The state of Maine is located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Its musical traditions extend back thousands of years to the music of the first peoples of Maine, the

Penobscot The Penobscot (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewi'') are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic ...

Passamaquoddy The Passamaquoddy ( Maliseet-Passamaquoddy: ''Peskotomuhkati'') are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America. Their traditional homeland, Peskotomuhkatik'','' straddles the Canadian province of New Brunswick ...

, Wabanaki and other related

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

cultures.

Indigenous music

Classical music

In the colonial era, the talented composer, singer and compiler of tune books,

Supply Belcher Supply Belcher (March 29, 1751 – June 9, 1836) was an American composer, singer, and compiler of tune books. He was one of the so-called Yankee tunesmiths or First New England School, a group of mostly self-taught composers who created sacred vo ...

(1751–1836), a Maine resident, was known in his time as "the Handel of Maine". Belcher organized the first

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

in Maine. Neoclassical composer

Walter Piston Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University. Life Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter Ha ...

(1894–1976) was born and raised in Rockland before moving to Boston at the age of ten.

Popular music

Maine is home to many talented singers, songwriters, band leaders and composers. Composers from Maine include Charles Whitney Coombs,

John Knowles Paine John Knowles Paine (January 9, 1839 – April 25, 1906) was the first American-born composer to achieve fame for large-scale orchestral music. The senior member of a group of composers collectively known as the Boston Six, Paine was one of those ...

, Frank Churchill, Aaron Robinson,

Claude Demetrius Claude Demetrius (August 3, 1916 – May 1, 1988) was an American songwriter. He was known for his rockabilly songs, some of which were made famous by singers such as Elvis Presley. Biography Demetrius was born in Bath, Maine, United States. By ...

, Peter Garland, and Harold J. Crosby.

Rudy Vallée Hubert Prior Vallée (July 28, 1901 – July 3, 1986), known professionally as Rudy Vallée, was an American singer, musician, actor, and radio host. He was one of the first modern pop stars of the teen idol type. Early life Hubert Prior Vall ...

grew up in Westbrook. His career started as a saxophone player and singer, later becoming a band leader. He also helped

Alice Faye Alice Faye (born Alice Jeanne Leppert; May 5, 1915 – May 9, 1998) was an American actress and singer. A musical star of 20th Century-Fox in the 1930s and 1940s, Faye starred in such films as '' On the Avenue'' (1937) and ''Alexander's Ragtime ...

and

Frances Langford Julia Frances Newbern-Langford (April 4, 1913 – July 11, 2005) was an American singer and actress who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and made film and television appearances for over two decades. She was known as the "GI Nightinga ...

start their careers and appeared on Broadway for a time. Vallée was a graduate of the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classifie ...

. Born in Fort Fairfield, country music legend

Dick Curless Richard William Curless (March 17, 1932 – May 25, 1995) was an American country music singer. He usually wore a patch over his right eye. Biography Curless was born in Fort Fairfield, Maine, United States, and moved with his family to Ma ...

was a singer, songwriter and guitarist. His biggest hit, " A Tombstone Every Mile", was a song about a stretch of road in Northern Maine. He was an inaugural member of the Maine Country Music Hall Of Fame, located in Mechanic Falls. The Dick Curless Memorial Scholarship Fund has been established to support young Maine musicians. Donald Doane Sr. is another member of the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame, born in Kennebunk in 1907. His band, the Kahtadin Mountaineers, was formed in the early 1950s and still performs regularly today at county fairs, fiddle contests and for many charities. The Windham Community Church was built from charity proceeds. The group has also played with singer Kate Smith, best known for her rendition of "

God Bless America "God Bless America" is an American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin during World War I in 1918 and revised by him in the run up to World War II in 1938. The later version was notably recorded by Kate Smith, becoming her signature son ...

" (written by

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russ ...

Howie Day Howard Kern Day is an American singer-songwriter. Beginning his career as a solo artist in the late 1990s, Day became known for his extensive touring and in-concert use of samplers and effects pedals to accompany himself. He self-financed and s ...

, from Bangor, had a hit with his song " Collide" in 2004.

