MT. VERNON — The Maranacook String Band, a youthful folk/bluegrass band, will present a concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Mt. Vernon Community Center, after a longer-than-usual hiatus from the venue that the band has considered its home base since its inception in 2009.

“We usually play Mt. Vernon at least twice a year,” said band leader Stan Keach, “but I recently looked at my calendar and realized we haven’t been there in over a year.” Keach started the band as a gifted/talented education project when he taught at Maranacook Community School.

Besides Keach, the original edition of the band featured Julie Churchill, now Davenport, who was then a high school sophomore. Now 21, recently married, and a graduate of the University of Maine in Orono, Churchill has “one of the very best singing voices in Central Maine . . . especially for the country roots-type music we do,” according to Keach.

Virtuoso mandolinist Dan Simons, of Vienna, also a Maranacook graduate, joined the band a couple of months after its inception and has been the instrumental anchor of the group ever since.

Dana Reynolds, a 13-year-old seventh-grade student at Maranacook, is a featured lead and harmony singer.

“Dana is the best 13-year-old singer you’re likely to hear anywhere, and she’s very comfortable on stage — a natural performer,” Keach said.

Rounding out the band is 16-year-old fiddle prodigy Finn Woodruff of Brunswick.

The Maranacook String Band features hot bluegrass instrumentals, very tight three-part vocal harmonies, plenty of comedy, plus some original songs about Maine written by Keach, who is a nationally-known Bluegrass songwriter. He has had some of his songs recorded by some of the hottest bluegrass bands in the country.

The event is free and open to the public, but donations will be accepted. Refreshments will be available at intermission.

FMI: Stan, 207-397-2241.

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