one of thestrangest Celtic genres.

“You can compare with Irish and Cajunmusic, but it is really not the same,” hesaid. “Jean-François always says that it islike a big bubble gum: You mix theFrench song flavor with the Irish reel fla-vor and the Scottish 6/8 [time] flavor, youchew all that for a very long time and then,suddenly, you taste more than three flavorsin your mouth. Everything is mixed up andyou have Québécois flavor.”

And for Berthiaume, Québécois is “a uniquebig bubble gum that I just can’t stop chewing.”

Réveillons! is powered by four men with var-ied music influences. David and Jean-Françoiswere raised in traditional music, inspired bytheir father and grandfather. Their father, asinger and accordion player, was called the“singing man” because he always sang while

working. Their grandfather, a singer and fid-dler, was known for his big repertoire andsense of party.

“I remember singing my first drinking songat the age of 5,” Berthiaume said. “My motherdidn’t seem to worry. Each family reunionbrought a load of songs and reels. If my fatherplayed Beethoven and Debussy on the pianoevery Sunday, we would be more into classicalmusic. Traditional music is floating in ourveins!”

The brothers carry on those traditions. Davidsings, with a voice described in one article as“marinated in hooch.” He also plays the mouthharp and the concertina.

“The concertina is very unusual in theQuébécois sound,” Berthiaume said. “I play itsimply because I like its sweet tone and alsobecause I like the idea that it came just a littleafter the accordion, when the Ursuline Nuns ofQuebec City imported some from England inthe late 19th century.”

The mouth harp, also known as a Jew’s harp,is a better known instrument in Quebec,Berthiaume said. “It came in traditional musicwith the fiddle at the same time in the begin-ning of the 17th century. It became very popu-lar because of its cheap price because peoplethat couldn’t afford a fiddle used to play it atdance evenings as a soloist instrument.”

Jean-François is the percussionist of thegroup. He is known for his enthusiastic step-dancing, which is just as much a percussiveinstrument as any other. He also plays thebodhran and a suitcase, neither of which is anobvious Québécois instrument.

“The bodhran came specifically in the regionof Portneuf, near Quebec City,” Berthiaumesaid. “It was first brought by the Irish whoimmigrated, but then some French-Canadiansof Portneuf started to make their own and to

integrate it in their music with a differentstyle.”

As for the suitcase as a percussive tool, it wasa happy accident.

“One night at a jam, Jean-François had for-gotten his bodhran and had only his suitcasewhere he put his shoes,” Berthiaume said. “Hetook his suitcase as if it was his bodhran andstarted to play. What was suppose to be a goodjoke became a good idea.”

The other two members of the group joinedthe brothers a few years after Réveillons!

formed.Marc Maziade, who sings and plays guitar

and banjo, was a friend of the Berthiaumes’younger brother. They heard he was studyingjazz guitar at Concordia University in Montrealand thought he could give a modern touch tothe group’s songs.

“Marc is much more in the present,” Berthi-aume said, “inspired by composers like JohnZorn and Béla Fleck.”

The addition of the banjo is yet another dif-ference in the sound from Réveillons!

“The banjo is maybe a common instrumentin the U.S., but it is quite new in Quebec tradi-

tional music,” Berthiaume said. “It is agreat influence brought by the French-Canadians who went working in the U.S.A.”

The fourth member, Richard Forest, was awell-known Québécois fiddler and hadworked with the Berthiaumes’ dance troupebefore joining Réveillons! Richard is alsothe elder statesman of the four.

“When Richard began the fiddle, Jean-François was too young to walk and Marcwas not even in the mind of his father,”Berthiaume said. “Richard was himself our

spirit master before he was part of the group,with many of his compositions already part ofour repertoire.”

They asked Richard if one of his fiddle stu-dents wanted to join the brothers when theywere forming the band, Berthiaume said. “Andwhen the student went on a trip to Europe, weasked Richard to replace her. The student nevercame back in the band.”

Richard’s inspiration comes from two famousQuébécois fiddlers, Isidore Soucy and JosBouchard, along with Philippe Bruneau, an

accordion virtuoso with whom he learned thefiddle repertoire.

Réveillons! has released only two albums,each taking five years to record. Berthiaumesaid that this is because they search the familyrepertoire and university archive collectionsfor “pieces that are ready to be forgotten.”

“When we found something,” Berthiaumesaid, “we put it into the Réveillons! machineand look how many miles we can walk with it.”

The choices, like the instruments, often arejust a little bit different than what other Québé-cois groups might play.

“Personally, the quadrille is a type a piecethat speaks a lot to me,” Berthiaume said. “Therhythm gives another feeling of the Québécoismusic. We feel more the spirit of the Frenchside of our music with its rich melody.

“If reels are generally right into the feet ofeveryone in the public, the quadrille goes moreinto the shoulder,” he said. “Unfortunately,many fiddlers put away this repertoire becauseit is not as energetic as a reel, but I think it isanother kind of energy. We are lucky: Richardfeels the same.”

The group, which had long heard about theAmerican Folk Festival from French-Canadianbands who had been here in years past, is look-ing forward to its performances in Bangor.

“It seems that it is the best place to be on thisweekend,” Berthiaume said. “It’s been a whilethat we wanted to come to the festival. We arevery excited to be there this year, at the biggestfolk festival of Maine.”

Just be prepared for the real sound of Québé-cois, Berthiaume says, authentic traditionalmusic before it was “sanded and polished …with no sugar added.”

Richard Forest, Marc Maziad, David Berthiaume, and Jean-Francois Berthiaume

thing for the Stooges. We’re excitedabout the trip. We are music produc-ers, too. We’ve done a lot of work forESPN and other stations. We own ourown studio. Working in studios issomething we love, but performing infront of people is the thing we mostlove to do.”

The Stooges Brass Band membershave never been to Maine. The closestthey’ve come have been performanc-es in Boston. And Ramsey, who grew

up in swampland, has an image ofthe Pine Tree State stuck in his headfrom a movie he once saw — “LakePlacid,” which featured a giant croco-dile hiding out in a northern lake andeating clueless Mainers. Ramsey saidhe doesn’t really expect to see a croc-odile during his visit, but he wouldlove to see his first moose.

“We’re tourists,” he said, laughing.“We’re going to be there a few daysand we’re looking to see what’s hap-pening, and what does the city have.Besides the American Folk Festival,we want to experience somethingthat we can’t here in our own city.Every gig is a new and differentadventure.”

StoogesContinued from Page 11

“It is always interesting to see thenew places and the new audience,”Harsh said. “We performed in theMidwest — the audience was so newfor us, and they had never seen thiskind of tradition before. We are hop-ing we will get the same response [inBangor] like we had there… Wherev-er we go, it’s very interesting to getthe reaction from those who havenever seen it before.”

We’ll be treated to some familiar

instruments, but some that are not.The morchang, for instance, is a typeof mouth harp, but has a very differ-ent style and sound. Meanwhile, thekhartaal, a hand castanet, will seemvery different to us. “To a skillfulpercussionist, it’s something magi-cal,” Harsh said.

The Rajasthani songs are epic sto-rytelling traditions; Harsh intro-duces the songs, and explains to theaudience what each instrument isand the techniques used to play it.But it doesn’t need too much intro-duction; once they start playing, it’seasy to understand the joy and inten-sity of the stories being played.

“It is always interesting to see; in

every performance, it’s somethingnew,” Harsh said. “That’s why wekeep balancing dance with song... Itis so energetic.”

In Bangor, Rhythm of Rajasthanwill include Faqir Khan Manganiar(percussionist with the dholak, adouble-headed hand drum); AsinKhan Langa (the stringed sindhisarangi); Shakoor Khan Langa (theaerophonic algoja wind instrument,the morchang wind percussioninstrument, and the khartaal (a kindof castanet made of teak, a tropicalhardwood, and its name means“hand rhythm”); Zakab Khan Manga-niar (vocalist); Mehboob Khan Langa(vocalist); and Dhapu (dancer).

RajasthanContinued from Page 12

“Beware... Quebec traditionalmusic has many side effects,including causing happinessand contagious feet tapping.

—David Berthiaume


Proud sponsor and fan of the American Folk Festival. We�ll see you there.

Member FDIC

Leroy Thomas andThe Zydeco RoadrunnersZydecoLouisiana and Texas

FFrriiddaayy:: 9:15 p.m. (Dane Pavilion).

SSaattuurrddaayy:: 2 p.m. (Dance Pavilion); 4:45 p.m.(Railroad).


Get ready for the get-up-and-move zydecosounds of Leroy Thomas, who the NewYork Times called “the Jewel of theBayou,” and his group, The Zydeco Road-runners, who will entrance the crowdswith accordion sounds that will transportyou to another musical world.

Leroy Thomas’ musical talents gobeyond just zydeco, as he’s just as at homeplaying Cajun, blues, R&B, and even coun-try. “I do it all,” he said. “I kind of adjustto the crowd. Whatever they getting intothe most, I keep it at that level.”

For instance, when he moved to Houstonabout 10 years ago, he frequently played ata club that was extremely popular andjam-packed on Thursday nights. While thecrowd enjoyed a little zydeco, country waspreferred. Thomas was happy to accommo-date. But zydeco in all its varied forms iswhat Thomas is really all about, and youcan expect a crowd-rocking zydeco show-case at the American Folk Festival.

If you’re not familiar with zydeco,Thomas sums it up pretty well: “I try totell ‘em it’s probably like rock-and-roll,reggae-type music with an accordion init,” he said.

A lot of rock and roll, in fact. CliftonChenier, a French-speaking Creole, firstbrought the unique sounds of zydeco tothe masses in the 1950s, with a style ofzydeco heavily influenced by Chuck Berryand Elvis Presley but sung in French.Despite this fairly recent exposure, themusical form dates back to the early 19thcentury, when rural Cajuns and Creolesrocked the country porches with fiddlesand accordions.

The music was influenced by manythings, from the Louisiana Purchase bring-ing American settlers to the region to theabolition of slavery. In the 20th century,other musical forms became entwined inzydeco, including blues, jazz, and variousAfrican-American and Afro-Caribbeanstyles.

But the word “zydeco” didn’t originateuntil Chenier’s era, a dialectal pronuncia-tion of the French phrase “les haricots” as“le-zy-dee-co.” That came from the phrase“Les haricots sont pas salés,” which meant“the snap beans ain’t salty” from Chenier’spopular tune of the same name — refer-ring to Chenier being so poor he couldn’tafford salt pork to season his beans.

Thanks to Chenier, zydeco was intro-duced into the popular mainstream of

See THOMAS, page 17

“I try totell ‘em it’s

probably likerock-and-roll,

reggae-typemusic with an

accordion in it.”

—Leroy Thomas




accordion in it.”

—Leroy Thomas




accordion in it.”

—Leroy Thomas


and it says “Therefore, brethren,stand fast, and hold the traditions,which ye have been taught, whetherby word, or our epistle.”

Maine’s bluegrass festivals haveexposed audiences to traditionalbands and some that like to experi-ment with the genre. But when RichIn Tradition performs on the Rail-road and Two Rivers stages, a uniquesound will fill the air.

“Something special that our band’sgot that not a lot of bands have got iseverybody can sing almost everypart,” said Galyean. “So you can do alot of mixtures on the vocals, andthen everybody can about play everyinstrument … and know what’sgoing on.”

Galyean’s music pedigree isimpressive. The son of gifted blue-grass musician Cullen Galyean, hebegan playing rock and country at

age 13. Mickey and Cullen went on toform a bluegrass band, but after fouryears, they put it on hold because ofCullen’s health problems. That’swhen Jones, mandolin player for theBluegrassers, asked Mickey to helpAdams, Martin and himself put aband together. It became Rich In Tra-dition.

Hiatt, who began playing banjo atage 9, later played electric guitar andacoustic bass. His addition to Rich InTradition made for a more completesound.

Jordan Blevins, a gifted fiddleplayer, recently joined the bandafter Martin left because of familyreasons. The five-man, all-acousticlineup, steeped in pure North Car-olina tradition, has made for asweet sound. The band’s YouTubeperformance clips are legendary, asare their church and festival per-formances.

A highlight of the band’s career todate was a visit to the 2007 Universi-ty of Chicago Folk Festival. Fivecountry boys wowed the Windy Citywith concert hall performances and

workshops where audience memberstook notes.

“Everyone was so excited to bethere,” reads the band’s blog. “Weeven had an encore. ... It was a nicecrowd; the room was full. The folksthat attended were so interested inthe music and had so many ques-tions. It really made us feel good.”

Rich experiences like these help tosustain the band, who support theirfamilies with an array of day jobs.

“There’s no money in playing blue-grass, but we love it,” said Adamswith a chuckle.

In July, Adams agreed to a phoneinterview after working in heatexceeding 100 degrees. Since 1986 hehas been employed as a lineman forEnergy United.

Blevins is a ranger at GraysonHighlands State Park in Virginia.Hiatt owns a lawn and landscapingbusiness. Jones works for North Car-olina Foam Industries. Galyean isemployed by the North CarolinaDepartment of Transportation’sDivision of Highways.

“Mickey is really the heart and

soul of what we do,” said Jones.“Traditional bluegrass just runsthrough his veins. When he sings, itjust comes out straight down the line— traditional, driving, really solid,singing and playing.”

Jones added, “Jay really keeps thedrive in what we do. The banjo is thedriving force in a lot of what goes onin bluegrass because of the way BillMonroe put together the BluegrassBoys.”

Adams said it’s not North Caroli-na’s air or water that has turned outso many fine bluegrass bands. It’smore a matter of geography andmigration.

“In the early days, when immi-grants from Ireland and Scotlandwere moving west, some of themstayed in North Carolina and playedtheir music,” he said. “A lot of peoplesettled in the mountains here. Thatmusic became part of bluegrass. Itreminded them of their homes. BillMonroe said there are a lot of Irishand Scottish influences in blue-grass.”

It also doesn’t hurt to have great

band mates and enough back-porchpicking to fill a thousand recordalbums. That’s a North Carolina tra-dition, known to fans of “The AndyGriffith Show,” inspired by theband’s home base of Mount Airy.

Adams’ grandfather, Jim Robert-son, grew up in Spray, N.C., nowEden, and lived near Charlie Poole, acountry music pioneer who had goldrecords when other musicians werestruggling. This influence rubbed offon Adams and other family membersand continues to drive and inspirethem.

“My other influences were LesterFlatt, Earl Scruggs, J.D. Crowe, DelMcCoury, Jim Mills, Ron Stewart,”Adams said. “I like experimentalstyles and we do some of that. Bandstake stuff, they blend it, and itbecomes their style.”

Rich In Tradition is looking for-ward to bringing their own style ofbluegrass to the American Folk Fes-tival. Among the blues, Congoleseand Québécois stylists, the bandshould hold their own with musicthat is dear to their hearts.

RichContinued from Page 10

Nunamta Yup’ik EskimoSingers and DancersNative American Central Yup’ik EskimoFrom the Village of Eek, Alaska

SSaattuurrddaayy:: 1:15 p.m. (Two Rivers); 3:15 p.m. (Penobscot).

SSuunnddaayy:: 3:15 p.m. (Penobscot).


