MDI musicians join for tribute to a friend

The eastern Maine music scene lost a devoted patron over the summer when Kristen Klint, co-owner of the Lompoc Cafe in Bar Harbor, passed away last June. The Lompoc is one of the best places to see live music ’round these parts, and since 2000, when Klint and Patty Savoy purchased the restaurant, the pair kept the joint rockin’ from spring until fall, bringing in a diverse array of local and regional acts.

“When she got sick, she allowed me begrudgingly to take over the booking of the music. She wrote down a list of all these bands that she loved, that she was adamant about keeping relationships with,” said James Pike, guitarist for the Mount Desert Island band Old Evil. “She always had a lot of respect for the integrity of people’s aesthetics. Music was her real passion.”

Old Evil, along with the Shakes, Tro-Down, the Slacks, Adam White, Ian Mohler and Willy Kelly Inc., will play a benefit show for the Beth C. Wright Cancer Center in Ellsworth on Thursday, Sept. 27, at the Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor, titled “All of Us: A Benefit Concert in Memory of Kristen Klint.”

“All these bands feel gratitude for all that she’d done, and how involved she was and how excited she always was about music,” said Pike. “She was a patron of the creative community of MDI.”

The show will feature each band playing two songs that Klint loved. Old Evil will tackle Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” and indie songwriter Smog’s song “Teenage Spaceship,” while the Shakes will play two Neil Young songs, “Down By the River” and “Rock On.”

“Kristen was renowned for making mix CDs. If you hadn’t seen her in a while, there was probably going to be a CD in the mail for you,” said Pike. “When she died, Patty compiled a list of about four CDs’ worth of her favorite songs that we played during her memorial party. For the concert, we distributed those CDs to the bands, and they chose two songs to play.”

Pike’s band Old Evil plays frequently at the Lompoc. Composed of Pike, co-guitarist Gage Villerie, cellist Carrie Cross and violist, violinist and sometimes musical saw player Camille Hoffman, the band plays slightly unorthodox, stripped down acoustic folk.

“We recorded our CD at the Lompoc after they closed last year. Patty and Kristen allowed us to set up in the restaurant and record for a few days,” said Pike. “We had a perfect recording space. The room is great acoustically, and there’s minimal outside noise. That’s just something Kristen would do for a local band.”

The lineup for Thursday’s show is appropriately diverse, from the blues rock of Willy Kelly Inc. to the old-timey banjo pickin’ of Ian Mohler. The one common thread, though, is that all of the bands are either from MDI or have a connection to the island. And that means that they’re all friends of Kristen.

“Everybody loves Kristen, and MDI has just utterly embraced this whole thing. It’s been amazing,” said Pike. “We’re almost overwhelmed with donations. It’s really special.”

Tickets for “All of Us” are available at the Criterion Theatre box office, and are $10 for the floor and $15 for the balcony. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27. Emily Burnham can be reached at eburnham@bangordailynews.net.

Supporting acts

Congratulations to Belfast singer-songwriter Lindsey Ray, who just this week signed a recording contract with Original Signal Recordings, a label affiliated with Sony. Ray has been negotiating the deal for months, ever since she originally got started in the Music Nation competition that brought her to our attention over the winter. A full-length, nationally distributed album is in the works. Local girl makes good, huh? For more info on Lindsey Ray, visit www.myspace.com/lindseybach.