BRUNSWICK – A free public concert to help solve cabin fever returns to Crooker Theater at Brunswick High School Saturday, Feb. 21.

The Al Corey Big Band, a popular Maine swing band for more than 50 years, is making a return appearance by popular request for Cabin Fever Winter Fest VI.

Doors open at 6 p.m. The concert begins at 7 and is sponsored by the Town of Brunswick Davis Fund Committee “for the pleasure of the citizens.”

The Al Corey Big Band, headquartered in the Waterville area, is now led by Brian Nadeau after the death of originator Al Corey in November. Fifteen years ago this month, the band played at the 250th Anniversary Pejepscot Proprietors’ Ball at Fort Andross, overlooking the Androscoggin River.

Nadeau, a trumpeter, has played with the band since he was 7. A school educational rep and brass clinician for Northern Kingdom Music Co., Nadeau recently played for the Manhattan Transfer and the Leslie Gore road show. Nadeau was offered the lead trumpet chair in the Glenn Miller Orchestra a few years ago, but chose to stay close to loved ones in Maine.

The band has 14 members, including vocalist Virginia Palmer, music educator at Goodwill Hinckley School, who has sung with the band for more than five years.

The Town Council, on the recommendations of the Davis Fund Committee, has awarded grants “for the pleasure of Brunswick citizens” for more than 60 years, as a result of a small trust fund. The fund was a bequest to the town many years ago by Samuel Gross Davis in memory of his father, Nathaniel, an early Brunswick businessman.

Each spring, the committee meets to review grant requests from town organizations. This year’s application deadline is April 16; applications are at the town manager’s office, 28 Federal St.

Admission to the free concert will be “first come, first served” until seats are filled.

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