Maine has its own rich Native American her-itage, but at the Festival we’ll welcome a differ-ent dialect of Native American culture.Renowned performer Chuna McIntyre willbring the 3,000-year-old culture of the Yup’ikEskimos of the village of Eek, Alaska to theBangor Waterfront, to immerse us in thirtycenturies of folklore in the form of stories,music, and dance.

As a society without written records, the sto-ries, songs, dances, artifacts, and costumes arethe means by which the Yup’ik (meaning “realpeople”) have kept their culture and folklorealive, always passing it on to the next genera-tion. Thanks to those like McIntyre, some workto convey it to others outside Yup’ik culture,such as they’ll do in Bangor.

The Yup’ik ancestral lands range from theAleutian headlands all the way up to NortonSound in Alaska. McIntyre technically comesfrom the mainland group called Central Yup’ik.In his village, with its culture of hunting, fish-ing, and gathering, there were about 150 peoplewhen he was a child, and closer to 300 now. “Igrew up on the Bering Sea, and it was at theedge of the known universe, at the time — itstill is,” McIntyre said. “It’s quite differentfrom the rest of the continental U.S. We arevery remote. Remoteness actually has helped toensure the survival of Yup’ik culture.”

Outsiders were uncommon in Eek, but one ofthem was his Scottish grandfather, bestowingupon McIntyre two vastly different heritages.“It’s a incredible mix,” he said, although as ayoungster he had no exposure to his Gaelicside. “But my grandfather… was totallyimmersed in Yup’ik. By the time I was born, hewas no longer living, and I grew up speakingYup’ik. It was all very much Yup’ik.”

His grandmother, who lived next door andwas key to his upbringing, set forth to instillthe importance of Yup’ik culture in youngChuna, from the stories and dances to moremundane things like sewing — a vital skill tohave when one’s clothing is torn and it’s 50

below zero. It wasn’t until he was attending twoyears of high school in Vermont that he real-ized that his heritage was going to become thecentral focus of his life.

After beginning in med school, he switched tomajor in studio art, with a minor in NativeAmerican studies, at Sonoma State Universityin California. He later taught the CentralYup’ik language at Stanford, and today spendsa great deal of time traveling with his dedicat-ed Yup’ik troupe, exposing others to his won-drous culture.

McIntyre says he and the troupe often intro-duce their performances to their audiences.For example, their outfits aren’t just for show;they’re often very elaborate, and things like thecolors and the numbers of tassels have culturalmeaning. “So we will explain certain things aswell as we can, and then we take it from thereand the songs just carry the day,” he said. “Itusually all speaks for itself. It’s usually veryevident — the emotions and the dances become

evident. I think it’s because our troupe, wehave the passion for it.”

His performance, deeply spiritual and rever-ently respectful, is sure to impress. “What yousee is pretty much ancient Yup’ik, and we makeno bones about that,” he said. “Because we arestill very much connected; that tether neverwas broken for us. First of all, we still live inour homeland. Our village — we’ve lived in onespot for thirty centuries.”

And the meaning of the songs, dances, andstories transcend entertainment or even folk-lore. “It means the connection to the ances-tors,” McIntyre said. “We do it for them.”

The production has meaning on every level,starting with those costumes. For example, onegarment might take eight months to produce,not to mention having gathered the materialand preparing for assembling it. “We still have

the wherewithal to bring you not only just thesongs and the dances and the way of beingYup’ik, but also the material culture as part ofit,” McIntyre said. “It’s a whole package.”

A costume often involves trapping many ani-mals to use in its creation: bird feet; skins fromcalf and seal; hair from caribou and rabbit; andfur from arctic squirrel, land otter, wolf, andwolverine. It is then embellished with ivory,trade beads, and jewelry, and decorated withsymbols and designs using earth paint. Everypart is connected to nature, and great care isexacted in creating a costume. Similar care istaken with headdresses, masks, and otherthings.

Using a drum made with a large hoop cov-ered in seal or walrus skin, McIntyre and histroupe will perform traditional dances accom-panied by a regular, 2/4-beat meter, beat withthe hand or a thin, wooden wand. The singingis done in unison with the drumming, while asong leader acts as a prompter, calling outwords.

Dancers often remain in place, with lots ofhand and arm movement, waving of fans, bodymovement. However a dance is done, it is keyto telling the story. In Yup’ik culture, peopledanced for two reasons. One is recreational;they do it for pleasure, as in any culture. Theother is ceremonial, for communicating withthe spirits of nature and their ancestors. Cere-monial dances take place during religious festi-vals.

Dancing usually occurred in an undergroundcommunal dwelling called a qasgiq, which wasdomed aboveground with driftwood logs andcovered with sod. Here, men gathered, enjoyedsteam baths, or used it as a studio or workshop.They also taught boys hunting and survivalskills, how to make tools and kayaks, and otherimportant life lessons. Similar things forwomen were in a neighboring house, often con-nected to the qasgiq, called an ena, where girlslearned to cook, sew, and weave. But for a timeduring the winter, the boys and girls switched,so the boys would learn skills from the womenand the girls from the men.

The songs and dances in the qasgiq were cen-tral to the community. There was no formaldancing education; members of the tribelearned by watching others, and everyone wasencouraged to participate.

We won’t have to travel to Alaska and gatherin a qasgiq — although, after immersion in theYup’ik folklore in Bangor, many of us willprobably be eager for such an experience.According to McIntyre, it should be a very spe-cial experience.

“They should expect to see our joy in dance

and song — the joy, it’s wonderful!” he said.“It’s the joy. They should expect to see the joy.”

Aside from his performances, much of McIn-tyre’s time is spent working with museums,such as the Smithsonian in Washington; theM.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Fran-cisco’s Golden Gate Park, where he co-curated apermanent Eskimo-Inuit exhibit; and herestored a mask at the groundbreaking “Infini-ty of Nations” 10-year exhibit at the NationalMuseum of the American Indian. He’s thefounder and director of the Nunamta Yup’ikEskimo Dancers (“nunamta” means “of ourland”; so they are “dancers of our land”) andorganized the Tuma Theatre (“tuma” means“footprints”), a dance and drama group, at theUniversity of Alaska at Fairbanks. He’s also agraphic artist and master craftsman, and hasperformed at the Kennedy Center, and aroundthe world from France to Russia to NewZealand to Siberia.

It’s been many years since McIntyre visitedMaine, and this will be his first trip to Bangor.Festivalgoers will see him and three membersof his troupe, whom he holds in the highestregard.

“I’m very proud of my troupe for being verypassionate about keeping the Yup’ik culturealive and sharing it throughout the world,” hesaid.

Chuna will appear in Bangor with drummerVernon Chimegalrea and Josephine Aloralreaand Tatiana Andrew, dancers and singers.

On performing the traditions:“It means the connection

to the ancestors.We do it for them.”

On what festivalgoers can expect:“They should expect to seeour joy in dance and song —the joy, it’s wonderful! It’sthe joy. They should expect

to see the joy.”

PHOTO BY EDWARD R. CURTIS


American culture. Its style varies greatlydepending on who’s playing, but the one com-mon element is the presence of a button orpiano accordion. And thanks to the surpriserevelation that a young Louisiana boy, who’dpreviously ignored a family strength with theaccordion in favor of drums, had an astonish-ing natural talent, we’ll get to enjoy an excitingmix of Chenier-inspired, rock-and-roll-influ-enced zydeco on the Bangor Waterfront.

Leroy Thomas was born in Lake Charles, La.,and raised in Elton, and music ran strong inhis family —particularly the preponderance ofthe accordion. Keith Frank, his mother’s sec-ond cousin, played accordion, drums, bass, gui-tar, and “Just about everything,” according toThomas. Geno Delafose, his father’s secondcousin, played accordion and drums, and BrianTerry, his father’s cousin, played accordion.With all that accordion talent, it was only natu-ral that young Leroy would become enamoredwith the instrument.

Except that isn’t how it happened. In fact,Thomas barely gave the accordion a secondlook. He was starry-eyed over another instru-ment: the drums. And with good reason; hisfather Leo “the Bull” Thomas was a drummer,renowned as the only musician to lead a zydecoband from the drums. Drums are usually in theback, regardless of musical genre, but hisfather was up front and to the side. Thomaswanted to be a drummer like his dad, but hewas too afraid of getting caught playing his

dad’s drums without permission. So, at age 8,he and his brother made drums out of five-gal-lon paint buckets, using tree branches as drum-sticks and cardboard tube as a microphone.Soon, Leo gave his son some proper druminstruction, and the boy was hooked.

Then came the day that someone in town hadan old button accordion for sale. Thomas andhis brother traded one of their father’s old cas-sette recorders for it, and on the walk home,his brother and some of their friends took

turns with the squeeze box. They made a lot ofnoise, none of it good, but it looked as if theaccordion would be a fun novelty with which topass the time.

“Then I took a turn,” Thomas recalled. “I saton the step and pretty much played it immedi-ately.”

Years of ignoring the accordion mastersaround him paid off; apparently, he’d been pay-ing more attention than he’d realized. Right outof the gate, young Leroy was a natural. “That’swhen I started saying, ‘You know what? I likemusic,” he said. “I wanted to learn from thatpoint on.”

Over the years, he paid more attention toaccordionists, and occasionally a few folks

showed him some pointers, but mostly he con-tinued to teach himself by watching and listen-ing. That first old button accordion was soonreplaced when Thomas bought a piano accor-dion. He bought Clifton Chenier videos so hecould watch the master at work, and learn howhe worked his fingers.

Thomas began playing with his father’s bandat age 18 and did so for 15 years, touring theworld together. His first album appearance waswith his father in 1997, and the following year

he formed The Zydeco Roadrunners andlaunched his own label, Thomas Records. Thegroup has since performed in 48 states andaround the world and released eight albums.

His lifetime of practice has resulted inThomas being one of the signature zydecoaccordionists playing today. He still drums onoccasion when his drummer takes a break toplay the accordion. And at age 45, Thomas islearning to play guitar and bass — alwayseager to learn new musical things, just as healways has been, just as he’s learned to play ina wide variety of musical styles.

Luckily, playing the accordion is pretty muchthe same no matter the style of music, accord-ing to Thomas; it’s just the music you play

that’s different. “You adapt,” he said. “You addwhat you want when you want, as long as itsounds good… I always did it like James Brownalways said... ‘Does it sound good?’”

He’s been to Maine before, having oftenplayed in Portland through the Center for Cul-tural Exchange, but this will be his first trip toBangor, and he’s eager for it. “I’m very happy,man, very happy,” he said. “I hear there’s goingto be a lot of people there, too. We’re ready forthem.”

He says the crowd can expect to have fun, andhe’ll probably get them involved in singingsome of the songs. “It’s to get them all interest-ed,” he said. “I don’t just play for me and theband — I play for the crowd.”

For his beloved genre, Thomas hopes peoplewill learn about zydeco, especially if they’reexcited by something they’ve never experi-enced. “I would hope they would probably goout spreading the word about zydeco music,and letting everybody know how much fun theyhad,” he said.

While he always injects his own style into hisperformances, Thomas favors “old-school zyde-co,” to keep the Louisiana tradition “alive andflowing.” In Bangor, he’ll likely play hisfather’s signature song, “Why You Wanna MakeMe Cry,” which is reportedly the most frequent-ly repeated and covered zydeco for over 27years.

The Zydeco Roadrunners, who will appearwith Thomas in Bangor, are Raymond Bilbo onbass, Gerard St. Julien on drums, James Comp-ton on guitar, and Tommy Robinson on thescrub-board, a type of wash-board.

To learn more about Leroy Thomas and The ZydecoRoadrunners, visit www.ZydecoRoadrunners.com.

“It’s to get them all interested. I don’t just playfor me and the band — I play for the crowd...

I would hope they would probably go outspreading the word about zydeco music, and

letting everybody know how much fun they had.”—Leroy Thomas

ThomasContinued from Page 15


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Hot Club of CowtownWestern SwingAustin, Texas

FFrriiddaayy:: 8 p.m. (Dance Pavilion).

SSaattuurrddaayy:: Noon (Penobscot, Guitar Slingers & Song Singers – WhitSmith); 2:15 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. (Railroad); 4:15 p.m. (Two Rivers,Violin Traditions – Elana James).

BY RICHARD R. SHAWBANGOR DAILY NEWS

Somewhere in cowboy heaven, Bob Wills will smiledown on this year’s American Folk Festival and wel-come Hot Club of Cowtown, the scrappy Westernswing trio that is keeping his music alive.

Fiddler Elana James, guitarist Whit Smith andbassist Jake Erwin were kids when Wills, granddad-dy of the fiddle-based country-pop genre, died in 1975.But after savoring his recordings and hanging outwith musicians who toured with Wills and His TexasPlayboys, they’ve performed his songs since Hot Clublaunched in 1998.

Audiences can expect to hear spine-tingling per-formances. Many of the songs will be from lastyear’s CD, “What Makes Bob Holler,” a pairing ofsome of Wills’ most popular work with moreobscure B-sides. “Stay a Little Longer” and “BigBalls in Cowtown” are crowd favorites, along withother possible performances of traditional hoe-downs like “Cherokee Shuffle” and “Orange Blos-som Special.”

“We’re playing what knocked us out about Westernswing in the first place — the early fiery energy andjazzy improvisations,” James said.

After Hot Club toured the U.K. last year, the SundayTimes of London lauded the trio as “... the world’smost engaging Western swing band — their showsare all about energy and joie de vivre ... the devil-may-care style that combined the rigor of jazz withthe down-home sentiment of country and earthinessof the blues —- it is as a live act that they have madetheir greatest impact.”

“We go back to the Western swing of the 1920s and‘30s, straight out of Texas,” said James during a Julyinterview from JFK International Airport, waiting toboard a flight for the Sultanate of Oman, where HotClub performed courtesy of the U.S. State Depart-ment. After World War II, Bob Wills started puttingout more polished commercial records, but Hot Clubwanted to do the earlier songs.”

“There are lots of influences in Western swing likefiddle tunes, pop standards from the American song-book, blues and jazz,” James said. “We play stan-dards, traditional, eccentric, fiddle-centric music. I’dbe hard-pressed to hear Western swing without a fid-dle, but guitar and bass are also important. Ours isnot a big band with swing, but a smaller, scrappygroup.”

Now based in Austin, Texas, Hot Club’s rootsextend to other states. James grew up in Prairie Vil-lage, Kan., the daughter of a classical violinist.Erwin came from Tulsa, Okla. Smith, the only NewEnglander, grew up in Cape Cod and Connecticut.

Smith and James originally met through a classi-fied ad in The Village Voice and performed togetherin New York City before moving to San Diego in 1997,where they played for tips. Soon after relocating toAustin in 1998, they added Erwin, finalizing Hot

“Ours is not a big band with swing,but a smaller, scrappy group.”

—Elana James

“We’re playing what knocked us out aboutWestern swing in the first place — the early

fiery energy and jazzy improvisations.”See COWTOWN, Page 25

“Ours is not a big band with swing,but a smaller, scrappy group.”

—Elana James


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24 THE AMERICAN FOLK FESTIVAL ON THE BANGOR WATERFRONT | FRIDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 26-28, 2011 21

22 THE AMERICAN FOLK FESTIVAL ON THE BANGOR WATERFRONT | FRIDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 26-28, 2011 23


Club’s lineup.“Whit came up with the band’s

name; he’s the title guy,” James said.“I’m definitely the wordsmith. Iwrite the blogs. We do write songstogether sometimes, though, and weeach write our own songs as well.”

