6 more acts signed for folk festival Bluegrass, merengue, klezmer, reggae added

BANGOR – Organizers of the American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront, scheduled for Aug. 24 to 26, announced six more performers Monday.

The first reggae music at the festival will be presented by Morgan Heritage, a family band offering harmonies with a spiritual beat.

Maine’s own accordion master, Gary Szredzienski, will perform rarely heard Polish village music, learned from his grandfather.

Szredzienski will not be the only accordionist at the festival. Francisco Ulloa and his Group Tipico will present merengue rhythms from the Dominican countryside. This will be Ulloa’s first appearance at a major U.S. festival.

Traditional Appalachian ballads sung by Elizabeth LaPrelle, with Sandy LaPrelle and Jim Lloyd, will be performed at the festival for the first time.

Return performers include Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars playing raucous and exuberant “old country” Jewish brass band music, and piano master Jeff Little performing Blue Ridge bluegrass music with Steve Lewis and Josh Scott.

More than two-thirds of the lineup for the American Folk Festival is complete, organizers said.

Previously announced performers include the Quebe Sisters, a fiddle trio from Texas; acoustic blues by Larry Johnson; electric blues by Bernard Allison and Cajun music by the Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band.

There also will be funk music by Big Chief Monk Boudreauz and the Golden Eagles, gospel music by the Dixie Hummingbirds, and Buddhist ritual music by eleven Tibetan lamas.

Also, a group of Inuit women called Nakariik will perform throat singing, Wilho Saari will play Finnish folk songs on a Finnish lap harp, and Eddie Pennington will play the thumb-picked guitar.

All entertainment is free all weekend. However, fundraisers will be held and the organizers encourage the public to contribute. The festival costs about $1 million each year, according to organizers.

For more information visit www.americanfolkfestival.com, contact the American Folk Festival, 40 Harlow St., Bangor 04401; or call 992-2630.