December 23, 2024
NATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL

Bluesman to perform at Folk Festival

BANGOR – Gospel singers and Irish balladeers, Franco fiddlers and a klezmer band, Korean dancers and a Russian trio will join legendary Louisiana bluesman Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown this August at the 65th annual National Folk Festival here.

The 80-year-old Brown has been blending blues, country, jazz and Cajun music for more than 50 years. A virtuoso guitarist, he also plays the fiddle, harmonica, mandolin and drums.

At a press conference Friday, festival organizers announced the names of 11 additional acts that will perform on the Bangor waterfront Aug. 22-24. This brings to 19 the number of confirmed performers. Organizers said at least six more performers are to be announced before the festival lineup will be considered complete.

The festival, produced by the Washington-based National Council for the Traditional Arts, will be the second of three held in Bangor. The weekend event is expected to draw more than 110,000 people, up from 85,000 last year.

The colorful poster and T-shirt for this year’s show also were unveiled at the downtown office of the Greater Bangor Convention and Visitors Bureau. Both were designed by Bangor graphic artist Shelly Sund, who beat out nine others to win the job.

“We are very pleased with this year’s T-shirt and poster designs,” said Donna Fichtner, a member of the festival marketing committee and executive director of the Bangor bureau. “In selecting the final designs we chose artwork that represents the diversity of the National Folk Festival. There is fun, excitement, color, enthusiasm and energy.”

The additional number of people expected to attend this year’s festival meant adding $500,000 for a total budget of $850,000. So far, private donations have been a bit slow coming in, said Michael Crowley, a member of the Folk Festival board of directors.

“We are somewhat of an anomaly compared to other cities that have hosted the festival,” said Crowley. “We are raising 80 percent of the budget from private sources and 20 percent is public funds. Other cities that have hosted the festival have used a much greater percentage of public money.”

Lisa Wahlstrom of Beers Associates, the Bangor firm hired to oversee the fund-raising effort, said Friday that 60 to 65 percent of the funds needed for this year’s festival have been raised or pledged. Fund-raising efforts were in about the same place at this time last year, she added.

“If we had any concern about not hitting our goal we wouldn’t be building the program the way we are,” said Wahlstrom.

Additional acts announced Friday included two Maine performers – Alan Ahavarsh Bardezbanian and his Middle Eastern Ensemble of Bath and the Don Roy Trio, Franco-American fiddlers from Gorham.

Bardezbanian’s Armenian grandparents brought their musical traditions to New England early in the 20th century. He chose to play the oud, a fretless lute, and studied the classical makam system of Ottoman music. In addition to being a master of the oud, he also is an accomplished player of the baritone clarinet, often used in Armenian music. Musicians on the accordion, guitar, bass and percussion will join him onstage.

Considered the dean of Franco-American fiddlers in the state, Roy learned to play when he was 15 from his uncle Lucien Mathieu. Roy organized and managed for 11 years the Maine French fiddlers that played Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York and performed on the popular public radio show hosted by Garrison Keillor, “A Prairie Home Companion.”

Other acts announced Friday included:

. Brothers Gerry and Bobby Robichaud, an Acadian fiddle and guitar duo from Waltham, Mass.;

. The Karan Casey Band, featuring the former lead vocalist for the Irish supergroup Solas, based in Waterford, Ireland;

. Hanguk: Sounds of Korea, a New York-based group that performs traditional folk dances along with more formal court dances;

. The New York-based Klezmatics, a seminal group in the revival of klezmer or Yiddish music;

. The Volskaya Russian Trio of Brooklyn that draws on Russian folk and Eastern European traditions as well as classical and contemporary music;

. Yang Wei and Betty Xiang of New York, who play the ancient Chinese instruments pipa, or lute, and erhu, or violin. The husband-wife duo has performed with cello virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma and in classical concerts throughout the country.

For more information on the National Folk Festival, call 942-2630 or visit the Web site at www.nationalfolkfestival.com. Donations to support the festival in Bangor may be sent to 30 Main St., Suite 220, Bangor 04401.


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