The group is here to stay, butJames admitted the name often con-fuses new audiences. Perhaps theyexpect to see musicians dressed inoveralls, but what’s up with “HotClub”? It’s from the hot jazz guitaristDjango Reinhardt and violinistStephanie Grappelli’s Hot Club ofFrance, and “Cowtown” comes fromthe Western swing influence of Willsand His Texas Playboys.

Eccentric names and song arrange-ments have gained the band an inter-national cult following, havingopened stadium shows for Bob Dylanand Willie Nelson. They have playedat a National Folk Festival in Aus-tralia but, according to James, havenever performed in Bangor.

“I think maybe we’ve played inMaine somewhere — I know weplayed a wedding here many yearsago. But I’m well acquainted withMaine,” James said. “When I was 10,my mom and my sister and I visitedVinalhaven, where my grandparentsused to vacation. I remember beingthrilled by riding my moped aroundthe island.”

Don’t expect to see lots of electron-ic equipment and high-tech visuals.Staying true to their roots, James,Smith and Erwin travel about asbasic as Wills and his band diddecades ago. Their instruments arepurely acoustic, and Smith travelswith an amplifier made in 1936.Their sound, heard on their numer-ous CDs, DVDs and Web-site clips, isunmistakably traditional and couldbe mistaken for a 1936 dance hall inParis, Texas, or Paris, France.

The band likes to preserve cowboyculture and bristles when people sug-gest doing otherwise, especially byslashing federal funding. In April,James fired off a letter to The NewYork Times defending funding of theNational Cowboy Poetry Gatheringin Elko, Nev.

“[This funding] helps encourage ageneration of young people tobecome interested in and take respon-

sibility for the legacy of the uniqueart, music, stories and culture of theAmerican West,” she said.

In an interview, James said, “Whenall the petroleum is gone, and peopleare hoeing their own potatoes, therewill be acoustic music. It will last.Music is very, very important to holdon to. One thing I love about ourband is that we can do this withoutelectricity or effects — in that senseit is timeless. We all really value thatorganic quality.”

The band’s future could hold moretributes and interpretations of Wills’music as well as a DVD of fiddletunes that James hopes to sell sneakpreviews of in Bangor. And touring,always touring. Hot Club will followthe American Folk Festival withdates in California, Kansas, NewYork, Massachusetts, Vermont, andTexas, and in November will returnto the U.K. before coming back to theU.S. and Canada into 2012.

Dubbed the most globe-trotting,hardest-swinging Western swing trioon the planet, Hot Club may take abreather someday.

“We won’t continue this crazy paceforever,” James said.

They wouldn’t want to end up likea fiddler in Wills’ band who waspicked up in California and by thetime the band had driven through iceand snow to the Midwest, he wasdead, having spent too much time ona freezing bus with no real food.Nobody ever knew his name.

“They pried his rigor mortisedbody off of the bus and left himunder a lamppost somewhere inKansas,” James said. “It was a differ-ent time. These guys were prettyhardcore.”

So, keeping true to Western swing’sspirit and energy, getting audiencesout of their seats and dancing will beHot Club’s mission in Bangor. Theband never uses set lists. What theyhave is more like a menu, dependingon what they’re hungry for thatnight. No two performances are everthe same.

Bob Wills would be proud. Antici-pating Hot Club’s Maine visit, hemight say, in his famous words,“Aaaaaaaaaaah Haaaaaaaaah!”

CowtownContinued from Page 18

“I’m well acquainted with Maine.When I was 10, my mom and my

sister and I visited Vinalhaven, where my grand-parents used to vacation. I remember being

thrilled by riding my moped around the island.”-Elana James

ZikrayatEgyptian MusicNew York City

SSaattuurrddaayy:: 12:15 p.m. (Railroad); 3:15 p.m.(Two Rivers); 4:15 p.m. (Two Rivers, ViolinTraditions - Sami Shumays).

SSuunnddaayy:: Noon (Penobscot, World PercussionTraditions - Faisal Zedan); Noon (Two Rivers,World Strings - Tareq Abboushi on bouzuk);2:15 p.m. (Penobscot).


Are you a fan of old films? Howabout old musical films?

How about old Egyptian musicalfilms?

Even if you never gave Egyptianmusical films a second thought —and most of us here probably haven’t— you’re about to get schooled onthis wonderfully entertaining classicArab cinema when New York City-based Zikrayat fills us in on the Ban-gor Waterfront. Festival-goers willexperience what Arabs call taarab,which means “musical ecstasy” — soprepare to be immersed in a wholelot of fun.

Zikrayat (meaning “memories”) isinspired by the Golden Age of Egypt-ian musical cinema, which began its

rise in popularity in the 1930s,peaked in the 1940s and 1950s, andcontinued through to the early 1970s.During this time, most of the majorEgyptian dancers and musiciansworked in film, so this enormouslypopular medium resulted in a fantas-tic repertoire of songs and dancepieces. Yet for many, the films havefaded into obscurity; while many ofthe classic songs that are familiar toEgyptians, they often aren’t aware oftheir origins.

What Zikrayat does is play thoseclassic songs, and sometimesincorporates the dances. Some ofthe songs are still popular tunes,while others are not. “We playsome of those standards, but wealso like to find and play some ofthose pieces that are not as wellrecognized by Arabians — or any-one else for that matter,” saidfounder Sami Shumays.

It all started in 2005, when Shu-mays and his new bride, now adancer with the group, were on theirhoneymoon in Egypt. They picked upa stack of old movies to watch, and itchanged their lives.

“We said, “Wow, we really have todo some of this repertoire, we’venever heard that song, and we’ve

See ZIKRAYAT, Page 29


Bing XiaChinese guzhengWashington, D.C.

SSaattuurrddaayy:: 12:15 p.m. (Two Rivers); 2:15 p.m.(Penobscot).

SSuunnddaayy:: Noon (Two Rivers, World Strings); 1p.m. (Two Rivers)


The Chinese guzheng looks a bitlike horizontal or lap guitar, but it’sunlike anything we’re familiar with.It has a broad range of sounds thatmakes it as acoustically versatile asyou might imagine for having 21strings. At times, it sounds like aguitar; at others, a harp. It seemscapable of sounding like anystringed instrument, yet in thehands of a master like Bing Xia, ithas a sound and a feel all its own.Entrancing one moment, hauntingthe next, uplifting or billowing insound and feeling another, Bing’smusic is immersive and evokesdeeply emotional responses, even ifyou don’t know why.

The guzheng is a type of Chinesezither, with analogous instrumentsthroughout the Asian world: theJapanese koto, the Mongolian yatga,the Korean gayageum, and the Viet-namese �àn tranh. The various tech-niques of playing the guzheng resultin its impressive range, emulatingthe feeling of everything from idyl-lic settings such as waterfalls or pas-

toral realms to the pounding ofhorse hooves or thunder from theheavens. And for Bing, this magicspell of sound is one of dedicationand joy as she conveys the folk sto-ries of her Chinese heritage.

“This music is part of my life,”Bing said. “Since I was very young, Istarted to learn this. I still practiceand play almost every day.”

Bing was 8 years old when her par-ents asked her to take guzheng les-sons. At that time, the guzheng was-n’t favored by Chinese children(although today it is second only tothe piano in popularity). But whenshe heard the instrument, it waseasy for her to say yes.

“When I first came to hear thisinstrument, the sound was verybeautiful to me,” she said. “Thesongs are very beautiful; I thinkthat’s why I liked it. But eventhough I liked it, I didn’t want topractice a lot when I was veryyoung.”

Daily lessons for any 8-year-oldgirl are certainly challenging, butBing stuck with it. Yet it wasn’tuntil she was in high school that sherealized what the guzheng and hermusic meant to her. Beyond playingit, she grew closer to the folkloreand traditions of the songs — thereal meaning behind the music.

“As I remember, when I went tohigh school, I came to very muchlike this instrument,” she recalled.“Maybe as I got older, I [gained a]kind of a feeling of this music, and

also I was interested about the back-ground of each piece. So I wanted tolearn a lot.”

In 1985, she attended Nanjing Nor-mal University, where she majoredin guzheng performance under vir-tuoso Professor Yan AiHua. Shewent on to advanced guzheng stud-ies in 1995 at the Shanghai Conser-vatory of Music, where she studiedunder Professor He Baoquan. Herprofessional career began inXuzhou, China, with the city’s Songand Dance Ensemble, and by 1996she was nationally honored as aguzheng teacher.

When Bing’s husband took a job inthe U.S. in 1999, she moved to theWashington, D.C. area. Within sixmonths, she began performing therefor enthusiastic audiences. “I thinkmost American people, they don’tknow about the guzheng,” she said.“But every time after my perform-ance, they were interested … andthey asked me lots of questionsabout the instrument.”

She performed at the WashingtonMillennium Celebration in 2000, andin that year founded the WashingtonGuzheng Society, with a mission toteach the guzheng. That summer,she was the featured performer inthe “Music in the Age of Confucius”program presented by the Smithson-ian Freer Gallery of Art and theArthur M. Sackler Gallery.

She’s gone on to great acclaim, fea-tured at the Kennedy Center in2003’s “Asian Song Revival” and at

the Smithsonian in 2009 supportedby the Presidential Inaugural Com-mittee. Her music has been broad-cast by both National Public Radioand Voice of America nationwide,and her many appearances are toonumerous to list.

Today, she lives in the Washing-ton, D.C. area, where she’s a well-known soloist and guzheng instruc-tor. She and her students at the

Washington Guzheng Society havewon awards in many nationalguzheng competitions.

“In the Washington, D.C. area wehave a lot of opportunities to per-form, to show the different culture tothe audiences,” Bing said. “I thinkit’s the reason I can introduce theseinstruments to American people.”

“When you playthe music,don’t only

play thenote —

useyour

heart to playthe music.”

—Bing Xia

See BING XIA, Page 28


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Los Tres ReyesMexican Trio Romantico

San Antonio, Texas

SSaattuurrddaayy:: Noon (Penobscot, Guitar Slingers & SongSingers); 1:15 p.m. (Penobscot).

SSuunnddaayy:: 1 p.m. (Railroad); 4 p.m. (Two Rivers)

BY GREG WESTRICHBANGOR DAILY NEWS

Los Tres Reyes (meaning “The ThreeKings”) bring their traditional trio romanticomusic to the American Folk Festival for thefirst time this year. The trio is twin brothersGilberto and Raul Puente with Gilberto’s son-in-law Bebo Cardenas. They have never beencloser to Maine than New York, but Gilbertosays they are “very excited about coming —very happy.” At the same time, “I am worriedbecause I don’t know how people will respond,but I am very excited to play at the festival.”Gilberto explains that the trio is more used toSpanish-speaking audiences that alreadyknow the conventions of the trio romanticogenre.

The trio romantico form — sometimes calledSpanish romantic music — evolved in Mexicoin the 1950s. A trio consists of two guitars anda requinto. The requinto is the smaller guitarthat may be familiar to some people from mari-achi music; it looks like a guitar, but it’s tuneddifferently. And in trio romantico, the requintois usually played in the classic bolero style offast, melodic hand-picking. As Gilberto puts it,“The requinto is our father.” Gilberto is an

undisputed master of the instrument.A trio generally has a lead singer, but also

sing in harmony as well. You might think themournful romantic singing wouldn’t work withthe technically difficult bolero requinto, butsomehow the whole is more emotionally evoca-tive than either of its parts. The songs have thetimeless quality of life remembered in hind-sight. Even without understanding the lyrics,the songs speak to something within all of us.They often sound like 1950s cowboy music —which actually makes sense because cowboymusic, like most cowboy culture, was influ-enced by the cowboy music from south of theborder.

The Puente brothers began performing thisstyle of music in 1947 as the duo Los CuatesPuente in Neuvo Loredo along the Texas bor-der. At age 15, they made their first recordingsfor the Mexican division of CBS, and were oneof the trios that helped popularize and conven-tionalize the form after moving to Mexico City.In 1958, with Hernando Aviles, they became LosTres Reyes. Through the early 1960s the triosdominated the pop charts in Mexico, spreadingthroughout the Spanish-speaking Americas.But by 1966, when Los Tres Reyes disbanded,“Rock kind of displaced the trios,” lamentedGilberto.

The brothers went their separate ways, pur-suing solo careers. Gilberto is best known inthe U.S. for the work he did with Linda Ron-stadt on her 1987 album Canciones de mi Padre,brought into the project by Ronstadt’s musicaldirector, Ruben Fuentes, who had been Gilber-to’s guitar teacher in Mexico City in the 1950s.That album remains the best selling non-Eng-lish record in American history, and Gilberto

played on the two follow-up albums as well.Outside the U.S., Gilberto’s seven solo recordsare still widely available.

By the 1990s the trio romantico style wasagain popular in Latin America and, perhaps

surprisingly, Europe — particularly Spain andIreland. The brothers reformed Los Tres Reyeswith Luis Villa, from another classic-era trio.They released one album, El Retorno de Los

“All my life has been music. From ten in themorning until the afternoon. Every day.”

—Gilberto Puente

See REYES, Page 28


James “Super Chikan” JohnsonBluesClarksdale, Miss.


SSaattuurrddaayy:: 5:15 p.m. (Penobscot, Saturday Night: SundayMorning Blues & Gospel Traditions); 7:45 p.m. (DancePavilion).

SSuunnddaayy:: 12:30 p.m. (Dance Pavilion); 5 p.m. (Railroad).


First of all, let’s clear this up: It’s spelled“Chikan” but it’s pronounced “chicken.”

Second of all, an explanation of that. WhenJames Johnson was a boy, working with hisfamily from plantation to plantation, he tookquite a liking to the chickens on the farms —and they to him.

“They would call my name and they wouldtalk,” Johnson said. “I was so imaginative — itsounded like they were saying things. I’d talk,and they’d respond.”

His friends called him “Chikan Boy,” and thechildhood misspelling took its place as his offi-cial moniker. But that had nothing to do withhis music at first, which began when he wasjust 6 years old. He made his first diddley bow— a one-stringed instrument that was basicallya piece of baling wire on a board, not anuncommon hobby in the Mississippi Delta. But

Johnson had a hunger for music that tran-scended a hobby.

Johnson would take his homemade diddleybow and crawl under the porches where the oldfolks were gathered and playing their instru-ments, and he’d play with them. They couldn’thear his strumming but, to that little boy, hewas playing the blues.

But blues is more than playing; you have toknow what it means to have the blues. Andmaybe few people know what it’s like morethan Johnson. His grandfather was first cousinto legendary bluesman Robert Johnson, thecharismatic and versatile musician who wasreputed to have made a deal with the devil to

become such an astonishing musician inso brief a time. Robert died when he wasallegedly poisoned with a bottle of strych-nine-laced whiskey.

Johnson’s grandfather had some of thefamily talent, and in fact played withRobert. More importantly, he filled therole of father figure in young “ChikanBoy” Johnson’s life. But one day, in a fit ofrage, he came after his wife with a knife.“Chikan Boy” was there when it hap-pened, and saw his grandmother defendherself with a gun. She told his grandfa-ther not to come any closer, but heattacked her. She shot him in the head.

