LEWISTON – Nightingale, which plays dance-influenced music from Europe, Canada and the United States, will perform Saturday, Sept. 8, at Bates College. The Vermont-based trio has been hailed by the folk music magazine Sing Out! for “impeccable playing … danceable and exciting, with a reflective approach to the music.”

The 7 p.m. event in Olin Arts Center Concert Hall is open to the public at no cost; but due to limited seating, tickets are required. For more information, call 786-6135.

Making up Nightingale are Becky Tracy, fiddle; Jeremiah McLane, piano, accordion; and Keith Murphy, guitar, mandolin, foot percussion, vocals. Over the past decade, they have explored musical traditions that reach beyond New England to Quebec, Newfoundland, Ireland, France and elsewhere.

Named for a bird that appears in traditional songs from many lands, Nightingale was formed in 1993. McLane, Murphy and Tracy were all established players in the traditional New England contradance scene, and Nightingale quickly became a sought-after dance band.

Nightingale’s first recording, “The Coming Dawn,” was released by Epcat Music in 1994, barely a year after the band’s formation. Produced by Pete Sutherland, it captured the fresh, raw energy of the trio and established Nightingale’s sophisticated approach to an eclectic mix of traditional music.

Less than two years later, the band recorded a more ambitious project, “Sometimes When the Moon is High” with Midnight Music. More complex and tightly arranged, this album won the band a wider audience.

In 1999, after six years of intensive touring, Nightingale went on sabbatical. Refreshed and reconvened in 2000, the band began reworking its repertoire, drawing more extensively on original compositions from McLane and Murphy. These compositions frequently infuse the traditional repertoire with subtle references to contemporary music.

This new sound once again proved the trio’s creative resourcefulness and culminated in Nightingale’s latest recording, “Three,” released by Midnight in June 2004.

Nightingale has performed on CBC radio in Canada and was recently chosen for the Meet the Composer series in Saranac, N.Y. The band performs at festivals, performing arts centers, folk clubs and major dance events.