Folk troubadour David Mallett and rhythm and blues powerhouse Anna and the Diggs sold out Darrows Barn in Damariscotta July 19, day two of the Midcoast Music Fest.
The opening act, Anna and the Diggs, is coming off the release of its debut album, “River Girl;” a best female vocalist win for lead singer Anna Lombard and recent gigs opening for Rustic Overtones and, on Lombard’s 27th birthday, for Chris Isaak at L.L. Bean’s 100th anniversary party.
Lombard said she felt humbled to win best female vocalist honors in a city with a wealth of talent. It was her third nomination but her first win in the category, part of the Portland Phoenix Best Music Poll Awards.
The singer impressed the crowd with that award-winning voice, well suited to rhythm and blues, although it’s a change for Lombard and her bandmates from the Americana of their former band, Gypsy Tailwind.
The band closed their set with a raw, bluesy take on “Meet Me in the Morning” from Bob Dylan’s classic 1975 album “Blood on the Tracks,” perhaps the ideal song to show off the melding of their folk influences with their new sound.
Lombard said the band plans to stay busy into the fall. They’re booking a tour of Northeast college towns and Lombard is putting the finishing touches on her debut solo album, set for release in September.
“I started singing when I was 3,” Lombard said. She started taking vocal lessons at the age of 7 and played the baritone tuba and French horn in her school band. “Singing was always my first love,” she said.
Lombard and the Diggs – Maxwell Cantlin on guitar and vocals, Benjamin Trout on mandolin and Colin Winsor on bass – performed in Damariscotta a year ago as Gypsy Tailwind. The band played at Roots, Rock and Reggae on the Bay, the outdoor day festival that preceded the Midcoast Music Fest.
Gypsy Tailwind split up as a result of creative differences with another member, Lombard said.
She describes the Diggs’ music as “modern rhythm and blues soul fusion.”
“That was the direction I wanted to go in and I was just lucky enough that these guys wanted to be on board,” she said of the Diggs. The band also includes drummer Chris Dow, who sat out the July 19 show.
Lombard underlined the multi-generational bill when, while telling the audience of her delight to share the stage with headliner David Mallett, she said she and the band are friends with Mallett’s sons and fellow Portland musicians Luke and Will Mallett, who lend the family name to The Mallett Brothers Band.
David Mallett has recorded 14 albums and toured for 30 years. He’s known for his deep, sonorous voice and tender lyrics, as well as for the many artists who cover his songs.
Bass guitarist Michael Burd has been performing with Mallett since 1981.
Mallett’s songs “each speak to the human condition in some way,” Burd said in an interview after sound check. “They speak to where we live, those of us that are native Mainers or Mainers by choice, those who value the heritage of life in Northern New England.”
Mallett, on lead vocals, guitar and harmonica, along with Burd, Susan Ramsey on viola and violin, and Robbie Coffin on guitar, led the way through a set list spanning his extensive catalog.
They played the ballad “Red, Red Rose,” made famous by Emmylou Harris’ 1990 recording; “Beautiful,” a love song to his daughter; “My Old Man,” a tribute to his father; and “The Artist in Me,” a reflection on the creative life. The band also strayed from Mallett’s original material for a cover of the Frank Sinatra classic “Fly Me to the Moon.”
The audience applauded as, midway through their set, the band played the opening notes of Mallett’s most famous song, “Garden Song,” also known as “Inch by Inch.”
He invited the crowd to sing along for the chorus, as many enthusiastically did.
Burd, said after hundreds of live performances, he never tires of playing “Garden Song.” In fact, he covers the song with his other band, a ukulele ensemble called The Merry Plinksters.
“It speaks to our rural way of life, our hopefulness and the community of folks who acknowledge the earth,” he said.
Mallett, in a brief interview before the show, said he enjoys Damariscotta, where he has played at Lincoln Theater and, during the Great Salt Bay Music Series, at the Damariscotta River Association’s Belvedere Road farm.
“It’s a lovely town,” he said.
The Sebec resident said he’s at work on an album of farm songs, to include original and re-recorded material. The album is a project for the non-profit Maine Farmland Trust. Mallett said his hope is that it will boost the profile of the organization.
The trust is active in Lincoln County, having acquired a pair of high-profile properties in recent years – the Damariscotta property known as the Phillips Farm, once tapped as a future Walmart site; and Jefferson’s Rolling Acres Farm, said to be the largest undeveloped land tract on Damariscotta Lake.
The Damariscotta River Association, a non-profit land trust, is presenting the Midcoast Music Fest for the first time this year.
Executive Director Steven Hufnagel is enthusiastic about the music and the public response.
The Jason Spooner Trio opened the series July 12, with support from The New Rangers.
“The crowd ate Spooner up,” Hufnagel said. The audience, like the Mallett crowd, ranged in age from children to senior citizens.
Dick Bower, 84, of Hanover, N.H., falls into the latter category. Bower, who is vacationing in New Harbor, attended the Spooner show and returned for David Mallett.
“I thought it was great,” he said of the July 12 show. Near the end of the show and at the invitation of the band, many in the audience, including his New Harbor neighbors, pushed their chairs aside to dance in the aisles, Bower said.
He said he didn’t join in because he didn’t want to risk a fall. To say he enjoyed the show, however, is an understatement – he told a DRA employee afterward that he hadn’t had such a good live music experience since the days of swing bandleader Benny Goodman, who enjoyed his prime in the 1930s.
Bower said he usually prefers show tunes by artists like Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart. Spooner, however, was a revelation. He said he told his daughters about the concert and they, too, are now fans of the blues-rock band.
Before Anna and the Diggs took the stage, Bower said he expected a more conventional show, minus the dancing in the aisles.
“I hope I’m wrong,” he said.
Hallowell-based rock-and-roll band The Boneheads will wrap up the music series Thurs., July 26 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Local singer-songwriter Bruce Hardina will open.