“He was dead, and I looked into hiseyes,” Johnson recalled. “He looked meright in the eyes, and I stared in thoseeyes for two or three minutes. I guess I feltsome kind of sensation; now I realize itwas a spell. My granddad was an evilman. I’ve had the blues ever since, and Ihad it real strong... I think the spell ofRobert Johnson was handed down to me,”Johnson said. “I’ve been living the RobertJohnson style of life, and the hellhoundsare still on my trail.”

If that wouldn’t give a guy the blues,nothing would. Johnson found his first gui-tar at the Salvation Army. It had just two intactstrings, but he learned to play those two stringsbefore he could afford to add more. After all,two strings was twice as many as his diddleybow, and he’d done all right with that.

He worked a number of jobs as an adult, andwound up driving tractor trailers, and healways played his guitar and composed songs.One day, while driving his truck, he heard onthe radio that songwriters made more moneythan most performers. He realized he could dothat, but friends told him his lyrics would justbe mere words to other singers, without thedeep meaning they held for Johnson. They con-vinced him to record his own music.

So in 1997, at age 46, James “Super Chikan”Johnson released his first album. He was nomi-nated for his first award a year later, and hasbecome a blues sensation. He’s released fourmore albums since; his latest won the 2010

Blues Music Award for Traditional BluesAlbum, and he’s racked up plenty of awards.When you hear him play, you’ll see why.

Listening to Super Chikan sing is like listen-ing to the blues for the first time all over again,

rediscovering a powerful musical genre donelike nobody else does it. His vocals are deepand real, relaxed and powerful, and no matterwhat he plays, his guitar work is awesome. Andhe plays many, since he custom-makes his gui-tars out of anything he can find that wouldmake a good guitar — a cigar box, a gas can, abike tank, a jewelry box — or even an old ceil-ing fan that had died, and he thought hedeserved more mileage out of it. That was afunction of how he was raised.

“I took a liking to making things and collect-ing things,” he said. “We were recycling beforewe knew what recycling was. Every time wethrew something away, we took a second look at

it.”Each of his guitars is unique in appear-

ance and sound, and might not even lookmuch like a typical guitar when you seehim playing it, but he’ll make it singbeautifully no matter what it looks like.He typically brings several guitars withhim (as well as his six-string diddleybow), often changing guitars for particu-lar songs. They’re quite popular; StevenSeagal, whose band Johnson toured theU.K. with, owns five. And he brings sevenor eight to Morgan Freeman’s GroundZero club, where he’s reportedly Free-man’s favorite performer.

Johnson has performed around theworld — Africa, Canada, Denmark, Fin-land, France, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Mexi-co, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Rus-sia, Switzerland, and the U.K. — not tomention all over the U.S., including forthe U.S. president. He’s returning toMaine for the first time since the 2009North Atlantic Blues Festival, and bringshis all-woman band, The Fighting Cocks,with him. The band includes his 25-year-old daughter, who has played since shewas 12 and was on the road at 15.

The awards and accolades keep coming,and Johnson keeps playing. With influencessuch as Robert Johnson, Chuck Berry, John LeeHooker, and Muddy Waters, Johnson managesto meld them all and still put that SuperChikan twist to make it all his own.

“I heard music you don’t hear today,” he said.“I kept that style and those songs and it kindastuck with me. I created my own music fromit… This is an old food with a new flavor.

“I’m a country boy,” Johnson said. “If youwant the real Mississippi Delta blues, here Iam. No training, no schooling, straight fromthe shoulder and the heart… When I walk onthe stage, what you see is what you get — somecountry-fried Chikan. I got to keep ‘em happyand satisfied. I got to bring ‘em down with asmile. I have to entertain. I’m not the presi-dent... I’m just like one of them, I come there toparty with them and have fun with them, so Ihave fun and get with the crowd.”

“I guess I felt some kind of sensation; now I realize it was a spell. My granddad was an evil man. I’ve hadthe blues ever since, and I had it real strong... I think the spell of Robert Johnson was handed down to me.

I’ve been living the Robert Johnson style of life, and the hellhounds are still on my trail.”

And with May being Asian-Pacific Heritage Month inWashington, “I have a lot of opportunity to show our cul-ture,” she said.

Asian-Pacific American Heritage Week originatedthrough a congressional bill in 1977; President JimmyCarter signed it into law in 1978, and President GeorgeH.W. Bush extended it to the entire month in 1992. Maywas chosen to commemorate the first Japanese immi-grants to the U.S. on May 7, 1843, and the mark the com-pletion of the transcontinental railroad in May 1869,work done mostly by Chinese immigrants. The celebra-tion is supported by the Web site www.AsianPacificHer-itage.gov, a joint project of the Library of Congress andmany other organizations.

Today, Bing is focused on moving forward into a newera, defining guzheng music for future generations. “Weare not only playing the traditional music; we also com-pose some modern music,” she said.

Traditionally, guzheng uses the traditional Chinesepentatonic scale, meaning five notes per octave — ascompared to the seven-note heptatonic most Americansare familiar with. But now Bing and her students areexpanding their music to cover modern genres, and thatmeans adapting their playing styles.

“Right now we compose a lot of modern guzhengmusic, and also we break out these traditional tuningscales,” she said. “We can use any scale that we want.”

The guzheng is very versatile, evoking sounds of every-thing from waterfalls to thunderstorms. Bing saysguzheng players can even simulate drum sounds. Sowhat is the secret to producing such a wide variety ofsounds with the guzheng?

“When you play the music, don’t only play the note —use your heart to play the music,” Bing said. “Maybethat’s the secret.”

Bing has never been to Maine, but she’s excited abouther upcoming visit. Luckily, folk festivals are nothingnew to her, but she’s eager to play before the festival-goers on the Bangor Waterfront. She’ll bring her appren-tice Rujia Teng with her, and the pair will tell us theirmusical stories in duets and solos.

“I am always telling the story of every piece I per-form,” Bing said, although sometimes there’s no storybut just beautiful music to be absorbed into. “Somepieces we just tell the story — maybe introduce somebeautiful places. But most of pieces we tell the storyfrom ancient tales.”

For Americans unfamiliar with old stories behind clas-sic guzheng music, Bing will sometimes introduce astory to a piece. “Then they can understand — they canimagine the story, I think,” she said.

To learn more about Bing Xia and the guzheng, visitwww.GuzhengUSA.org.

Tres Reyes, in 2001. Today the singeris cuban-born Bebo Cardenas, whoperformed with a number of triosin Puerto Rico and Cuba beforebeing asked to join Los Tres Reyesin 2004. He remains a member ofDos mas Dos in Cuba.

The brothers settled in San Anto-nio to be together as a family, andbecause of the city’s vibrant musicscene. San Antonio is only a fewhours north of Nuevo Loredo wherethe brothers grew up and begantheir careers. Gilberto and his wifeEva’s two sons live in Monterrey —one a lawyer, the other an engineer.

“All my life has been music,”Gilberto said. “From 10 in themorning until the afternoon. Everyday.” Even though none of theirchildren play professionally, all aremusical like their father and uncle,although their sons don’t prefer toperform publicly.

Today in Latin America, especial-

ly Central America and Columbia,there are music festivals dedicatedto the trio romantico form. LosTres Reyes’ appearances are muchanticipated. Gilberto says that thefestivals are not only popular withfolks who remember the golden ageof the genre, but the form hasbecome alive again for all ages. It isnow a traditional folk music of theregion. Gilberto and Los TresReyes are as much teachers andkeepers of tradition as they areentertainers, and they’re oftenemulated; there are even trios per-forming their songs in Japan andIreland.

Last year Los Tres Reyes played atthe National Folk Festival, in Butte,Mont. This summer they haveplayed around Mexico and in sever-al Latin American countries, andlook forward to bringing their tradi-tional music to a new audience inBangor. They will play many of theold songs, but may throw in a fewnew ones — even something Ameri-can. Gilberto and the trio hope thatwe enjoy their music as much asthey do.

ReyesContinued from Page 27

Bing XiaContinued from


Pedrito Martinez GroupAfro-Cuban

New York City

SSaattuurrddaayy:: 4:45 p.m. (Dance Pavilion); 8:45p.m. (Penobscot).

SSuunnddaayy:: Noon (Penobscot, World PercussionTraditions); 3:15 p.m. (Dance Pavilion).

BY GREG WESTRICHBANGOR DAILY NEWS

Pedrito Martinez’ speech is punctu-ated with words like “awesome,”“fantastic,” and “amazing.” Not forlack of English vocabulary, butbecause it is how Pedrito sees life.His music is filled with that sameinfectious optimism. The PedritoMartinez Group doesn’t sound likeany other Afro-Cuban act; more likeAfro-Cuban in a blender with funk,stirred up by Thelonious Monk. Inaddition to Pedrito onhand drums and vocals,the band includes per-cussionist Jhair Sala,bassist Alvaro Bena-vides, keyboardist AxelTosca Laugart, andpianist Araicne Trujillo.

Pedrito constantlyupdates and tweaks theband’s sound, but thedanceable groove is con-stant. Afro-Cuban jazzhas always been a con-versation among various Americanand Caribbean genres; think DizzyGillespie’s classic album “Swing LowSweet Cadillac,” for example. ThePedrito Martinez Group is keepingthe conversation current and rele-vant. But current doesn’t mean aban-doning the past; at times, the wholeensemble seems to be channelingThelonious Monk’s percussive styleand quirky playfulness. This is espe-cially obvious in the interplaybetween Pedrito’s drumming andTrujillo’s piano. When you hear theband, you’ll think jazz, but your bodywill feel Cuba, and feel like dancing.

Pedrito’s been to Maine twice, butnever to Bangor. He’s looking for-ward to bringing his unique Afro-Cuban jazz to the American Folk Fes-tival and to having a lobster dinnerwith his family. Just like at the otherfestivals he’s played this summer,Pedrito wants his music to “make alot of people have fun and dance.Everyone go crazy.”

Born in Havana in 1973, Pedritobecame a professional hand drum-mer at age 11, playing with a widevariety of acts. In 1988 he came toCanada to tour North America withJane Bunnett’s jazz band. It was sucha good learning experience that the15-year-old decided to stay. Pedritobecame a much-sought-after sessionmusician, performing on more than100 recordings for many Latin artistsas well as Cassandra Wilson, BruceSpringsteen, Elton John, and Sting.These recordings earned six Gram-

my nominations and a win for Sim-pático, a collaboration with EddiePalmer and Brian Lynch.

Eventually, Pedrito settled in NewYork City, where he still lives. In 2000he won the first Thelonious Monkcompetition to feature Afro-Cubanhand drumming, cementing his repu-tation as one of the world’s best handdrummers. Pedrito has been able tomake six or seven trips back to Cuba.Because of the Monk prize and havingbeen featured in the documentaryCalle 54, he is now famous in hishomeland. “I am treated like a king,”Pedrito said with a laugh. He has

spent many years playing with andlearning from a wide variety of musi-cians; now he is sometimes in theposition of teacher as well. Pedrito isquick to point how much he stilllearns from what he hears and plays,though.

For a number of years Pedritoplayed with the New York-based Afro-Cuban/Afro-beat fusion band YerbaBueno. For the first time he was partof regular band: writing songs, tour-ing the world, growing as a musicianand singer. Touring with YerbaBueno also gave Pedrito the chance toplay for audiences all around theworld, and to hear the local musicfrom places like Turkey and Indiathat continue to fascinate him.

In 2005 Pedrito formed his ownband with several other Latin Ameri-cans living in New York. They arethe house band at Guantanamera,where they play three nights a week,

and have recordedthree albums. It is thisband that will per-form at the AmericanFolk Festival.

For Pedrito, “Thebeauty of New York isall the cultures andinfluences.” He is verycurious, and into allkinds of music, buthis biggest influencesare what he callsAfrican music: funk,

blues, and jazz. It is illegal to playAmerican music in Cuba, so being inNew York has allowed Pedrito toexplore a lot of music not availableto him in his youth. “I learn somuch,” Pedrito said, noting that hismusic comes “Fifty percent fromCuba, 50 percent from here.”

His influences are many and var-ied, but his inspiration is his daugh-ter Viona. She was born two yearsafter he won the Monk award; hergrowth has mirrored Pedrito’s as amusician. He speaks lovingly of sit-ting at his drums with her, as a tod-dler, on his lap during recording ses-

sions. “It’s the best energy,” he said.As she grew, Pedrito included her inhis band’s work, even building anentire song around her voice. Vionaenables Pedrito to see “the way lifegets better and better… I am veryhappy in my life.”

Pedrito’s music is his life, but notin the sense that he is obsessed withit and neglects those around him.Rather, it is his life in that every-thing — his daughter, his wife, themusic he hears, the experiences hehas — becomes part of his music.Everything goes into that Afro-Cuban blender, which TheloniousMonk sits stirring, and comes out

infectiously alive. It is not possible tolisten dispassionately to the PedritoMartinez Group. At the very least,your body feels the need to move.

This July his parents were able tocome to New York for the first timesince Pedrito left Cuba. Togetherthey celebrated Viona’s ninth birth-day. Asked what he thought abouthaving his whole family together forthe first time, Pedrito said, “Awe-some, brother.”

With a life this full and joyous, it’sanyone’s guess where Pedrito’smusic will go next. Wherever thatmay be, Bangor will get a preview atthis year’s American Folk Festival.

“The beauty of New York is allthe cultures and influences. Ilearn so much… [my music is]

50 percent from Cuba, 50percent from here.”

—Pedrito Martinez

never heard that song... we have tofind a way to put this together,’” Shu-mays recalled.

He and his wife were independent-ly working with musicians anddancers at the time, and broughtthem together to form Zikrayat. Thegroup won’t be bringing dancers toBangor, but Shumays pointed outthe cultural issues of Arabic danc-ing. Americans view belly dancingas exotic and don’t understand thatit’s an art form; yet in the Arabworld, it isn’t often viewed as such,either. In those old movies, plotsoften oriented around female char-acters who were dancers, and whohad difficult lives because of that,or were hiding the fact that theywere dancers.

“We’re trying to equalize themusic and the dance artistically,both because the dance had this badrap both in the Arab world and

here,” Shumays said. “And also, onthe other side of it, it’s a way ofpresenting the more intense artmusic in a way that has more of afun context.”

Whether Arab or American, Shu-mays said Zikrayat’s audiencesenjoy the show. “They love it,” hesaid. “I think that’s partly becauseit’s unfamiliar stuff … You can getpeople interested if there’s a littlebit of variety. I have really greatperformers, and we present a verydynamic show. We’ve gotten a verypositive reaction.”

Zikrayat has done many festivals,including in Lowell, Mass., butaside from a trip here for a friend’swedding, Shumays hasn’t experi-enced Maine. “I’m looking forwardto it,” he said. “I always like goingto new places, and I very much likebringing our music to new audi-ences.”

Zikrayat tops out at about 14members, including seven or eightmusicians and five dancers, butShumays rarely travels with theentire ensemble. There will be four

in Bangor: Shumays on violin,Tareq Abboushi on buzuq (a long-necked, fretted lute); ApostolosSideris on bass; and Faisal Zedanon percussion. The group will puton a show that recalls classic per-formances from those films, someof them remembered and manylong forgotten, bringing to us theculture and folklore of anotherland.

The group is a mix of American-born Arabs, like Shumays; nativeArabs living in the U.S.; and evensome Americans who are not Arabat all. For example, his bass player,Apostolos Sideris, is Greek ofEgyptian parents. His dancers aremostly not Arabic, as Arab womentend to not be belly dancers for cul-tural reasons.

