BATH – The Dave Rowe Trio will bring its three-part harmonies and instrumental virtuosity to the Maine Maritime Museum Saturday, Feb. 21.

The concert, presented by The Chocolate Church Arts Center, will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the museum at 243 Washington St.

The three musicians respectfully build on tradition to move folk into a new groove. Rowe has a strong heritage to draw on, having grown up immersed in music, courtesy of his father, Tom Rowe, who was bass player for the popular folk group Schooner Fare.

At 12, Dave took up the tuba and received formal training on piano and keyboard before his dad taught him the electric bass. At 19, he picked up a guitar for the first time, then moved on to learning banjo and mandolin. The Rowe men teamed up with Denny Breau to form Turkey Hollow, which toured extensively until Tom died of cancer early in 2004.

Dave scoured Maine to find musicians to breathe new life into a different configuration. He first found Kevin O’Reilly, an electric bass player with a background in rock music. O’Reilly provides a strong underpinning to the Dave Rowe Trio sound while hanging on to his rock sensibilities. Besides trio work, he explores the boundaries of bass guitar with his solo music.

The trio was originally rounded out with Ed Howe, Dave’s fiddle-toting friend, but after more than four years in the band, Howe decided family time was suffering too much while he was on the road. He introduced Dave and O’Reilly to Eric McDonald, a Boston-based mandolin player and current Berklee student, who quickly fell in with the band’s arrangements and made a seamless transition into the lineup.

The Dave Rowe Trio is working on a new CD for a spring 2009 release.

Tickets to the concert in Long Reach Hall at the museum are $12/$14/$16. Call the box office at (207) 442-8455.