Music venues and institutions

Major music venues in Maine include the University of Southern Maine, Corthell Hall, Gorham, Maine, Portland's Merrill Auditorium, State Theatre, One Longfellow Square, Port City Music Hall, Portland House of Music and Events, Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield, North Atlantic Blues Festival in Rockland, The Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath, Bar Harbor Music Festival, American Folk Festival in Bangor, Bay Chambers Summer Music Festival in Rockport, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Portland Chamber Music Festival, Salt Bay Chamberfest in Damariscotta, Sebago – Long Lake Music Festival in Harrison, Saltwater Celtic Music Festival, Ossipee Valley Music Festival in South Hiram, East Benton Fiddlers Festival and Contest, Sweet Chariot Music Festival on Swan's Island, Saddleback Mountain Bluegrass Festival, Frantasia at the University of Maine at Farmington, Treat Memorial Library in Livermore Falls, American Folk Festival in Bangor, Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival in Brunswick, the Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music in Bowdin and the Sebago – Long Lake Festival Players. Maine is home to several prominent professional organizations, including the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, the Maine Country Music Association Hall of Fame, the Down East Country Musical Association and the Maine Academy of Country Music. The Maine State Music Theater in Brunswick has operated since 1959 and is one of three professional music theaters in the state; the others are Northport Music Theater in Northport, which opened in 2007, and Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunguit, which opened in 1933. Portland is also home to the Portland Choral Arts Society and the Portland String Quartet. The DaPonte String Quartet is the only other professional string quartet in Maine. The Portland Opera Repertory Theatre and Opera Maine are the main outlets for opera in the state. Outside of Portland, there are pockets of people who preserve the traditional musical styles of their ancestors, including the

Swedish music The Music of Sweden shares roots with its neighboring countries in Scandinavia, as well as Eastern Europe, including polka, schottische, waltz, polska and mazurka. The Swedish fiddle and nyckelharpa are among the most common Swedish folk inst ...

of Stockholm and

New Sweden New Sweden ( sv, Nya Sverige) was a Swedish colony along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now the United States from 1638 to 1655, established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great military power. New Sweden f ...

, the French-Maine community (especially in Upper St. John Valley, home to the Acadian Festival) and the

ethnic Russian music Russian folk music specifically deals with the folk music traditions of the ethnic Russian people. Ethnic styles in the modern era The performance and promulgation of ethnic music in Russia has a long tradition. Initially it was intertwined with ...

of the Kennebec River community in Richmond. Maine's musical heritage also include the longstanding men's a cappella group, the Meddiebempsters, at Bowdoin College, and

Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...

's all-male Manic Optimists. Original compositions about Maine and by Maine composers are stored in the Maine Collection at the Bagaduce Music Lending Library in Blue Hill. With over 225,000 separate titles, this library houses the largest publicly available sheet-music collection in North America.

Folk, country, and bluegrass music

Maine has a long folk fiddling tradition, including Mellie Dunham, which has helped inspire many modern bluegrass musicians. Maine's bluegrass and fiddling tradition is celebrated at the Eastern Maine Music Festival. There is also a Bluegrass Music Association of Maine. Maine's contributions to bluegrass include

Clarence Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a l ...

and

Roland White Roland Joseph White (né LeBlanc; April 23, 1938 – April 1, 2022) was an American bluegrass music artist, performing principally on the mandolin. Biography White was born in Madawaska, Maine, on April 23, 1938, as Roland Joseph LeBlanc, and ...

of the Kentucky Colonels and

Jimmy Cox James Cox (July 28, 1882 – March 3, 1925) was an American vaudeville performer, and songwriter famous for his Roaring Twenties hit, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" is a blues standard wri ...

. Many prominent singer-songwriters grew up in Maine, including

Patty Griffin Patricia Jean Griffin (born March 16, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.Griffin, Patrici She is a vocalist and plays guitar and piano. She is known for her stripped-down songwriting style in the folk music genre. Her songs ha ...

Ellis Paul Ellis Paul (born Paul Plissey; January 14, 1965) is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. Born in Presque Isle, Aroostook County, Maine, Paul is a key figure in what has become known as the Boston school of songwriting, a literate, ...

Slaid Cleaves Slaid Cleaves is an American singer-songwriter born in Washington, D.C. and raised in South Berwick, Maine and Round Pond, Maine, United States. An alumnus of Tufts University, where he majored in English and philosophy, Cleaves lives in Aus ...