Coming to Bangor with Zikrayatis Youssef Kassab, a Syrian who haslived in the U.S. for nearly 40 years.“He’s really, on the East Coast, prob-ably the greatest living mastervocalist of the old style — both theSyrian and the Egyptian tradi-tions,” said Shumays. “When we’re

doing a show with him, it’s moreabout him than a lot of the otherstuff we do.”

Kassab’s work overlaps withtheirs, but he leans more towardheavier stuff but also does morelight folkloric genres. Shumays saysthey’ll do a number of differentthings with Kassab in Bangor. “Hereally knows how to get an audienceworked up and excited,” Shumayssaid. “He engages very well with theaudience.”

At 75, Kasaab still has great vocalpower and the ability to capture awhole range of moods. “It’s really alot of fun to perform with him, andI think the audiences will find himvery engaging,” Shumays said. “In asense, Youssef represents the Arab-American tradition… This sort ofArab-American performance hasbeen here a long time, and he’s oneof the great representatives ofthat.”

Shumays, born and raised in NewYork City, says he feels a sense ofpride in his Arab heritage, and aresponsibility to show this particu-

lar subculture to others. “You’realways educating at the same timeas you’re performing,” he said.“There’s always a little bit of cul-tural ambassadorship, because it’sunfamiliar audiences, and it’s niceto expose new people to it and getnew people existed about somethingthat you love.”

That’s especially true recently,when there’s more positive atten-tion on the Arab world, after a morenegative view in the past 10 years.

“There’s this sort of feeling thatArabs aren’t complete humanbeings — that Arabs are Muslimsand terrorists,” said Shumays.“There’s a strong stereotype ofArabs that’s built up over the lasthundred years; there’s this sort oflayer of assumptions about a groupof people you’re not familiar with.But when people do see that we’redoing something that, from theArab culture, is entertaining andfun and interesting and engaging —it gives them a different picture,and that’s something good that I feellike I can do.”

ZikrayatContinued from Page 25


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The Brotherhood SingersAfrican Americana cappella GospelNorthern Kentucky

SSaattuurrddaayy:: 5:15 p.m. (Penobscot, SaturdayNight, Sunday Morning: Blues & GospelTraditions); 7:30 p.m. (Railroad).

SSuunnddaayy:: Noon (Railroad); 5 p.m. (TwoRivers).

BY SHEILA GRANTBANGOR DAILY NEWS

Gospel might be the beginning andthe end for the Brotherhood Singers,an African American a cappellagospel group, but it is not the wholestory.

“When we come to Maine, we planto open up into all areas of the spir-it,” said Eric “Ric” Jennings, presi-dent of the group. “We normallystart off with a patriotic song, andwe sing gospel, and we sing that songyour husband used to describe howmuch he loved you back when youstarted dating. We sing something foreveryone. The reason we decided tospread out into those other areas isthat some folks just aren’t comfort-able with gospel and we wanted toremind folks that you can get thatsame spirit and same joy byapproaching it from a differentangle.”

Jennings, who grew up in Ken-tucky in a family of singers andlearned his vocal techniques at theknee of his parents, took a circuitousroute to the stage. After high school,he went into law enforcement, spend-

ing two years with the U.S. ArmyMilitary Police. Returning to civilianlife and work with various policeforces, Jennings missed music. Hejoined the Ninth Street BaptistChurch choir in Covington, Ky., andthe church’s Brotherhood men’sgroup. Jennings was one of thefounding members when the North-ern Kentucky Brotherhood Singersformed their group in 1988.

“One thing Ric always likes to tellpeople is that we like to do music

that’s soothing to the taste buds ofthe soul,” said Stace Darden, whojoined the group in 2007. “Everythingwe’re about is not necessarily gospel,but it’s about feeling good, and inspi-ration and bringing them hope.Sometimes when ‘the word’ is spokento you, or preached, it can’t getthrough, but maybe music can getthrough to your soul.”

Darden was the youngest deacon

See BROTHERHOOD, next page

“Everything we’re about is not necessarily gospel,but we it’s about feeling good, and inspiration andbringing them hope. Sometimes when ‘the word’ isspoken to you, or preached, it can’t get through,but maybe music can get through to your soul.”

—Stace Darden


Samba NgoCongoleseSanta Cruz, Calif.


SSaattuurrddaayy:: Noon (Penobscot, Guitar Slingers &Song Singers); 3:30 p.m. (Railroad); 9:15 p.m.(Dance Pavilion).

SSuunnddaayy:: 4:30 p.m. (Dance Pavilion).


There’s something mesmerizingand infectious about listening toSamba Ngo and watching him per-form. You’ll find your feet unable tokeep still. You’ll want to get up andmove, which is why two of his showsat the festival will be at the DancePavilion. It looks as if the Pavilionwill be put to seriously good usewhen Samba takes the stage.

“Music is the soul,” he said. “Thespirit, for me, is only the soundprocess.”

Samba Ngo (pronounced “en-go”) issure to charm audiences, as he alwaysdoes, but amidst the dancingand fun, the audience willbe introduced to Samba’sworld, that of the AfricanCongo, and exposed tothings of which they’re per-haps unaware. And that’swhat Samba wants to do.

And Samba’s music getspeople dancing, and that’swhat he likes to see whenhe performs. “It’s my pleas-ure to share the music,” hesaid. “The music can makeyou dance, the music canmake you cry, the music can makeyou think. I love the music.”

Samba grew up in the village ofDibulu in the Democratic Republic ofCongo, where “Life was fantastic,”Samba said. “It was artisticallygood.”

He was drawn to music as a youngage, fascinated by the likembe — ahandheld “thumb piano,” usuallywith 15 or 17 notes, and sometimeswith a resonant chamber. (For themusically inclined, it’s a lamel-

lophone; players slide thumbs or fin-gers of tongues that vibrate to createresonance.) He also focused on thensambi, a instrument strung withpalm fibers. The influence of theseinstruments helped shape Sambalater as a master guitarist, with aunique style you won’t see elsewhere.

Key to his musical interests washis father’s use of music. His father,an nganga healer, played the nsambi.He used chants and songs along withhis herbal medicines in healing ritu-als, and it was through this thatSamba realized the natural healingpower of music.

“My father used to combine theplant and the music together. Everytime he used to cure, he used themusic,” Samba said. “Music —because we are music, we are sound,and now using sound to talk, you andme. It is the things we are… Thesound can help the healing becausewe are sound.”

Soon, Samba accompanied hisfather’s healing rituals by playingthe likembe. But as a young man, heknew that the people of the Congoneeded more than just physical heal-

ing — they needed cultural healingamidst the political and societal tur-moil that exploded in the 1960s.

Political unrest is nothing new inthe Congo, whose history and cul-ture stretches back 4,000 years. TheKingdom of Kongo was establishedaround 1400, unifying a broad regionbut including slavery as part ofeveryday life. When the Europeansarrived before the turn of the nextcentury, the region became a majorsource of exported slaves. War with

neighboring nations plagues thekingdom until civil war disrupted itfrom 1665-1709, but it recovered tosome degree, and several other king-doms existed. European division ofmost of Africa in the 1880s ended thenatives’ autonomous rule.

The 20th century saw greatchanges, especially with the politicalcrisis that began in 1960, and in 1964young Samba moved to the Congolesecity of Brazzaville to play guitar forinfluential band Echo Noire. Theband then relocated to Paris, soonbecoming well-known across Europeand Africa. Samba broke from EchoNoire in 1971 and founded a newgroup, M’Bamina, with Father Chris-tian De La Bretesche and AntoinneNkouka, recording nine albums andtouring the world for 14 years.

But Samba wanted more studioexperience, and wanted to expand hismusic, so in 1986 he moved to theUnited States. Today, living in SantaCruz, Calif., he often returns toParis, where’s he’s highly revered.Following the American Folk Festi-val, this goodwill ambassador whoeducates the world about his home-

land will return to theCongo for the first time inmany years to play a seriesof concerts.

Today, Samba sings in Lin-gala, his native language, aswell as French and English,and there’s always powerfulmeaning behind his songs.With 19 studio albums span-ning a career in Africa,France, and the U.S., hishomeland’s political tur-moil and societal challengesare always at the forefront

of his music.“It’s in my body very deeply, and I

try to communicate that,” he said.“Women are still raped in the Congo;we need to look for better things forourselves. The politicians cannot dothis for us. We never get peace. Wehave the most poor people. So poor,so poor… that is my struggle.”

Samba loves presenting to Ameri-cans. He has been to Maine before,but not to Bangor, and “I am reallyexcited” to come here, he says, as he

will be able to bring his music andculture to another new land.

“I think it is the way to communi-cate,” he said. “For me, I considermyself really the voice of those whodon’t have a voice in my country. Forme it’s very important for people toknow exactly who we are.”

Samba says all human beings aresound, and sound is what they’ll getat his performance. More than that,he hopes they hear a message in thatsound.

“I want them to hear about mycountry — something maybe some-

body didn’t hear about the Congoand, and they think for maybe fiveminutes about the Congolese and theAfrican people,” he said.

But in a broader sense, “[I want] tohave a better life for everybody onthe Earth,” he said. “We are travel-ers, we are traveling; we are bornand we’re going to die. And this isfantastic. That’s why it’s very good tohave this artistic communication.God presented life, and life is a gift…Music is life for me — life, communi-cation, and trying to bring that to theworld.”

ordained at the New Jerusalem Baptist Churchin 1999, which earned him the nickname“Babydeac.” Darden, his wife, and six childrenare members of the Solid Rock Church in Mon-roe, Ohio, where he has ministered on thePraise Team with the Fire Choir, and as asoloist during services. Darden also performswith the Duke Energy Choir. Being an Ohiomember of a Kentucky-based group, Darden isquick to point out, “They had to come acrossthe river to get real singers!”

“If you sing, on your way to heaven you justmight have to come through Kentucky,” Jen-nings fired back, laughing.

Audiences might assume that the Brother-hood are traditional gospel singers — untilthey see them in person.

“When they get the chance to meet these guyspersonally, and a chance to experience the min-istry, the audience relaxes,” said Jennings.“This is a great bunch of guys who just act likethemselves. They don’t pretend to be any betterthan anyone else.”

Greg Page is another founding member ofthe Brotherhood and, like Jennings, served in

the U.S. Army, and joined the Ninth Street Bap-tist choir once he became a civilian. Before hisstint in the army, Page sang with radio stationWCIN with “Bugs” Scruggs.

Eric Riley has been an opening act for RayCharles, The Dixie Hummingbirds, M.C. Ham-mer, Ike Turner, and other artists. He has madetwo appearances as a background vocalist onthe Bobby Jones Gospel Hour on televisionchannel BET. When he’s not crooning with theBrotherhood, Riley enjoys teaching vocals atthe Frank Duvenek Center in Covington, Ky.

Demetrius “Chilly Wind” Davenport began hissinging career at age 7 in front of his elemen-tary school student body. His a cappella skillswere honed under the tutelage of David Godfrey,currently of The Mistics, and the late WilliamGodfrey, of The Original Harptones of Cincin-nati. Davenport, like most of the Brotherhood,felt the call of duty to country, and served forseven years as a United States Marine.

In his professional bio, Jennings mentionsbeing thankful to the Lord for “the manyprayers from families and friends even whentimes seem hopeless.” That, he said, refers tothe early days of the group.

“Some of the guys had personal matters thatthey were challenged with, and trying to putthat together with the group schedule made forsome difficult moments,” said Jennings. “We

thought at times we might have to take a breakfor a while, but we stayed in prayer and turnedit over to the Almighty, and when you do thatyou always get things done. At one time we justdidn’t think we were going to be able to moveforward with this group, but when we rootedourselves in faith, it made a big difference. Imentioned the hard times because I wanted toshow that you can overcome anything throughChrist. Looking back now, those hard times arewhat helped us to grow stronger.”

The Brotherhood Singers have performed inchurches, secular music venues, and televisionspots throughout the United States, and havetoured in Canada and Spain. Their fifth albumis currently in production.

Jennings and Darden have never been toMaine, and don’t think other Brotherhoodmembers have, either. “I’m planning on briningsome extra oxygen with me because I under-stand it is breathtaking up there,” said Jen-nings. “We are looking forward to being in themidst of you good folks.”

In addition to inspiring their audiences inBangor, Jennings and Darden are looking for-ward to experiencing local cuisine. Darden is afan of “really good clam chowder” and is look-ing forward to trying other foods “you can onlyget up in Bangor, Maine.” Jennings, a fan ofthe Travel Channel’s show Bizarre Foods, has

seen footage featuring Maine delicacies and islooking forward to sampling as many as possi-ble — though he hasn’t managed to develop ataste for lobster despite his best efforts.

Darden said the Brotherhood Singers areespecially pleased that one of their perform-ances at the American Folk Festival is theopening slot on Sunday. Jennings said thegroup is looking forward to being interactivewith the audience, and that often someone fromthe crowd is selected to come up on stage andsing with them.

“You can come up and sing in any key youwant and these guys can pick it up immediate-ly,” he said.

“If they allow us to have cordless micro-phones, they may be in trouble, too, because wemay be down in the crowd with them,” addedDarden. It’s not all fun and games, though.

“Singing a cappella is a lot like walking on atightrope without a net,” Darden said. “Westart out on a key, and once you start, that’s it.You have to go with it. We have to have a lot offaith and practice so that when it’s time tosing we hit the right note at the right time. Ifpeople notice we’re not on the right note, theymay also notice that we’ll start to laugh ormake faces at each other, but within a coupleof bars we’re back on track. We try to havefun with it.”

BrotherhoodContinued from previous page

“Music is the soul. The spirit, forme, is only the sound process.”

“It’s my pleasure to share themusic. The music can make you

dance, the music can make you cry,the music can make you think.

I love the music.”


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and got myself a signed CD and a gratefulcowboy who got a newspaper clipping thathe planned to give to his mother.

The last year of the National in 2004brought more than two dozen acts. I con-tinued my French fascination with Creoleand zydeco from Dexter Ardoin and Acadi-an from Vishten. Irish step dancing got myheart pounding with Donny Golden andCara Butler.

More blues flowed into town with JoeWillie “Pinetop” Perkins. And The QuebeSisters blew everyone away with theiryouthful grace and Texas fiddling. Gypsy

music filled the air with the hypnotic Har-monia, and the sound of the dobro guitarfrom Jerry Douglas showed why he is aregular contributor to the music of AlisonKrauss.

I fell in love again, this time with an ele-gant world traveler, Ricardo Lemvo, whospoke French to me when he heard myname and signed his CD of African-Cubanmusic with hearts.

Yes, hearts. For me.The question for 2005 was whether the

first American Folk Festival on the BangorWaterfront would deliver the same punchas the National.

It did.The Skatalites brought Jamaican ska, a

music driven by the horns. And was thereever such a delightfully sultry night aswhen Bettye LaVette belted out the blues

with a sweet, sweet rhythm?The cool and hip sounds of Don Vappie

and the Creole Jazz Serenaders made mefeel like I’d been transported back in time,shooting the breeze with the gang.

My favorite that year was Steve Rileyand the Mamou Playboys, a Cajun bandthat rocked the dance tent and the rest ofthe waterfront. One never would haveknown from their shows that wearing ontheir minds was the forecasted HurricaneKatrina, which was bearing down on theirhome state of Louisiana.

