Take the 5:35 PM Casco Bay Lines ferry to Peaks Island ($8.20 round trip!)

Have dinner at the Cockeyed Gull restaurant or at The Inn at Peaks Island.

Walk (yes walk! It’s NOT going to rain!) to the Fifth Maine Regimental Museum on Seashore Avenue, and get there by 7:30 PM for Phil Daligan’s “Songwriters by the Sea” music series.

You will get the chance to see and hear Gathering Time, a traditional folk trio from Long Island that has perfected two separate but related art forms: three part harmony and having a ball on stage!

(As an added bonus, Gathering Time is sharing the stage tonight on Peaks with Teresa Storch, a wonderful Boston-area singer/songwriter who writes great tunes, in a variety of styles, and has killer performance skills!)

I caught Gathering Time’s set last night at The North Star Music Cafe in Portland, and that’s why I’m recommending that you make the 20-minute voyage across Casco Bay tonight.  These folks put on a wonderful show, with a bunch of original folky tunes, some great covers, and lots of fun banter on stage.

Gathering Time: (l to r) Glen Roethel, Hillary Foxsong, Stuart Markus

Gathering Time is Glen Roethel, Stuart Markus, and Hilary Foxsong.  Glen plays a beautiful Gibson guitar, plus electric bass.  Stuart is an excellent guitarist and bassist as well, and Hilary is a skilled percussionist.  They all sing with great enthusiasm, passion, and precision.  When they harmonize, some sort of fundamental, cosmic concordance occurs that makes you very happy that you have ears.

They did some covers by America, Simon and Garfunkel, and the Beatles, and led the crowd in a cozy and heartening communal sing on the Chet Powers 60’s classic “Get Together”.

Their own tunes are gentle, peaceful, hopeful; true, traditional folk music.  There is a place for darkness in music, but this type of  upbeat optimism never fails to inspire me.  Anyone who allows stereotypes about folk music to shut themselves off from this stuff is missing something special.

Opening for Gathering Time was Annie Wenz, a world-traveling, folk and world music artist and  biker chic: a very nice person and extremely talented performer.  She opened with a heart-stopping interlude on a

Annie Wenz

native wooden flute with dual tones – very spooky and affecting.  Her set was a mix of funny and clever story songs, political gems, and meaningful folk ballads.  She is a strong woman with a strong voice, and a very talented songwriter.  

Her stories and songs made it clear that she has a wealth of vibrant world experience from which to draw (you need to hear her bungie-jumping song!)  She told me that she would be staying in Maine for the summer (although her gig schedule doesn’t show it!), so hopefully, we’ll get another chance to hear her.

Get over to Peaks Island tonight and see Gathering Time and Teresa Storch!

Both of these artists seem to have discovered the  joy of studio recording in their first effort, and come back for more, fired up for a more complete sound! 

Carll Wilkinson – “The Working Poor Blues”

Carll Wilkinson’s debut 2005 release was “Pomagranate”, and it earned him a nomination for Best Singer-Songwriter by the Portland  Phoenix.   He has just released his new album, and this one’s called “The Working Poor Blues”.

Carll still plays with a percussive guitar style, and pumps out dramatic, sophisticated vocals; his are passionate, almost desperate songs about love and struggle.  He sounds a little like an upbeat and not-so-breathless Ray Lamontagne.  ”Pomagranate” was just Carll and his guitar.

The new record is much more full, with more instrumentation and production – and Carll wears it well.  We are treated to Stefen Samuels on drums, Tom Snow on piano and organ, and Pete Morse on a variety of guitars and bass.

Pete Morse is the owner of Busted Barn Studios; he recorded, mixed, mastered, and co-produced the record.  He has begun to rack up the credits for some great albums lately (Sorcha Cribben-Merrill, Putnam Smith.)  He had a hand in “Pomagranate”, but this new record is all his, and it sounds great.

