WELD — Two 7-9 p.m. free concerts will take place at the town hall, one this evening and the other Wednesday, Aug. 25.
The Webb Lake Association (WLA) will be holding its annual meeting from 6-7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 20. The Sandy River Ramblers concert begins immediately afterwards. There is no charge for the concert which is open to the public. Refreshments will be available and donations accepted for WLA, which sponsors the concert.
“We always have entertainment,” Lise Conant, a WLA director, said. “This is the first time for the Sandy River Ramblers.”
The annual meeting wasn’t held last year because of COVID-19, she noted. Past entertainment has included a retired Maine game warden who spoke about the book he wrote, silent movies with live music, and a musician, she added.
Sandy River Ramblers offers bluegrass music specializing in original songs about Maine written by award-winning author Stan Keach, according to their Facebook page.
“The Sandy River Ramblers are the longest-running bluegrass band in Maine, having been continually active for more than 38 years,” according to a post on the Town of Belgrade’s website (The Ramblers performed a free concert there last Friday). “The band has undergone some personnel changes, but in recent years, it has always featured young musicians as well as charter members Bud Godsoe on banjo and guitarist Stan Keach.
“Keach, a nationally known bluegrass songwriter and recent inductee into the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame, has written enough songs about Maine topics to fill two CDs, which have sold well to Mainers and vacationers alike,” the post continued. “Julie Davenport, a stunning lead vocalist who plays the upright bass, and Dan Simons, a virtuoso mandolinist, help anchor the rhythm of the band, and the Ramblers are in the process of bringing a new young fiddler into the band for the summer.”
Beginning at 7 p.m. on Aug. 25 the Charlie Jennison/Paul Heckel quartet will be onstage. The jazz group features Jennison on saxiphone, Heckel playing vibraphone, John Hunter on bass and drummer Tim Gilmore.
The quartet has performed twice in Weld and is much loved by the community, Alisa Farina Maynard said in a recent phone interview. Maynard is a founding member of the team that created Earth Day and produces musical events around the world in concert with environmental consciousness.
Maynard said she tries to present one free and one paid concert in Weld each year.
“I don’t want anyone to feel they can’t come,” she said. “Coming off COVID-19, I wanted to get it done. For my beloved Weld, I wanted to give them some joy.”
Masks and social distancing will be available, Maynard said.
A love offering will be offered during the concert produced by Avanti Consortium/Arcos Cielos. All donations will go to the musicians, Maynard said. “No donation is too small or too great,” she added.
The quartet performed in February 2016 during Weld’s Bicentennial celebration.
“To end that weekend with that concert was absolutely incredible,” Weld Historical Society President Sean Minear said recently.
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