In 2006, we had the heart-thumpingJapanese taiko drumming. For dancing,Grupo Fantasma made the ground shakein the dance tent. And the performancethat made you shiver and marvel at the

MusicContinued from Page 5

Continued on next page

BANGOR DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTOWylie Gustafson wakes up the crowd with his real Western

music in 2003.


same time were the Tuvan throatsingers, an eerie but compellingsound made by one person voicingtwo or more pitches at the same time.

2007 brought klezmer andmerengue and Inuit throat singing toBangor. There were electric bluesand acoustic blues, a barbershopquartet and Jamaican reggae. Therewas Finnish and Polish music. And itall flowed along the waterfront asnatural as the Penobscot.

You could do the seductive Argen-tine tango in 2008, or laugh to theantics of Chuck & Albert with theirAcadian sensibilities. We had Moroc-can, Persian and Senegalese, alongwith Irish, Haitian and Caribbean.And the beat went on and on with themesmerizing Jason Samuels Smith, atap dancer extraordinaire, and Pan-

dit Chitresh Das, a North IndianKathak dance master, as they showedhow cultures are echoes of eachother because we humans have a lotin common.

A cowboy named Brice Chapman,this one a trick roper, wowed thecrowd in 2009, while the gentle voiceand awesome imagination of GeneTagaban, a Tlingit storyteller andmusician, soothed the souls of every-one listening. There was Brazilianand Bulgarian, Ethiopian andAndean.

Last year, we heard from RahimAlHaj, who plays the Iraqi oud, withits haunting sounds. Noreum Machidelivered colorful, thumping tradi-tional drumming and dances ofKorea, while The Other Europeansbrought together klezmer and gypsymusic from a region where the two

cultures once lived in harmonybefore World War II disrupted lives.

And the pure energy from the PineLeaf Boys lit up the Queen City asthey rocked the town with Cajunsounds.

This is what has filled our sensesthe last weekend in August since2002. Scores of performers have jour-

neyed to this city — a near-fableddestination now in folk circlesaccording to some musicians — tobring us the world as we never wouldhave experienced it otherwise. It hashelped to transform this waterfrontin ways we never would have imag-ined without that seed planted somany performances ago.

The words of a cowboy who playedhere long ago saunter through mymind at every festival because theyembody what this event is.

“On a summer day, under clearblue skies, my troubles flitter awaylike a little bird, I’m in paradise.”

Welcome to our folk festival.Welcome to paradise.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY DAVID M. FITZPATRICKRahim AlHaj entrances audiences with his lute-like oud in 2010.

Continued from previous page


FOLK|FoodDozens of dining options all across the Festival site

CHILDREN’SVILLAGE

St. Johns Episcopal ChurchBangor, Maine

Popcorn, string cheese singles,Gogurt singles, Flavor Ice popsi-cles, fruit snax singles, pretzels,Nabisco cookie singles, Utz orSun chip singles, Ritz bits, cook-ies, peanut butter and jelly.Oranges, apples, more.

DANCE TENTFOOD COURT

Aucoin ConcessionsLitchfield, Maine

Lemonade, fruit smoothies,iced tea, hot chocolate.

Camden Doughnut Co.Lincolnville, Maine

Fresh mini donuts, cold applecider, frozen cappucino, iced andhot coffee, Klondike bars.

CC’s Spiral Sweet PotatosSarasota, Fla.

Sweet potato chips, regularpotato chips, fried pickles, lob-ster bisque, clam chowder, corndogs, fried bananas foster.

Siri GrillManassas, Va.

Thai grilled chicken, vegetablefried rice, vegetable fried noo-dles, fried plantains, vegetableeggrolls.

The Paddy WagonPresque Isle, Maine

French fries, hot dogs, cheese-burgers, Italian sausage, onionrings, tenderloin clams, chickentenders, nachos.

MAIN FOODCOURT

Aucoin ConcessionsLitchfield, Maine

Lemonade, fruit smoothie, icedtea, hot chocolate.

Crescent FoodsMiddlebury, Vt.

Vegetarian fare: burritos, que-sadillas, cajun red beans andrice, portobello wrap, Szechuannoodles, salad wrap, iced chai,iced green tea, lemonade, assort-ed teas.

Fair CatchPenobscot, Maine

Lobster meat rolls, crabmeatrolls, Maine French fries.

Fat Guys ConcessionGray, Maine

Sausage subs, steak subs, ham-burgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs,kielbasa, potato chips, whoopiepies.

First Congregational Churchof BrewerBrewer, Maine

Handmade root-beer floats, hotand cold cider.

Fruit Bouquets by RogersMarketBrewer, Maine

Granny Smith apples dipped incaramel then coated with top-pings and chocolate, chocolatedipped strawberries or pineap-ple.

Hammond StreetCongregational ChurchBangor, Maine

Bean suppah, hot dogs, beans,

cole slaw, brownie, ice cream, hotand iced coffee.

Hampden Congregational ChurchHampden, Maine

Strawberry shortcake, blueber-ry shortcake, coffee, tea, hotchocolate.

Latin ExpressBangor, Maine

Empanadas, tamales, salsa.

Maine Falafel CompanyWashington, Maine

Falafel flat bread sandwiches,chicken flatbread sandwiches.

Mr. Jacks Catering ServiceBillerica, Mass.

Deep-fried mac & cheese,sausage subs, hot dogs, burgers,turkey legs, hot wings, Frenchfries, steak-tip subs, pulled-porksandwich.

Noon Family Sheep FarmSpringvale, Maine

Lamb: shishkebab, sausage,lamb & veggie wrap, chops, ribs.

Orrs Island ChowderOrrs Island, Maine

Orrs Island chowder.

Pizza Pie on the FlyPortland, Maine

Gourmet wood-fired pizza

St. George Greek Orth. ChurchBangor, Maine

Gyros, souvlaki, Athenianburgers, spanakopita, baklava,kourambiethes, rizogalo, lemon-ade, coffee.

Stone ConcessionsWhitefield, Maine

Blooming onions.

Taste of IndiaBangor, Maine

Samosa, nan, chicken tikimasala, lamb curry, mix vegeta-bles, aloo palak, chicken masala,mango juice, mango lassi, lassi.

Three Leaf FoodsCumberland, Maine

Sauteed veggie and veggie andchicken wraps.

Vicky’s ConcessionsSkowhegan, Maine

Crab rangoon, chicken satay,chicken wings, pad Thai, Thailomien, Thai fried rice, chickenwith broccoli, sweet and sourchicken, garlic chicken, noodleswith vegetables.

Yogi’s Traveling KitchenSpringfield, Maine

Doughboys, funnel cakes.

RAILROADBULKHEAD

FOOD COURTHammerhead SeafoodSt. Petersburg, Fla.

Alligator bites, crawfish etouf-fee, bourbon chicken, shrimpcreole, crab cake etouffee, craw-fish, po-boys, beignets, iced tea.

John’s Ice CreamLiberty, Maine

Ice cream, sundaes.

Mainely CookoutsNewburgh, Maine

Pulled-pork sandwiches.

Mainely Smoked SalmonPerry, Maine

Smoked salmon sticks, smokedhaddock steaks, smoked salmondip.

Nickersons Kettle CornNewburgh, Maine

Kettle corn.

The Smoothie ShackCamden, Maine

Sandwich wraps, smoothies.

United Cerebral Palsy of MaineBangor, Maine

Blueberry smoothies.

Tim HortonsCoffee, capuccino, donuts


FOLK|KidsThe American Folk Festival has activities galore for adventurous kids!

BANGOR DAILY NEWSPHOTO BY DAVID M.

FITZPATRICKThere will still be

facepainting in theChildren’s Village,

but in addition to theusual designs, kids

will be able to getimages and symbolsfrom the various eth-

nic communitiespainted as well as

they get exposed tofour unique cultures:

Chinese, Franco-American/Acadian,Latino, and Native

American.


Every year, great things happen inthe children’s area. But this yearpromises to be the greatest yet, as thechildren’s area, headed by the MaineDiscovery Museum as it has for theprevious nine years of the AFF, fullyembraces the varied folk traditionsof the American Folk Festival toimmerse 3,000 to 4,000 kids in newcultures and great fun.

The Children’s Village will featureactivities and events in ethnic“neighborhoods” where children canlearn about other cultures. Theneighborhoods will be orientedaround the Town Square, wherethere will be other programming.

“I’m very excited that, for probablythe first time in nine years, there’smore community involvement,” saidTrudi Plummer, director of educa-tion at MDM. “There are otherorganizations and other groups thatare involved in this and not just theMaine Discovery Museum… I’m real-ly excited that it’s an authentic cul-

tural contribution. We have groupswho are really thinking about whatchildren are doing in their culturesfor crafts, and bringing it to the folkfestival and teaching the children.”

Of course, kids love crafts. “Everytime you have a toy or somethingthat makes noise or something thatglows — the kids just love it,” Plum-mer said. “If it’s something that theycan play with, they can play with theband, that’s just a really, really goodproject… If you give kids an open-ended project with attractive materi-als, they’ll run with it.”

It was AFF board member MariaBaeza who first came up with theethic-communities idea, and once shetold others about it, the excitementhas been building.

“In Puerto Rico, every town has aplaza, a town square,” said Baeza, aPuerto Rican native. “And that’swhere everyone congregates andexchanges stories and exchangeswhatever. And I thought, ‘We couldhave a town square.’”

Niles Parker, director of the MaineDiscovery Museum, came up with

the idea to add a Passport for thechildren to bring to the variousneighborhoods. The Passport willfeature pages for area stamps andinformation, a “draw your picture”page, a place to record “My FestivalFavorites,” and more.

“There is no end to where we cango with this,” Baeza said.

The NeighborhoodsAll the neighborhoods will have

language lessons for kids. The kidswill learn how to say basic wordsand phrases such as “please,” “thankyou,” “hello,” “good-bye,” and “I loveyou” in various language.

Each neighborhood will have spe-cial crafting events going on. Here’swhat’s expected as of press time.

The Native American neighbor-hood, headed by Brianne Lolar, willfeature crafts making drums or rat-tles, as well as painting and drawinganimals.

The Franco-American & Acadi-an neighborhood, with Rhea CoteRobbins at the helm, will show chil-dren how to make spoons (as in

musical instruments). There willalso be gigueux, paper dancing dollsknown as “dancing jacks.”

In the Latino neighborhood, MariaSandweiss will help children makemaracas, Mexican flowers, and yarnpaintings.and papel picado, which ispaper cut into intricate designs.

And in the Chinese neighborhood,Bingyu Zhang will show childrenhow to make paper lanterns, andchildren can play the popular Chi-nese children’s game of “Go Fishing”to win sticker prizes.

Other Components tothe Children’s Village

Facepainting: This popular eventwill still occur, this time with thepainters doing images and symbolssuggested by the various communi-ties.

Street mosaic: Kids will be able totake chalk and create their own graf-

fiti on Broad Street.Baby activity areaStory time: Stories with the Rais-

ing Readers program, multi-lingualversions of Children’s stories

Nursing Moms’ tent

Town Square ActivitiesThe Children’s Village will feature

a small stage, and things will begoing on Saturday and Sunday. Fortimes and days, check out the Chil-dren’s Village schedule on the map inthe center of this supplement.

Here’s what the kids will find:Merengue: Kids will learn this

popular Latin American dance.Franco-American/Acadian songs

with Michael Parent.Native American dancing, drum-

ming, or chant groups.Chinese “rabbit dance” lessons

©2011 Machias Savings Bank. Member FDIC.

At Machias Savings

Bank we believe in

the enrichment of the

communities we live in.

That’s why we are proud

to support The American

Folk Festival, because

it brings the tradition

and excitement of

cultures from across

the world right to our

own back yard.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY DAVID M. FITZPATRICKYoung volunteers help the Maine Discovery Museum in many ways, including

preparing crafts for the children’s area at the American Folk Festival. Kalyn VanValkenburgh (left), 17, of Erskine Academy, interns at Penobscot Theater, doing

children’s camps in the morning and decided to volunteer at the MDM. “It’s a funplace to be,” she said. Her partner, Eva Leaden , 12, of All Saints Catholic

School, said, “I just do it for the fun of it.” Kalyn is holding Latin American mara-cas and Franco-American paper dancing dolls, and is wearing Mexican paper

flowers. Eva is holding a Chinese paper lantern with a light inside and a NativeAmerican paper-cut fish. Kids will be able to make all these and more in the

Children’s Village on Saturday and Sunday.

See KIDS, next page


Chinese dances with Jie ChenPoetry with The Sardine Project

poets, Gary Lawless and Karen Spit-fire

“Page to Stage” with OtrudeMoyo & Lulu Hawkes

Sugandha Shankar will demon-strate dances from India

And there will be presentationsfrom students in the InternationalProgram at the University of Maine.

Why This Is ImportantBaeza talks about the importance

of the new Children’s Village and thevarious ethnic neighborhoods:

“I have memories of growing up inNew York and having friends fromdifferent ethnic backgrounds andvisiting them, which usually meantvisiting ethnic neighborhoods. I was

thinking about the Chil-dren’s Area and how toincorporate the overallexperience of the Ameri-can Folk Festival; i.e.;experiencing the rich tra-ditions of diverse cul-tures. What if we createdneighborhoods wherekids had the opportunityto experience the rich-ness of different cul-tures? The more weshared these ideas, themore the idea grew: let’sdo passports, let’s havethe face painting reflectsymbols from those neigh-borhoods, let’s share activitiesthat come from the traditions ofthese cultures. Let’s have a townsquare like I remembered from Puer-to Rico, “una plaza,” where the peo-ple from those cultural neighbor-hoods gathered to share their stories,their music, their dance, their tradi-tions with each other. What a great

opportunity to have the various eth-nic communities in Maine be able toshare their cultures with the chil-dren of Maine. That is at the heart ofthe Children’s Village: a meetingplace for neighbors to learn abouteach other, to learn how we are dif-ferent and yet the same.”

The Maine Discovery Museum Children’s Village

WISH LISTTHE MUSEUM NEEDS YOUR HELP!The Children’s Village is an ambitious project to serve thousands of kids.The Maine Discovery Museum needs your help with donations of crafting

materials. If you, your friends, your family, or your neighbors have anythinglike these items around the house that you’re not using, the MDM can use

them! Don’t have anything kicking around but want to help out? Visit a localdollar store, and you can come up with plenty of helpful materials for just a

few bucks.

VERY IMPORTANT: For a drum making project we need various tins and canisters:

Metal coffee cansOatmeal and breadcrumb containers

Cookie tinsPowdered formula containers

WE ALSO NEED:Glue sticksSeashells

Silk Flowers, even little bits and piecesMasking tape and scotch tape

Ribbon and ribbon scrapsBeads and ButtonsSequins and glitter

Colorful yarn and FeathersBits and pieces of costume jewelry

Pipe CleanersLeft over craft supplies like glue, markers, etc.

Hole punches, child proof scissors

Simply drop off your bags or boxes at the front desk of the Maine DiscoveryMuseum in downtown Bangor and let the desk staff know it’s for the

American Folk Festival; leave your name and contact information if youwant to. If you’re unsure whether or not your goodies can be used, please

call (207) 262-7200 (Trudi Plummer) or [email protected].