, David Mallett and Rod Picott. Cleaves and Picott were childhood friends in South Berwick. Randy Browning of the Late Bloomer moved to South Berwick. The Freewill Folk Society at

also continues the folk tradition. There are also more traditional folk acts such as Schooner Fare, Maine's best-known folk trio-turned-duo following the death of Tom Rowe in 2004, and the Dave Rowe Trio, founded by the late Tom Rowe's son. The Maritime- and Celtic-inspired folk duo Castlebay continues these traditions by researching archives for songs and ballads sung in Maine and performing them. In addition, members Julia Lane and Fred Gosbee write and perform songs about Maine's people and history. Newer Maine-based

progressive folk Progressive folk was originally a type of American folk music that pursued a progressive political agenda. More recently, the term has also been applied to a style of contemporary folk that draws from post-Bob Dylan folk music and adds new lay ...

artists have been emerging since the 1990s, including Heather Caston and Nancy Cartonio. Maine's religious music includes the well-known church choirs of St. Luke's Episcopal Cathedral and two Bangor-area churches both named after St. John (one Catholic and one Episcopal). One Longfellow Square in Portland is a popular folk-music venue.

Contra dance Contra dance (also contradance, contra-dance and other variant spellings) is a form of folk dancing made up of long lines of couples. It has mixed origins from English country dance, Scottish country dance, and French dance styles in the 17th ...

s abound throughout the state of Maine keeping a tradition vital. Live bands often include fiddle, guitar, piano, banjo, mandolin, bass, and more. Maine's folk tradition is celebrated and kept alive in summer camps such as Maine Fiddle Camp in Montville. The Acadia School of Traditional Music and Arts (the Acadia Trad School) operates a week-long festival in June that attracts serious music and dance students of all ages from all across the US, Canada and beyond. Maine's musicians play a variety of different styles of folk music. Irish, Scottish, Quebecois, and even southern styles were influential on Maine's folk tradition. French-Canadian music is popular in Northern Maine on the border of Canada. The traditional fiddle tunes extended into Maine and became very prominent in all of New England. The only music museum east of Nashville is located in Mechanic Falls. The Maine Country Music Hall of Fame was founded in 1978 and in 2008 they opened a museum.

Blues

Blues pianist Bob Page was from Damariscotta. Harmonica player and singer

Jason Ricci Jason Ricci (born February 3, 1974) is an American harmonica player and singer. In addition to his solo albums, Ricci has appeared as a guest harmonica player on albums with Johnny Winter, Terence Blanchard, Nick Curran, Ana Popovic, Walter Tr ...

is from Portland.

Jazz

The southern coastal region both in and near Portland, Maine is home to many

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

instrumentalists, composers, singers, songwriters and arrangers. The University of Southern Maine at Gorham campus offers many jazz concerts throughout the academic year.

Lenny Breau Leonard Harold Breau (August 5, 1941 – August 12, 1984) was an American-Canadian guitarist. He blended many styles of music, including jazz, country, classical, and flamenco. Inspired by country guitarists like Chet Atkins, Breau used finger ...

, born in Auburn in 1941, is often considered to have been the most gifted jazz guitarist of all time. He was also a very well versed classical guitar player, known for his distinctive

fingerstyle Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with a single plect ...

technique and ability to incorporate two-note comping,

harmonics A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the '' fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', ...

quartal harmony In music, quartal harmony is the building of harmonic structures built from the intervals of the perfect fourth, the augmented fourth and the diminished fourth. For instance, a three-note quartal chord on C can be built by stacking perfect fourt ...

and three-against-two rhythms. He was also known for blending jazz, flamenco, classical and country styles. During his lifetime, Breau recorded albums such as ''The Hallmark Sessions'', ''Swingin' on a Seven String'' and ''Guitar Sounds''. Some of his most memorable tunes are "Bouree", "The Claw" and "Emily", performed in Brunswick on August 2, 1980. Breau died in Los Angeles in 1984. Don Doane, a jazz trombonist and music teacher within the Maine school system, has played with

Woody Herman Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his dea ...

and Maynard Ferguson. Dave Bowler, a professional jazz drummer born in 1957 in Portland, helped found the jazz/rock band the Franklin Street Arterial and recorded an album called ''Blue Hills''. He has played with other well-known musicians such as

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album '' Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of '' Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (1 ...

, Willie Dixon and Kilimandjaro. He also became a member of

the Ahmad Jamal Trio ''The Ahmad Jamal Trio'' is an album by American jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. It was released on the Epic Records, Epic label.