As for Carll’s songwriting, he tells me, ”

I think the album is about a lot of things, but thematically I think it is a lot about personal history and reinvention, and it asks if we can reinvent ourselves or not.   The title track was written in 2007;  I had read an article about a hedge fund manager, and was kind of wondering how that juxtaposed against the staple American dream of working your way from pauper to prince.  Making a billion dollars a year seems like a mutant version of capitalism.  …Its half earnest, half sarcastic, and not so sure that our collective aspirations for more are a good thing.  And, it seems to have sort of predicted the current state of affairs.”

No word yet on a release party, but stay tuned for more information!

Zeile August – “Lucie’s Hobo Package”

Zeile August didn’t wait as long as Carll between albums: her debut was last year, and was entitled “Orion’s Belt”.  The new one will be released on June 26, and is called Lucie’s Hobo Package” (Zeile tells me she is planning the studio time for a third one already!)

“Orion’s  Belt” is a collection of 10 songs featuring Zeile’s spooky, “full-vowel” vocals, her guitar, and Fred Morin on the double bass, and not much more.  ”Lucie’s Hobo Package”, like Wilkinson’s new CD, is much brighter and fuller, again, due to more instrumentation.  

Zeile’s songwriting on her first album is sparse, down-beat, and if not dark, at least very, very deep.  She retains that style in the new record, but the added texture give the songs a slightly brighter mood and help the listener engage more fully (the lead track, “Comin’ Up Roses”, is downright upbeat for Zeile!)  

In addition to Fred Morin’s return on bass for this record,  we get Eric Heintz with tangy electric parts on several cuts, Mark Cousins on percussion, and Karl Anderson on keyboard.  Johanna Conian sings a duet with Zeile on one tune.

Both album were recorded, mixed, and co-produced by Jonathan Wyman at The Halo, and mastered by the mastering master, Adam Ayan at Gateway Mastering; this latest record sound wonderful.

Zeile is releasing the new disc at a show at the St. Lawrence Center for the arts (which is practically in her back yard) on June 26th, with some special guests, including Peter Alexander and Sorcha Cribben-Merrill.  Sounds like a good time!

Maine continues to grow as a place where artists find the resources and audiences to support new releases and projects!  These are two great examples, and we’ve seen many more recently!  It’s going to be  a great summer!

The Old Port Crowd - Q97 Stage

First Sunday in June – in Portland that means the Old Port Festival!

Polly and I have been attending this event for five years now, and this was, by far, the most organized and well-run Old Port Festival we’ve seen.  Great, friendly crowd, quality craft booths, interesting food choices, and great music!  Congrats to the Portland Downtown District and all the music stage sponsors!

Everyone mentions the weather when they talk about the Old Port Festival, so I won’t!

Local folk and roots music figured prominently in the festival this year, thanks mainly to the nice folks at WCLZ!

Lara Seaver at the WCLZ Stage at the Old Port Festival

Kudos to the ‘CLZ staff for supporting local music as they do, and for putting together a great Old Port Stage.  A special thanks to Lara Seaver, morning show host and producer and host of “Music from 207″.

We arrived at the ‘CLZ stage at Silver and Fore Streets in time to catch the last few chords from Pete Kilpatrick’s guitar (damn!).  After Pete came a young woman from Toronto – Serena Ryder.  She played a couple of very small acoustic guitars, maybe 0-0-0 size, but the sound that came outta these guys was very big!  Huge energy and emotion, lyrics to match, great guitar chops.  She’s with Atlantic

Serena Ryder on the WCLZ Old Port Festival Stage

Records – must be doin’ OK!  I bought her new CD, “Is It O.K.”, great music.   Folk? eh, maybe folk/rock… ok maybe rock/folk..  but great tunes!