KidsContinued from previous page

Maria Baeza


FOLK|DemosThen handing down of Maine’s heritage

Pages 37-40

Visitors to the Folk and Traditional Arts Area near the Har-bor Master building will learn about how Maine Farm tradi-tions have played and continue to play an important role inMaine’s history. Maine Farmers are innovative and are work-ing to find ways to continue to provide food security to Mainepeople in the future.

Come by the folk and traditional arts area to meet some oftoday’s farmers, or learn how to keep bees, make a cold frame,create compost, or garden in containers. Learn how to save

money by making your own bread and pancake mixes, pre-serving garden produce safely, and making your own cheeses.Watch local chefs prepare delicious meals from farmer’s mar-ket produce.

Hear farmers talk about how they are meeting today’s ener-gy and climate change challenges, and listen to some ofMaine’s farmer poets and musicians talk about how theiroccupation shapes their artistic creations. Come by the demon-stration tent and view exhibits of Native American creations

that celebrate the trees and plants; watch a Micmac basket-maker build a potato basket or learn how Passamaquoddiesmake herbal medicines.

New this year is a farmer’s market, next to the Harbor Mas-ter Building and open Saturday and Sunday all day until 5 p.m.Also new: a fun, exciting, and tasty cooking contest on Sunday,featuring chefs from some of Bangor’s downtown restaurantsand fresh farmer’s market food.

Come and support our Maine farms!

Folk Preservers

Maine Folklife CenterUniversity of Maine

The Maine Folklife Center is charged with organizing the Folk And Tradi-tional Arts area at the festival. We are collaborating with the Hudson Muse-um, The Page Farm and Home Museum, and University Extension in present-ing exhibits and demonstrations for this year’s program on Maine’s FarmingTraditions.

The mission of the Maine Folklife Center at UMaine is to enhance under-standing of the folklife, folklore, and history of Maine and Atlantic Canada,to encourage appreciation of the diverse cultures and heritage of the region,and thereby to strengthen and enrich our communities. To fulfill our missionwe collect — primarily through the use of recorded interviews — preserve,study, and disseminate information about the region’s history and traditionalcultures. The Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History is the archivaland preservation section of the Maine Folklife Center, which houses and man-ages all materials the Maine Folklife Center acquires. The Maine Folklife Cen-ter is the only organization in the state devoted to the documentation andstudy of the folklore and oral history of Maine and the Atlantic Provinces.For more information, visit:

www.umaine.edu/folklife

Hudson MuseumUniversity of Maine

Among the collection of the Hudson Museum are Maine Indian holdingsthat celebrate the region’s indigenous plants and trees. Plants were reveredand were used to create objects needed for everyday life, such as textiles, toolsand utensils. They were gathered as important foodstuffs in the local diet, andwere used for medicines for healing and well-being. Birchbark was the fabricof life in the Northeast and was used to make an extraordinary array ofdomestic and utilitarian objects. Etched plant designs commonly decoratedthese pieces. Carvings also featured plant motifs, especially rootclubs and bas-ket splint gauges which often included chip-carved plant motifs.

Barbara BrooksSeal Cove Farm

Seal Cove Farm’s co-owner, Barbara Brooks, acquired her first goat, aSaanen doe named Jill, in 1976. Her goat herd swiftly grew, and shedecided to try her hand at making cheese. She credits then-New Sharongoat farmers Camilla Stege, Doris Walker, and Penny Dunkin as hermentors and teachers. Over the years, she has honed her knowledgeand techniques learning how to make tommes (small, aged disks), pyra-mides (both natural and ash-covered), and bricks (both aged and fresh)from a French cheese maker in Provence. Seal Cove Farm graduallygrew from a kitchen operation to a licensed Grade A dairy. The goatherd, too, grew from 20 to 125.

Jason and Barbara KafkaCheckerberry Farm

Jason and Barbara have been on their farm for over 30 years. Theybegan by looking for a place to raise animals and a family and foundtheir “handyman special” in Parkman, with overgrown fields, a wood-lot that had never seen a skidder, and a house and barn that neededTLC. Over the years they insulated, they renovated and farmed, work-ing gardens and raising many animals. From a 40-acre 1860s farm thathadn’t been used much since the 1940s, they built Checkerberry Farm.Located in Parkman, Maine, population 700, the farm purchase was aquality-of-life decision and an affordable find when the Massachusettscouple began homesteading in 1981, reclaiming overgrown fields fordairy goats and Barbara’s garden.

Henry PerkinsBullridge Farm

Henry Perkins is an award-winning organic dairy farmer and anagricultural pioneer. His experiments with dozens of varieties ofgrains and oil seeds over the past decade, often under Sustainable Agri-culture Research and Education grants or otherwise partnered withuniversity faculty, have informed many New England researchers aswell as farmers. Henry was an organic dairy farmer for more than 30years. Located in Albion, Maine, Bullridge Farm is a plot of landwhere Henry raised a herd of 70 cows and heifers and grew his ownfeed grains. He is concurrently the president of the Maine OrganicMilk Producers and the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance,and is considered to be an agricultural trailblazer with a zeal for tryingunconventional ideas.

Kate FoglerFogler Farm/Stonyvale

Kate Fogler of Stonyvale (also known as the Fogler Farm) is a family-owned and -operated dairy farm in Exeter, Maine. Nine family membershelp care for the 1,025 milking cattle and 800 youngstock. The cattle arehoused in freestall barns and are milked twice daily in the farm’s paral-lel parlor. Stonyvale is currently a mixed herd of registered Holsteinand grade cattle. The farm originally began with registered animals,and Kate would like them to continue as a part of the farm’s future. Inaddition to improving the genetic quality of our herd, the biosecurity ofthe herd has been of great importance through all herd expansions. Thepurchase of embryos has allowed them to improve our herd geneticallyand still maintain a high level of biosecurity.

Beekeeping with Carol CotrillFox Run Farm

Carol was introduced to honeybees by her beekeeper uncle when she

Maine Farm Traditions

NARRATIVE STAGE PRESENTERSNARRATIVE STAGE

SCHEDULE

Saturday

Noon – 1 p.m.Meet Your Maine Farmers

Facilitator: Gary Anderson UMaineCooperative Extension. Panelists: Bar-

bara Brooks, Seal Cove Farm; JasonKafka, Checkerberry Farm; Henry

Perkins, Bullridge Farm

1 p.m. – 2 p.m.Food preservation Jason Bolton,UMaine Cooperative Extension

2 p.m. – 3 p.m.Growing Herbs with Master Gardener

Heather Gordon

3 p.m. – 4 p.m.Beekeeping Dos and Donts

with Carol Cottrill

4 p.m. – 5 p.m.Maine Farmer Poets

Facilitator: Judy HakolaPanelists: Sid and Sunny Stutzman,

Patricia Ranzoni, Russell Libby

Sunday

Noon – 1 p.m.Maine Farmer Poets

Facilitator: Judy Hakola.Panelists: Sid and Sunny Stutzman,

Patricia Ranzoni, Russell Libby

1 p.m. – 2 p.m.How to make cheese

Scott Belanger of Olde Oak Farms

2 p.m. – 3 p.m.How to Make Master Mixeswith Gail Lane, UM Extension

3 p.m. – 4 p.m.Farmer’s market cooking competition

Facilitator: Deb Averill

4 p.m. – 5 p.m.Cooking competitiontasting and judging

DEMONSTRATION TENTEXHIBITS

See NARRATIVE, Page 40

See EXHIBITS, Page 40


ONGOINGEXHIBITS

University of MaineCooperative ExtensionDonna Coffin

“Growing Vegetables in Contain-ers”: Raising vegetables in contain-ers is a way to overcome impedi-ments to gardening. Smaller fami-lies, limited time, smaller lots, andpoor soil drainage have been chal-lenges to many aspiring gardeners.We will have many containers of veg-etables grown this summer for you tosee. With careful attention to the typeof container, soil, site, plants percontainer, and variety selection, youcan have a successful mini-garden onyour deck or front step.

Donna Coffin is an Extension Pro-fessor with the University of MaineCooperative Extension. She hasworked in Piscataquis County for 30years assisting farmers and garden-ers with sustainable agriculture andhome horticulture questions. For thepast year, she has assisted farmers inPenobscot County with their ques-tions. She also manages Extension’s

statewide programs in beef,horses and co-leads thestatewide home energy pro-gram.

Gardening in a Raised BedKate Garland

Learn how to build a raisedbed with special features tohelp extend the growing season.Kate will construct a raised bedand discuss crop selection, dripirrigation, and strategies formanaging temperature duringthe early and late parts of thetraditional growing season.Please bring your gardeningquestions.

Kate Garland is the Horticul-turist for University of MaineCooperative Extension in PenobscotCounty. Garland has a degree inbotany, a master’s inhorticulture, and has 10 years of pro-fessional horticultural experience.She oversees the MasterGardener and Maine Harvest forHunger programs and supports anumber of communitygardening efforts throughout Penob-scot County.

Micmac Potato-Basket MakingDonna Sanipass, Presque IsleSaturday and Sunday

Descended from generations ofMicmac basketmakers, Donna Sani-pass is the daughter of Donald (1928-2007) and Mary Lafford Sanipass.Donna appeared at the 40th annualSmithsonian Folk Festival in 2006with her mother. Donna and her fam-ily continue to make traditional Mic-mac work baskets: potato baskets,shopping baskets, packbaskets, andfishing creels. Basketmaking wasone of many occupations the Sani-passes worked at to cobble together aliving in Northern Maine.

Passamaquoddy herbal medicineFredda Paul, PerrySaturday

Fredda Paul is a Passamaquoddyelder carrying on medicine tradi-tions he first learned from his grand-mother. His wife, Leslie Wood, is awriter and educator who grew up inKentucky. They have been involvedin a project to preserve the fast-disap-pearing native knowledge of healingwith plants. For his dedication tokeeping the medicine tradition alive,Fredda received an honorary doctor-ate from Unity College in Maine in2007. There will be a display on tradi-tional Passamaquoddy medicineplants, with 15-minute informal talksat noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m., and 4p.m.

Gardening with HerbsHeather Gordon

Are you interested in gardeningwith herbs? Are you wondering whatin the world to do with them onceyou grow them? If so, come andlearn some of the basics about herbgardening: what to grow, when toharvest, and how to use them in thekitchen, in the medicine closet, andaround the house. Growing herbs iseasy and fun.

Heather Gordon lives in St. Albans,Maine with her husband, five chil-dren, one son-in-law, six chickens,two cats, and one dog. She is a Mas-ter Gardener Volunteer and has beengardening with herbs and usingthem for cooking and healing formany years.

©2011 People’s United Bank Member FDIC

ProudSponsor

of theAmerican

FolkFestival

sincethe first

note.

FOLK|DemosBuilding a raised bed


www.katahdintrust.com

Proud sponsorof the AmericanFolk Festival.

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FOLK|DemosFARMERS’ MARKETS

Farmers’ markets have a long tradition in Maine, with dozens happening all across thestate throughout the year. This year, the American Folk Festival will feature three farm-ers in a market on site at the festival, so festival-goers can see what they’re all about...and get some fresh produce!

The farmers’ market are open noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday

High Lonesome AcresHarmony

Linda and Nelson Bowden grow awide variety of vegetables on eightacres, including lettuce, sweet corn,winter squash, potatoes, pumpkins,and more. They have about 80 layinghens for farm-fresh free-range eggsand honey from their bees. Fromtheir kitchen, they do homemadebaked goods, jams, jellies, pickles, rel-ishes, sauces, pickled eggs, and more.

Olde Oak FarmMaxfield

Scott Belanger and JenniferMaeverde own the farm that sits atopBunker Hill, overlooking the Penob-scot River Valley. The 93-acre farm isa state-licensed goat dairy and farm-stead cheese producer. Scott and Jen-nifer are committed to continuingthe tradition of rural family farmingby educating their customers and thenext generation of cheese makersand farmers. They welcome visitorsto their farm year-round, and encour-age visitors to learn about wheretheir cheese comes from.

Avalon AcresOrchard & FarmAlbion

Although owners Wendy and MarkSheriff met in Connecticut and mar-ried in Massachusetts, Maine hasalways been a special place to them.Wendy’s family, the Annises, lived inMaine for many generations datingback to the 1700s. Her father wasborn in Rockland. The family fre-quently visited a summer home inThomaston, and Wendy loved to lis-ten to the many stories that were toldabout Maine. She always wanted tomove to Maine. That dream wasfinally made possible by a loving,hardworking husband, three greatchildren, a supportive family, andsome really great friends that havehelped them to re-establish theirMaine roots.


was very young. He showed her thatthe bees would not sting if sheobserved them quietly and movedslowly when they came near. Thesefascinating insects captured herinterest and she hoped to somedayhave bees of her own. After movingto Maine, she took a beekeepingclass, and has been learning abouthoneybees ever since. In 2005, shebecame Maine’s first female MasterBeekeeper. Each spring she coordi-nates and helps teach the Bee Schooloffered by the Western Maine Bee-keepers Association. She thoroughlyenjoys sharing her knowledge ofbees, bee products and honey withanyone who will listen.

Master Mixes with Gail LaneGail Lane has been a Nutrition

Associate for the University ofMaine Cooperative Extension’s EatWell Nutrition Education Programfor more than 10 years. She providesbasic nutrition education to limited-income people throughout PenobscotCounty. Gail works with eligible par-ticipants one-on-one and in smallgroup settings. She also works inHead Starts and elementary schoolsin the Greater Bangor area.

Jason Bolton Jason will be giving a presentation

on safe home food preservation and a

short demo on proper canning tech-niques. Jason is from Chandler, Az.,and is the Assistant Extension Pro-fessor and Statewide Food SafetyEducator with the University ofMaine Cooperative Extension. He’sexpected to earn his Ph.D. in FoodScience and Human NutritionDecember 2011, having earned bache-lor’s and master’s degrees in FoodScience at University of Maine.Jason is the co-founder and presidentof Yo Bon, whose product, Yo BonBlueberry Bites, won the IFT’s Prod-uct Development Competition in2006. From 2005-20010 Jason was partof the University of Maine’s NSFGK-12 teaching fellowship, where heworked with local middle schools toinspire students in the areas of foodscience.

Farmer Poets

Judy HakolaThe granddaughter of a small-scale

dairy farmer in western Connecti-cut, Judy took to Maine as an adultbecause it reminded her so much ofthe farming and small-town way oflife that was a key to her childhood.Teaching courses in Maine literatureat the University of Maine for thepast decade has enabled her to com-bine this background and her aca-demic field for both personal satis-faction and — she hopes — her stu-dents’ increased appreciation andrespect for Maine’s rural heritage.

Russell LibbyRussell Libby serves on the Board

of Directors of the Maine Organic

Farmers and Gardeners Association.He writes poetry in his spare time,and his first book, Balance: A LatePastoral, was published in 2007.

Patricia RanzoniFor centuries, the people of mixed-

blood Yankee Pat Smith Ranzonihave worked the land in what becameMaine and Canada, passing downlocal knowledge in rhymes, workchants, music and other natural arts.From infancy she learned the richlove of poetic sounds from poor hard-working parents and to read frombooks hand-sewn by her mother. Herunschooled documentary poems havebeen published across the countryand abroad and she has authoredseven books, two hand-sewn. BeddingVows: Love Poems from OutbackMaine is forthcoming from NorthCountry Press.

