When choreographer Garth Fagan looks at an empty stage, he sees a blank canvas of sorts, waiting to be filled with the arch of a back, the curve of an arm, the beat of reggae or the soft strains of Brahms. “I used to paint… Read More
For Brad Paisley, Sara Evans and Andy Griggs, it’s almost like a class reunion. The three up-and-coming country-music performers toured with Alan Jackson back on his 1998 tour, at a time when they all were just starting out. Now they’re together again on the Mud… Read More
The wind in your hair. The sun on your face. The slush on your skis. What’s not to love about spring skiing – and snowboarding – in Maine? googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner =… Read More
One way to chase away the winter blues is with a blast of the pipes. That’s the theory behind the third Hearts & Soul concert, an evening of stirring Celtic performance, to be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Camden Opera House. googletag.cmd.push(function ()… Read More
Let’s face it, if you want to find entertainment in Maine besides the television, you’re probably going to have to travel some miles through pine trees and over potholes to find it. And for fans of independent, artsy or offbeat cinema, the mileage can be significant. Read More
Since November, Bangor Community Theatre has been rehearsing a cast of more than 30 local actors in the Tony Award-winning musical “Guys and Dolls,” which plays this weekend at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. Written by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, with music and lyrics… Read More
Karen Peck never really considered herself a rare female headliner in a male-dominated industry. After all, the business that she’s in is gospel music. Everyone is family. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false;… Read More
It is a sound that drives record store managers crazy. Under what heading do you file CDs by a group that has ties to both jazz and classical traditions, while adding in dashes of non-Western rhythms, and sometimes performs with whales and eagles singing… Read More
There’s music in Eileen Ivers’ voice. Speaking by telephone from her home in West Nyack, N.Y., taking a breather between legs of an East Coast tour that brings her and her band to the Camden Opera House on Saturday night, Ivers betrays her musical sensibilities… Read More
The breathing. That’s what I noticed first when I met George Daniell more than 10 years ago. He was in his 80s and his breathing was labored and thick when he moved. A tall heft of a man, he used a walker to clump from his kitchen, where… Read More
Flower power Bangor Garden Show, an annual rite of spring, has some new themes in store this weekend
No matter how long or relentlessly cold the winter, spring always comes, and so does the Bangor Garden Show, one of the Queen City’s most treasured institutions. Just when you think you can’t stand another chilly, gray, muddy day, a vast space magically fills up with warmth, color,… Read More
Rosey Gerry admits that he’s been “car crazy” since he first got a 1949 Buick convertible at the age of 7. He paid $30 for that car, which he earned by picking up bottles. At a slightly later age, he drove it around the back fields, long before… Read More
Joshua Gindele, who is a cellist, was doing stretches on the floor of his hotel room in Buffalo, N.Y. The gym was closed and it was too cold outside to go running. But he was determined to get the exercise. “I wouldn’t go mountain climbing… Read More
The music students at Tremont Grammar School listened last week as Xiao-Lu Li, conductor of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, talked about music, orchestras and instruments. He stayed at the school for the day, telling stories, guiding bow exercises and, at one point, giving his baton to the teacher,… Read More
This time of year, people are used to seeing hunks of ice along the banks of the Penobscot River. But giant ice cubes are a different story. On Friday, as part of Brewer’s first Family Winterfest, New Hampshire-based ice sculptor Steve Griffiths will haul in… Read More
Hold onto your crampons, tie off your top ropes and tighten your anchor slings, the annual midwinter orgy of mountain culture and adventure is ready to roll back into town. For the past 27 years, The Banff Center, located in the resort town of Banff… Read More
If you’re looking for a band with some giddy-up, here’s the quartet for you. Described as “dreadlocks meet stetsons,” Reggae Cowboys, who will play at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth, come riding down from Canada armed with a blend of reggae,… Read More
Dame Edna Everage. International megastar. Australian housewife. Public commentator with mauve hair and rhinestone-studded glasses. Her favorite pet name for fans is possums – unless they are in the cheap seats and then she calls them Les Mizzies, as in “the miserable ones.” She is brash and brazen… Read More
Step, back, and quick-step, step, back, and quick-step.” My feet now officially feel useless, just two fleshy knobs that fall or flap wherever. Tonight may end in tears or blood, or both. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes =… Read More
Some people would be all shook up about being named after the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. But not Elvis Stojko. The Ontario native is at home in the spotlight. How to explain his three world championships, two Olympic silver medals and seven Canadian championships?… Read More
It may be Irish music. It may be Irish dance. It may be both – and often is. No matter, though. If it’s Irish and it makes you tap your foot, it sells. In fact, it sells out, as has the Saturday concert “Christmas From Dublin” featuring three… Read More
It’s a pure Dickensian conceit to add a peripheral character to a story, make everyone have to confront that character as the plot unfolds and then have the character secretly – if not magically – relate to the very heart of the story. Except the… Read More
Take a deep breath. Grasp the knife firmly in one hand and then use the thumb of your other hand to guide the blade across the basswood block. Try not to cut too deep. The blade cuts easily through the soft wood and the small chips skim off… Read More
Among the eager crowd Monday night at Penobscot Theatre’s dress rehearsal of “The Diary of Anne Frank” at the Opera House in Bangor was a solitary older man wearing a baseball cap. He sat quietly waiting for the show to start, while fidgety youngsters chattered around him. The… Read More