Spooner was next – Jason Spooner has a new live album out, which is good, because live is the way to hear this guy and this band.  ”The Flame You

Jason Spooner before his Old Port Festival set on the WCLZ stage

Follow” is his last studio album, and it’s great, but there’s so much to enjoy in a live set from these guys.  Reed Chambers on drums, of course, and Adam Frederick on bass (I love to see him play the double bass, but today he had the electric strapped on.)  The three of them play together as if they were networked, so tight and balanced.  Frederick has a great set of harmony vocal pipes – who knew?

To sweeten the deal, they were joined on the last song (Dylan’s “Girl of the North Country) by Maine fiddle ace Ed Howe (who recently and reluctantly had to leave the Dave Rowe Trio for personal reasons.) Oh, yeah, they were also

Ed Howe and Adam Frederick dish it on the WCLZ Old Port Stage

had some help on that song from Dar Williams!

Bringing Dar to Portland for the Old Port Festival was a real coup for ‘CLZ.  The crowds at the rock stages were huge, but us folkies gave those rockers a run for their money with Dar.  Fore Street was wall to wall Dar fans as far as the eye could see.

Dar Williams on the WCLZ Old Port Festival Stage

She put on a great set, (The Babysitter, Are You Out There, etc) and the crowd loved her.  Dar has a way of connecting with her live audiences that is different from other folkies who do that well.  Other great performers project their power into the audience.  Dar makes it seem as if she’s out here in the audience with us, watching the show, laughing at her mistakes and her intimate sense of humor right along with us.  It’s as if we’re all at the same party and we’re all entertaining each other.

Let’s see, what else was cool?

I ran into Tin Foil Man (Robert Wilson), a street artist familiar to many Portlanders.  He fashions sculptures out of foil, and he’s won the Phoenix Best of Portland street art title two years running.  I actually just wrote a song about this guy, and I can’t wait to play it for him.  Rumors were that he left town, but he’s here, and he had some nice pieces of his art with him.

After watching Dar Williams’ set, I walked down the hill to the Portland Coffee Roasters shop, and caught a few minutes of music from Truth About Daisies, one of my favorite local folkie bands.  They are down to three

Truth About Daisies

members now, Ronda Dale, Sheila McKinley, and Doug Swift, but the new sound is clean, simple, and uncomplicated – I like it a lot!  Sheila and Ronda’s harmonies are wonderful, and Doug is a talented multi-instrumentalist.

Guess that’s it – quite a day of music in the great city of Portland, Maine!  One of the reasons I love living here!

Oh, and the weather was GREAT!

Jud Caswell's songwriters circle, Brunswick, Maine

If you are a songwriter, your songs are like your kids – you love them, you protect them,  you get a little touchy when someone criticizes them.

But if you want them to grow and evolve and reach their potential, you need to get some objectivity into the picture.

Enter Jud Caswell’s songwriter’s circle in Brunswick.  How do I love this idea – let me count the ways:

1.  Jud is a great songwriter; getting a song critique from him makes this a no-brainer right from the git-go;

2.  This circle attracts some other great songwriters – does the name Martin Swinger ring a bell?  More song critiques from people I respect;

3.  How about just having the opportunity to play some of my songs for writers of this caliber?

4.  My songs get better;

5.  I get to hear some  killer songs very close to their point of creation – a real privilege!

I could go on… but I won’t.

Is it difficult to have your songs dissected and analyzed right in front of you? Well, sometimes…  but mostly, the comments are fair, constructive, and because they come from other songwriters, extremely relevant to the craft.  It can actually be a lot of fun.

I’ve had this experience before – you write something that you are pretty proud of, and take it to a song critique circle.  You play the damn thing in front of all these gifted songwriters, and even before you finish the song, you begin to see what can be improved.  It’s almost like telepathy – the mere presence of these folks, who understand what you are trying to do, gives you an objectivity that you didn’t have when you put pen to paper.

The commentary afterwards only serves to confirm and augment what you sense.

What you get at the end is a much better song and some additional insight into the process.  It’s an invaluable way to learn this craft, especially with someone like Jud Caswell and his friends.

If you’re interested, post a comment and I’ll hook you up!