Sid and Sunny StutzmanFor more than 40 years,

singer/songwriter Sid Stutzman hascreated a rich history deeply rootedin the music scene of Maine. Sid’sson, Sunny Skies Stutzman, has beenhis band mate since Sunny was 10.Sid’s writing reflects a deep love forthe land and the people, making upwhat he calls “The Maine Experi-ence.” Being a farmer most of hislife has given him a unique opportu-nity to observe the personalities ofnative animals, many of which willbe found in his songs. His songs alsoreflect his farming traditions as well.For example, Sid wrote the song“Pass It Down” about his father leav-ing him the farm upon his death inthe fall of 1978.

The Hudson Museum, located inthe Collins Center for the Arts atUMaine, features the MerrittGallery for temporary exhibits andtwo permanent galleries; the WorldCultures Gallery; a Maine IndianGallery; the Shoemaker Gallery;and an interactive Culture Lab.Through exhibits and programs, theHudson Museum celebrates a worldof culture and cultures of theworld. The Museum’s collectionsinclude an extraordinary assem-blage of pre-Columbian artifactsranging from Olmec to Aztec (theWilliam P. Palmer III Collection);Native American holdings fromMaine, the Southwest, NorthwestCoast, Arctic, and Plains; and col-lections from Africa, Oceania, andAsia. Visit:www.umaine.edu/hudsonmuseum

Page Farm and Home MuseumUniversity of Maine

Beekeeping played an importantrole in the development of agri-culture in America; however, thehoneybee is not native to theWestern Hemisphere. Honeybeesprovided early colonial settlerswith nutritious honey and croppollination; today, beekeeping isas important for farmers as itwas in the 1600s. The museum’sexhibit showcases artifacts fromearly beekeeping methods, as wellas pieces from many other farm-ing endeavors and rural tradi-tions.

The Page Farm and Home Muse-um showcases agricultural anddomestic life of Maine from 1865

to 1940. The museum is located onthe UMaine campus in Orono,within the historic 1833 WhiteFarm Barn, an 1855 schoolhouse,a carriage house, blacksmithshop, and heirloom gardens. Themuseum venerates Maine heritageby cultivating awareness andappreciation of the state’s ruralhistory. Thousands of patrons,many of them schoolchildren,visit each year to learn about theindustry, agriculture, economy,and home life of the late 19th andearly 20th centuries. The Museumalso upholds the University’s edu-cational mission through its pub-lic events, lecture series, curricu-lum-intensive school programs,and outreach services. The muse-um is open to the public Tuesdaythrough Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4p.m.

FOLK STORIES

Recording MaineFarm Lore

In the office trailer marked“Mainers Speak” we are collectingand recording the stories of Main-ers experiences of farming forfuture generations. Volunteerswill record on digital recordingsand these recordings will be pre-served in the archives of theMaine Folklife Center for presentand future students, researchersor the interested public. If youhave a story to tell, stop by andsign up for a time and our stu-dents will be happy to hear andrecord you. We will also provideyou with a copy for yourself ifyou leave your name and addressso that we can send it to you.

44 Central Street Bangor, Maine 04401 207-947-4511

Celebratingfabulous,

fun-filled yearsof music at the American Folk Festival!

FOLK|Demos

NarrativeContinued from Page 37

ExhibitsContinued from Page 37

BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY DAVID M. FITZPATRICKUnder the name “StoryBank,” the folk-stories project has collected stories frompeople about Maine for the past few years. This year, it’s called “Mainers Speak,”and will encourage Mainers, and those from away with Maine experiences, torecord their stories. In this photo, a Mainer relates a tale in the audio booth.

CERAMICS/POTTERY

S DesignsRichard & Sharon SleeperBrewer, Maine

Hand-thrown, hand-paintedcut flower vases, matchingplatters and dip bowls.

DIVERSE MEDIACaricatures by PJPaula CarterBelfast, Maine

Caricatures (humorous car-toon portraits).

Collette King StudioCollette KingBrewer, Maine

Note cards, slate magnets,matted prints, small framedprints, wooden cut-outs ofBangor and Maine designs,hand-painted slate pieces.

LeatherworkersBob & Anne DickensEllsworth, Maine

Hand-cut and -tooled leatheritems: belts, bags, wallets,sheepskin slippers, sheepskinand leather hats.

Maine BalsamFir Products

Wendy & Jack NewmeyerWest Paris, Maine

Balsam, balsam oil, balsam-filled pillows, trivets, neckrolls, draft stoppers, pillowsand door stops, catnip toys,knit hats, quilts, birch-barkitems.

Maine Concrete DesignsRosaire VeilleuxBangor, Maine

Eco-friendly concrete prod-ucts: sinks, tables, birdbaths,vanities.

Slonina PhotographyJohn SloninaNorth Grafton, Maine

Matted wildlife and land-scape photos: framed andunframed, photos on gallery-wrapped canvas.

Timberstone Rustic ArtsMark GuidoMontville, Maine

Natural stone items forkitchen and home.

Vance Guitars & UkulelesVance PetersBucksport, Maine

Custom koa-wood guitarsand ukuleles.

FIBER ART

Just KimKim PauleyPortland, Maine

Handmade bags reversiblebags in different sizes andstyles, yoga mat bags, winebags, pouches, key chains,scarves, belts, Christmasstockings, hats, back packs,placemats.

MoonCrazy Fibre ArtsDiantha TurnerHoulton, Maine

Felted soaps, cat toys, hand-knit items, felted bags, stitchmarkers, handspun yarn,soap dishes.

Northern SolsticeAlpaca Farm

Robin Fowler &Corry Pratt

Unity, MaineRaw alpaca fiber, alpaca rov-

ing, alpaca yarn andalpaca/wood blend yarn,

handmadealpaca items.

Rose White-head FiberFabrication

Rose WhiteheadWaldo, Maine

Custom-made, hand-dyedclothing, accessories, andwall hangings.

SimplyPrudenceCreations

Prudence SimmonsBangor, Maine

Hand-sewn catcher bags.

True Blue TC CollectionShengzhu & Gene

BernardinTorrington, Conn.

All-natural indigo-dyed fab-

ric creations:hangs, purses,tablecloths, placemats,clothes.

HERBAL/PERSONAL CARE

Common Folk Farm HerbsBetsey-Ann & Dale GolonNaples, Maine

Fresh herbal gardenwreaths, ornaments, potpour-ri, and sachets. Lavenderitems, Catnip items. Herbaltea blends, seasonings andculinary products. Garden-related items, tea-time acces-sories.


HELP MAKE THE DREAM A REALITY!

NextGen is a Section 529 plan administered by the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME). Before you invest in NextGen, request a NextGen Program Description from your Maine bank or financial advisor, or call FAME at 1-800-228-3734 and read it carefully. The ProgramDescription contains more complete information, including investment objectives, charges, expenses and risks of investing in NextGen, which you should carefully consider before investing. You also should consider whether your home state or your designated beneficiary’s home state offers any state tax or other benefits that are only available for investments in such state’s 529 plan. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, a registered broker-dealer, member SIPC, is the program manager and underwriter.

Plan for tomorrow by investing today in the NextGen College Investing Plan®. Ask your Maine bank, financial advisor, or FAME about Maine benefits.

1-800-228-3734 or FAMEmaine.com

Dream Big. Plan Ahead.

FOLK|MarketplaceThe place to find the best American goods... made right here in New England

Pages xx-xx

The Folk Arts Marketplace features dozens of artisans who sell hand-crafteditems, ranging from wool and knitted items to leatherwork, woodcarving, andjewelry. We encourage you to browse, talk with the artisans, and find a finelycrafted treasure to take home.

See MARKET, page 42

A horse from thePainted Pony Shop.Top left: pottery fromHomeport PotteryStudio. Top middle:jewelry from YIKES!Studio.


Fields of Dreams SoapsCharles OuilletteScarborough, Maine

Olive-oil-based soaps.

Glendarragh FarmLavender

Lorie CostiganAppleton, Maine

Lavender lotion, body but-ter, sachets, soaps, felted soapskins, bunches.

Maine Coast HerbalsMary Joan MondelloCorinth, Maine

Medicinal skin-care prod-ucts, facial and body soaps,herbal supplements, tincturesand teas, essential and mas-

sage oils, herbal pet products.

Mountain Mama of MaineJanet EdwardsAnson, Maine

Herbal personal care:salves, spritzers, moisturiz-ers, tinctures, oils, tonics.

Naturally Bee-Ewe-TifulSandra HareLinneus, Maine

Beeswax-based skin-careproducts: lip balm, lotions,hand and foot creams,deodorant, shaving balm,sea-salt scrubs, insect repel-lent, baby shampoo, dog

shampoo.

JEWELRY/GLASSAdornments by Lisa BessLisa BessPortland, Maine

Hand-etched and -paintedrecycled copper earrings,brooches, vista necklaces,earrings, eyeglass and badgeholders. Hand-designedpewter castings.

Affinity 2Marlene RealiScarborough, Maine

Hand-fabricated metalsmithand silversmith work: ear-rings, necklaces, rings, bar-rettes, pins. Hand-paintedJapanese rice-paper jewelry.

Beach Worn JewelryMarie Katherine DevineSorrento, Maine

Sea-glass jewelry: earrings,bracelets, pendants, neck-laces, rings.

FinesseNancy MarshallMadison, Maine

Beaded earrings, beadednecklaces, gemstone earringsand necklaces, 14k-gold andsterling-silver designs, wire-wrapped designs, gemstonerings.

Green MountainEnamel Works

Michael EntrikenW. Danville, Vt.

Enamel-on-metal jewelry,metal dishes and metal boxes.

Hand KnottedLinen Jewelry

Rosemarie DiLerniaBrooks, Maine

Hand-knotted jewelry: neck-

Top to bottom: Caricatures by PJ; bagby Just Kim; and jewelry by GlassOrchids.

MarketContinued from Page 41

Continued on next page


laces, watch bands, bracelets,earrings.

Lee Art Glass StudioGouldsboro, Maine

Glass art.

Molten Mama LampworkBeadsLisa CooleyJackson, Maine

Handmade glass bead jewel-ry: earrings, necklaces,bracelets, pendants, braceletkits, and single beads.

Olivia’s JourneeBarnett DegenManchester, Maine

Metalsmith specializing inhair accessories: barrettes,ponytail holders,eyeglass/badge holders, book-marks, pins, earrings, pen-dants.

Seamack DesignColleen MacklinSouth Portland, Maine

Sterling-silver earrings;necklaces with or withoutsemiprecious stones; chain-mail bracelets, earrings, andnecklaces; rings; pendants;crocheted necklaces andbracelets; ankle bracelets;chakra pendants; healingangels; charms; earrings.

YIKES! StudioSuzanne AndersonDedham, Maine

Colorful contemporary jew-elry made with polymer andsterling silver.

NATIVEDrums of the FlickerRobert MuisePresque Isle, Maine

Native American hand

drums.

Mic Mac Indian CraftsStanley SayersJonesport, Maine

Turtle-shell clocks and bags,horn rattles, antler buttons,chokers, bracelets, fans,dream catchers, clubs, rattles,silver jewelry, hair clips andties, decorative headdressesand breast plates.

Native Arts GalleryJean SerondeBar Harbor, Maine

Native jewelry: sterling sil-ver with semi-preciousstones.

POTTERYDown to Earth PotteryKeith HerklotzBlue Hill, Maine

Oven-, microwave-, anddishwasher-safe lead-free pot-tery.

Homeport Pottery StudioCathie CantaraKennebunkport, Maine

Stoneware pottery: table-ware, cookware, accessories,art pottery.

TASTE OF MAINE

Better Than Average LLCShannon BissonnetteMechanic Falls, Maine

Jams, jellies, and sauces —fruit, pepper, BBQ.

Bouchard Family FarmJanice BouchardFort Kent, Maine

Ploye mix, blueberry top-ping, Maine maple syrup, giftboxes.

Fieldstone FarmsDavid & Brenda JonesBangor, Maine

Gourmet fruit spreads, dipmixes, baking mixes, soupmixes, snack and trail mix.

Fudgin’ ItFred Merrill &

Marilyn LordEast Livermore, Maine

Homemade gourmet fudge.

Gryffon Ridge Spice Mer-chantsRick & Christine SuydamDresden, Maine

Herbs, spices, custom culi-nary blends, and gourmetsalts.

Irish Daisy BakeryJames & Sarah CampbellHermon, Maine

Allergy-friendly, veganbaked goods: muffins, cook-

ies, cupcakes, whoopie pies,truffles, breads.

Jacks PicklesJohnny KelleyNorth Monmouth, Maine

Pickles, relishes, jams, jel-lies, salsa.

New England CupboardJim CollinsBangor, Maine

Dry baking good mixes:pancake, muffin, scone,bread, dips and spice rubs.

Worcester’s WildBlueberries

Lee & Everett WorcesterOrneville, Maine

Jams, jellies, blueberryjuice, blueberry vinaigrette,pie filling, chutney.

WOODWORKINGFish River CraftsMark AmanFort Kent, Maine

Wooden marionettes in 12different styles.

Maine Bird CarvingsGary PoissonEddington, Maine

Bird carvings: decorativedecoys, bird carvings on drift-

wood, magnets, ornaments,free-standing birds, bookends.

Messier StudiosTim MessierLee, Maine

Free-form burl bowls,moose-antler jars, spoons,clocks, jars, bottle stoppers,compasses.

Norumbega WoodcarversEdward HarrowDedham, Maine

Woodcarvings of Maineflora, fauna, scenes, andlandscapes.

Painted Pony ShopEmmaline SullivanHolden, Maine

Hand-crafted hobby horses,do-it-yourself stick-horsekits, prints of origi-nal equine artwork,handcrafted acces-sories, hand-craftedfinger puppets, giftcertificates.

Pastor ChuckOrchardsCharles WaiteMaclinPortland, Maine

Organic applesauce,apple butter, apple

salsa.

Peterson WoodworkingJeff PetersonHarrison, Maine

Woodenware: spoons andother kitchen utensils, bowls,pepper mills, etc.

Shipwreck Coffee Compa-nyPatricia CarlsonManchester, Maine

Fresh-roasted coffee.

Sugah ShackSandra SiscoSeboeis Plt, Maine

Organic maple-syrup prod-ucts: syrup, hard candy,maple cream, maple sugar.Blueberry-pancake mix,sugah sax.

Continued from previous page

Olivia’s Journee

Vance Guitars


5 0 0 M a i n S t . � B a n g o r, M E 0 4 4 01 � I - 95 E x i t 18 2 A � 87 7-7 7 9 -7 7 71 � h o l l y w o o d s l o t s . c o m

Persons under 21 years of age may not enter the slot machine area unless licensed employees. Do you or anyone you know have a gambling problem? For help, services, & counseling please call 1-800-522-4700. ©2011 Penn National Gaming, Inc.

HOLLYWOODbrings

THE FUNK

Motor Booty Affair • Saturday, August 27 at 9pmThe Sound Stage Lounge

Come join the grooviest disco party this side of the 70’s featuring

Motor Booty Affair live at The Sound Stage Lounge. Shake your

booty to all the funkiest songs from the dancing-est decade ever.

Download - 2011 American Folk Festival Official Program

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