Kristborg Whitney sits in her bright sixth-floor studio overlooking downtown Bangor. Behind her, small tubes of acrylic paint, arranged by color, fill shelf after shelf. Vibrant, geometric wall hangings jump off the white walls and doors, while more subtle floor cloths are draped on dowels. Nine small canvases,… Read More
Sandra Hardy, professor of theater at the University of Maine, never saw “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the cult movie that came out in 1975. It belonged to another generation, she thought, like hip-hop or bell-bottoms. It just was not a part of her scene. She had no idea… Read More
She has been called whore, feminist, tyrant and saint. According to the men who immortalized her legend in a hit Broadway musical, she also sang like an angel. Eva Peron was the beautiful and ambitious actress who rose from poverty to become the powerful first… Read More
Chris Geaghan is not the kind of guy you’d expect to see in a skirt. He looks like he’d be more comfortable in a football helmet and pads than a jumper and blouse, but he’ll be dressed to the nines (or, in this case,… Read More
Kay Gardner responded to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks the same way she had responded to other events that touched her deeply – she wrote music. The late composer’s “Lament for Thousands” will be performed for the first time Sunday by the Bangor Symphony… Read More
You may know that Wynton Marsalis – trumpet player, music educator, jazz leader, philanthropist and artistic director of jazz at Lincoln Center – has close to 40 jazz and classical recordings. And that he has nine Grammy Awards. And that in 1983 he became the first and only… Read More
Where it began, I can’t begin to knowin’ … but then I know it’s growin’ strong. Was in the spring – of my life, that is, but then spring became the summer. Back then, HBO and Cinemax came free with cable, and when I turned… Read More
Canadian duo Zubot and Dawson bring a simple message from their native Canada: Acoustic music needn’t mean improvisation that reels off into infinity. The pair, who play at 8 p.m. Sunday at the Unity Centre for the Performing Arts, don’t take offense when new fans… Read More
Two bands comes to mind when one thinks of Southern rock. First came the Allman Brothers Band, and shortly after emerged Lynyrd Skynyrd. The latter group will be returning to Maine for the second time in three months, playing at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4,… Read More
Maine is a very French place. With roughly a quarter of its people having French, French-Canadian or Acadian ancestry, Maine is the most “French” state in New England, census figures show. Franco-Americans in Maine, New England and New York represent the second-largest concentration of… Read More
A quick look at Clint Black’s Web site reveals the depths of this country music veteran’s professional and personal versatility. Sure, it opens with the business of concert schedules, but what follows are the activities that come with the job security of a platinum-selling career… Read More
The rehearsal for “Noises Off” is a case of life imitating art imitating art. In Michael Frayn’s raucous play-within-a-play, tensions mount backstage as the cast’s production of the British farce “Nothing On” unravels onstage. As the cast runs through Act II for the New Surry… Read More
Bob Dylan may be aging, but time doesn’t seem to have him in mind. Perhaps that’s why the folk-rock-blues legend titled his Grammy-winning 1997 album “Time Out of Mind.” But with Dylan, sometimes it’s hard to know where he’s going with something. And it’s just… Read More
Last week, under the threat of a rainstorm, the Maine Shakespeare Festival opened with “Richard III,” about the infamous misshapen tyrant and his march across a killing field to claim the crown. During the course of the three-hour bloodbath (most of which, thankfully, takes place offstage), the sky… Read More
The sound came churning out of Chicago like a screaming locomotive. A scratching rhythm guitar that resonated like a drum and a raspy voice singing “Bo Diddley got a diamond ring …” That was a half-century ago and the man behind the music is still singing about that… Read More
Without even looking at a map, it’s easy to tell that Waterville, Maine, is about as far from Hollywood as you can get – and not just in the geographic sense. Then again, so are Toronto and Park City, Utah, both of which host two of the biggest… Read More
He won’t be singing “Alice’s Restaurant,” the song that he’s best known for, when Arlo Guthrie performs on the riverfront in Bangor next week. Guthrie, 55, says that at 181/2 minutes, his trademark tune is “just way too long” for live audiences and he “can’t remember most of… Read More
Reverend Billy called by cell phone from the stage at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery in New York City. The room, which had been filled just 30 minutes earlier with a congregation, was empty. But that didn’t stop Reverend Billy from belting out a treatise he calls “Other Love” and… Read More
A muted black-and-white photograph shows Jamie Wyeth measuring Rudolf Nureyev from chin to chest. The painter holds a pair of calipers in one hand and a pen in the other as the dancer looks at him intently, almost defiantly. Wyeth wanted to get it right. By the look… Read More
They seek him here, they seek him there. Those Frenchmen seek him everywhere. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) { if… Read More
While Iowa and Maine may be separated geographically by about 1,100 miles, the two states do have much in common: agriculture as a big component of their economies, hardworking people, rural isolation, a prove-it-to-me mind-set. Maybe that’s why revered singer-songwriter and notable Iowan Greg Brown… Read More
For the past two decades, Buckwheat Zydeco has been spreading the word about that most infectious brand of music – zydeco. Buckwheat Zydeco will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22, at the Maine Center for the Arts at the University of Maine in Orono. Read More
Why in the world would anyone ride a unicycle down the side of a volcano? It’s a warm-up, of course, for the main challenge – a unicycle ride down the south face of the third-highest mountain in North America, El Pico de Orizaba in Mexico. Read More