LOVELL — Country music legend Al Hawkes and his Americana Trio will perform in concert on Thursday, Sept. 1, at the Brick Church for the Performing Arts.
The show will feature mandolins, six- and 12-string guitars and upright bass, all unplugged acoustic stringed instruments with a music mixture of old-time country, bluegrass, folk, swing, hillbilly jazz, novelty songs and Hawke’s original tunes.
The performance will mark the 75th birthday of Roberta Chandler, founder of the performing arts center.
Hawkes, who turned 80 on Christmas Day last year, has devoted his life to music. He has received notable honors, including the Country Music Association’s first American Eagle Award as Instrumentalist of the Year in 1990. The International Bluegrass Musicians Museum has recognized him as a pioneer in bluegrass.
Hawkes is known not only for his musical talents but for his genial presence. “As a performer, he is irrepressible — quick with a joke and even quicker with a flatpick,” writes Peter Twichell of WMPG-FM. “His warm and genuine stage manner draws audiences into his music and leaves them with a sense that Al was performing for them alone.”
From an early age, beginning in the 1940s, Hawkes absorbed the sounds of fiddles, guitars, mandolins, and Southern voices from distant AM radio stations. As a teen in Westbrook, he teamed up with guitarist Alton Myers to form Allerton and Alton, the Cumberland Ridge Runners. Hawkes’ performing and recording groups since the 1950s include Al Hawkes and his String Fusion, Al Hawkes and the Nitehawks, and The Songman Show.
He is still actively performing and recording and, in fact, is working in his studio on an album about life in Maine. He will introduce one of the songs he has written for the album, “I Was Born on A Mountain Top in Maine,” about Sabattus Mountain in Lovell.
The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Brick Church at 502 Christian Hill Road. Tickets are $10, $5 for children 12 and younger. They will be available at the door. For more information, call 925-2792 or go to www.lovellbrickchurch.org.
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- Al Hawkes and his Americana Trio will perform on Thursday, Sept. 1, at the Brick Church for the Performing Arts in Lovell. The concert will feature old-time country, bluegrass, folk, swing, hillbilly jazz, novelty songs and Hawke’s original tunes.
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