Noah Kahan put Maine on the modern indie-folk map with his hit song “Maine.” Kahan, a fellow New-Englander himself, hails from Vermont. But what — or rather, who — does Maine have to offer?
Patty Griffin is a folk icon from Old Town, Maine. At 16, she bought a guitar for $50, and after a divorce in 1994, she began performing in Boston coffeehouses, until she was scouted by A&M records. She gained recognition in her forties, and is still releasing music in her early sixties. Griffin’s website boasts: “Over two decades, the 2x GRAMMY Award winner — and 7x nominee — and Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement award winner, has crafted a remarkable body of work in progress that prompted the New York Times to hail her for ‘[writing] cameo-carved songs that create complete emotional portraits of specific people…[her] songs have independent lives that continue in your head when the music ends.’” In 2007, Griffin received the Artist of the Year award from Americana Music Association, and her album Children Running Through won Best Album. Her twelfth studio album, Crown of Roses, was released this past July.
Did you know a Mainer coined the term ‘Rockabilly?’ Bill Flagg was born in 1934 in his family home on the road that is now Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville. His family moved to Connecticut in 1941, but he continued to spend summers in Waterville with his aunt and uncle. He graduated in 1952, the year after the first rock and roll song, “Rocket 88,” was released by Jackie Brenston. He immediately began his career as a radio hit, known as “The Lone Pine Cowboy” across the region. Alongside classmate John Sligar, the duo developed a style mixing R&B, bluegrass, and country, and when banjoist Jody Gibson joined the mix in 1953, the Trio began recording with Tetra Music in New York. It was in one of these sessions that Flagg and Sligar called their work rockabilly, a mash of rock ‘n’ roll and hillbilly. The term and style was soon popularized by larger artists such as Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins, but its roots are right here in Waterville, Maine.
Dick Curless was the Baron of Country Music and a Mainer. This eyepatch-wearing cowboy was born in Fort Fairfield, Maine in 1932, and moved to Massachusetts at eight years old. He began his career in 1948 as a radio show host and a member of the local band, Trail Blazers. He served in the Korean War from 1952 to 1954 and immediately picked up his music career upon his return to Maine. In 1965, he recorded the biggest hit of his career, “A Tombstone Every Mile,” which reached the top 5 of Billboard country charts. The song itself refers to a stretch of road in northern Maine known for many automobile crashes, and became one of over 22 Billboard country hits released by Curless during his career.
Lenny Breau was a guitarist born in 1941 in Auburn, Maine. Likely inspired by his parents, who were professional country musicians, Breau began playing the guitar at just eight years old. At 14, he was already the lead guitarist for his parents’ band and gained the nickname “Lone Pine Junior.” He made his first professional recordings in Westbrook, Maine at 15. He left his parents’ country band in 1959, when his father slapped him in the face for incorporating jazz improvisation. His career as a professional guitarist lasted about 20 years, during which he was a session guitarist, solo artist, teacher, and writer for Guitar Player magazine. His playing blended many styles, including jazz, country, classical, and flamenco. In 1948, his career was cut short when his body was found in the swimming pool of his apartment complex. He died of strangulation. His wife Jewel was the chief suspect, but she was never charged. His documentary, The Genius of Lenny Breau Remembered, was released in 1999, and Ron Forbes-Roberts published a biography titled One Long Tune: The Life and Music of Lenny Breau in 2006. Breau was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1997.
Sources: www.pattygriffin.com/tour-1, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_Griffin, https://www.mmone.org/bill-flagg/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Curless, https://www.mainememory.net/record/148500, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tombstone_Every_Mile, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_Breau
~ Alayna Blier `26
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