When Allen Sockabasin was growing up in Washington County, he laid in the dark, late at night, in a house without electricity. Snuggled under the covers, the young Passamaquoddy clutched a transistor radio and eagerly soaked up the music that danced across the sky from hundreds of miles away.

The sounds of the bluegrass and country and western music that floated down from WWVA in Wheeling, W. Va., stayed with Sockabasin for decades and changed the direction of his life.

While it was the music that lured him far from his home and his roots, it was also the music that eventually called him back.

Now 56, Sockabasin is working to keep his native language alive through traditional and original songs sung in his native Passamaquoddy. In June he released an album of his songs titled “Ktdul-lud-wheh-wah-kun-nun Wool-leehn-pee-zoon-niewh” or, in English, “Our Language Has Good Medicine.” He also has developed a computer program to help young children learn the language Sockabasin spoke as a child growing up at Mud-doc-Mig-goog – Peter Dana Point.

“We’re all guilty of letting the language go,” said Sockabasin, pointing out that there are between 500 and 1,000 fluent speakers of the language left in the world. “When white people came to `help’ us, the first thing they said was, `You have to speak our white language.”‘

“We were told that we had to speak good English to get a good job,” he continued. “Well, I speak fine English and I still have to struggle to stay alive. I want to instill a proudness in the way we speak our own language. We can live in both worlds and maintain our native language.”

Sockabasin said his goal is to translate and record 100 songs in Passamaquoddy. So far, he has completed 56 that are in the public domain. He is better known outside the state as a Native performer than he is in Maine. He has traveled from the University of Alaska to the University of Massachusetts performing at cultural programs.

“Singing is a way to tell a story, a way of remembering so the stories don’t die,” he said. “When I tell a story through song, people may not remember it exactly, but they will leave humming the song. … Native children I play for, ask their parents and grandparents what the songs mean, so I also teach the language through provocation.”

He found that the new technology offered by voice programs on desktop computers were helpful in keeping the language alive. Sockabasin said the cadence and rhythm such programs use are similar to those in the Passamaquoddy language. In the program and in the lyrics sheets with the album, words are spelled phonetically, the syllables separated by hyphens, a capital letter indicating a new word.

Sockabasin has had to cut his own trail to be able to carve out such a specialized niche for himself. He admitted he had few role models to follow to become a singer-songwriter of Native music. A performer named Sylvester Bernard performed in Washington County years ago, said Sockabasin, but that was the only Native American he saw who tried to make a living as a professional musician.

That was and still is Sockabasin’s dream. He was a teenager when he bought his first guitar for $10 from an uncle. Today, the musician cannot imagine how he learned to play on such a poorly constructed instrument, but he did. A few years later, he was able to buy a better guitar, and as a young man he worked in the potato fields by day and played country music at night in Perth-Andover, New Brunswick.

He continues that tradition today from his home in Hampden, where he wrote or translated most of the 16 tracks on the CD. Nearly every Sunday afternoon, Sockabasin joins a group of bluegrass musicians in the basement of St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Brewer to play many of the songs he learned from the radio so long ago.

His connection to that distinctly American style of music is evident on the CD. Sockabasin sings “Amazing Grace” and “Suppertime” in Passamaquoddy. He also translated native songs he learned as a child into English like “Du-du-wahz” or “Daughter’s Dance.”

Sockabasin also recorded several original songs that illustrate Passamaquoddy traditions and legends. “Wub-bub-nee-hig, Neel-loon” or “We Are the People of the Dawn” honors the relationships among the tribes that make up the Wabanaki Confederacy.

A legend about “how the bullfrog is dropped far away from home by the great eagle and the role that the little people played to get him home” inspired “Ump-pug-luhm, Nahw-gaw, Meek-kum-wheh-siz” or “The Bullfrog and the Little Person,” according to Sockabasin.

The bullfrog lands in the narrows, far from his home in the marsh. He asks different animals to help him return to his homeland, but all offer him excuses until he approaches a little person sitting on a rock. The human takes the bullfrog to his home.

Sockabasin also included a prayer to the Great Spirit, “Wee-jew-kem-in” or “Help Me” and a hymn, “Zeh-zoos, Tma-kgel-min” or “Jesus Have Mercy on Me” on the album – an acknowledgement to the influence both Native and Christian religions have had on his people.

The final cut on the CD is Sockabasin’s musical declaration to honor and speak the Passamaquoddy language and his plea for others to join him:

“I will always speak my language

For Eternity, for Eternity

Even if they make fun of me

Not going, not going back

I will never again sacrifice

My native language.”

For more information on Allen Sockabasin and his music, call 945-4185.

Amazing Grace

Amazing grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost but now I am found

Twas blind but now I see

E-G Uz-sir-kee-na-quawk,

Geh-dee, Munn-wheh-koo-who-kee,

Geh-dee, Munn-wheh-kee-hid,

Ee-ya-wuqk,Gee-zee-hid.

Zip-kee, Ee-ya-uwqk, Ka-see-ca-ha,

Om-deh, Ee-ya-uwqk, Muss-ka-uwg,

Om-deh, Na, Nmee-tune, El-lee-yai.

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear

Twas grace my fears relieved

How precious did that grace appear

The hour, that I first believed

Gee-zee-hid, Dul-keh-kee-muwg,

Ma, Ee-ya-uwqk, Keh-quwg, Na-kud-moh,

Nuc-ca, Wee-qua-num-mun, Need, Gee-zee-hid.

Doo-gee, Nag-keh, Bed-koo-wee-eed,

Marj-jah, Ee-ya-uwqk, Wool-lum-sud-maun,

Ell-lee-e-heed, Ee-ya-uwqk, Ah-lue, Gee-zee-hid.

Ell-lee-e-heed, Ee-ya-uwqk, Ah-lue, Gee-zee-hid.