. Pianist, arranger and composer John Benson Brooks was born in Houlton.

Rock

Punk rock band Pinkerton Thugs formed in Kennebunk.

Alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band Gouds Thumb, As Fast As,

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

bands Rustic Overtones,

Paranoid Social Club Paranoid Social Club is an American Rock music, rock band formed in 2002 in Portland, Maine, which plays a fusion of Indie (music), indie and psychedelic rock. Critics have noted of the band: "Dave Gutter's got one of the most versatile, likable ro ...

, Phantom Buffalo, Clay Camero, Big Blood and

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier p ...

band

Cruel Hand Cruel Hand is an American hardcore punk band from Portland, Maine that formed in 2006. As of 2013, Cruel Hand has released four full-length albums: '' Without a Pulse'' on 6131 Records, '' Prying Eyes'' and '' Lock & Key'' on Bridge 9 Records a ...

, rock band 6gig, Lost On Liftoff, Livid Orange, Sidecar Radio are from Portland. Portland is also home to many venues catering to the city's underground

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

, and

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...

scene, including the Apohadion Theater, Sun Tiki Studios, and Geno's Rock Club. Notable contemporary bands from this scene include

groups Amiright?, FonFon Ru, and Lahnah,

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, artists indulge in extre ...

and shoegaze bands Twisted Hellcat and Crystal Canyon, electric folk punk outfit the Bumbling Woohas, and

pop punk Pop punk (or punk pop) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti- suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other p ...

emo Emo is a rock music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of and hardcore punk from the Washington D.C. hardcore punk scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore and pioneered b ...

, and

indie punk Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

bands such as Street Sity Surf, Frankie Moon & Dave Mathewses Band, and Uncle Spudd. The most commercially successful act to come out of this scene is the

band Weakened Friends who were named "Unsigned Artist of the Year" in 2017's

Boston Music Awards Founded in 1987, the Boston Music Awards are a set of music awards given annually that showcase talent in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. Past shows have featured such notable talent as Aerosmith, Paula Cole, Esperanza Spalding, Boston, Rubyho ...

and collaborated with

J Mascis Joseph Donald Mascis Jr. ( ; born December 10, 1965), better known as J Mascis, is an American musician who is the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. He has also released several albums as a solo art ...

Dinosaur Jr. Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name. The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlo ...

on the track ''Hate Mail'' The DIY venue, the Squashed Warehouse, is revered among punk musicians and commonly hosts

hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

, folk punk, and

shows, having been played by national and local acts including folk punk legends Days N' Daze, underground ska-core act

Grey Matter Grey matter is a major component of the central nervous system, consisting of neuronal cell bodies, neuropil (dendrites and unmyelinated axons), glial cells (astrocytes and oligodendrocytes), synapses, and capillaries. Grey matter is distingu ...

, and many of the groups mentioned above. Another DIY Venue, Project Freewill, in New Portland Maine, celebrates underground musicians in Maine. The band Oak, signed to Mercury/ PolyGram, had four songs that made the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streamin ...

chart; the most successful was "King of the Hill", which reached No. 36 in May 1980. Oak originally consisted of Rick Pinette (vocals, piano, guitar), Dave Stone (keyboard), Danny Caron (drums), George Borden (bass) and Scott Grover Weatherspoon (guitar). John Foster replaced Borden on bass for the band's second album. Carl Crosen (guitar) and Bruce Noell (bass) played in the band during the time in which demos for the record label were recorded. Oak went on national college concert tours and played all over the Northeast and Eastern Canada. The band was known for great theatrics, high energy and excellent vocals and musicianship.

Hip hop

Hip hop artist Alias, from Hollis, formed the label

Anticon Anticon (often styled as anticon.) is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1998 by seven musicians and manager Baillie Parker. It is now collectively owned among six musicians, co-founder Parker, and ma ...

. Spose was born in Portland and grew up in Wells. Portland-based Trails has won local album awards and collaborated with

Kool G Rap Nathaniel Thomas Wilson (born July 20, 1968), better known by his stage name Kool G Rap (or simply G Rap), is an American rapper from Queens, New York City. He began his career in the mid-1980s as one half of the group Kool G Rap & DJ Polo and a ...

, members of the

Wu-Tang Clan Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close aff ...

and others.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Music Of Maine Maine culture

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...