Are You Ready for Bar Harbor's Live Music Resurgence? Get Ready to Dance, Bar Harbor
BAR HARBOR AFTER DARK
BAR HARBOR—The town is going back to its music roots with a new all day music festival at The Annex on Rodick Street on October 15. Running from noon to 10 p.m. there will be ten hours of live music as well as drink specials and a full Side Street Café menu until 9 p.m.
And what’s more?
A complimentary shuttle for residents.
“We are doing the shuttles so our locals can enjoy the day at the annex safely and not be concerned with having to find parking, which can be a challenge on marathon day,” said the Annex’s General Manager Bo Jennings.
It’s all part of the Annex’s quest to spread the love of live music in Bar Harbor. They aren’t alone in that quest.
In a post-pandemic Bar Harbor, live music is resurging in part because of the focused efforts of places like the Annex, Bar Harbor Beerworks’ live music Thursdays, Bar Harbor Lobster Pound, the Criterion Theatre, Finback Alehouse, Ivy Manor Inn, Lompoc, Fogtown, Mainely Meat, and Pizzeria 131.
Both the Ivy Manor Inn and the Annex offer live music every day. Finback has become a later night staple.
The Sand Bar Cottage Inn (106 West Street) has a new outdoor patio where they serve drinks every afternoon. It’s open to the public, and on Sunday afternoons (weather permitting), they have live music. It’s local musicians, usually a singer and/or guitar player.
Owner Stephen Coston said, “It's a pretty mellow vibe, very nice for enjoying a drink and the nice ocean breeze.”
Bar Harbor has known music before and had a thriving scene whether it was the jazz and symphonies of the early to mid 1900s or the all out singer-songwriter and jams of the later part of that century.
Imagine, it’s 1985 in Bar Harbor. Local musician Jim Coffman is up visiting a friend, and they play in a little coffee house upstairs in the space where Galyn's is now. Next door at Geddy’s? Bonnie Raitt was playing.
“Carmen Verandah used to have live bands every weekend. I would love to see a revival of the live music scene in Bar Harbor. There are so many talented musicians in this area, it's pretty amazing really,” Coffman said.
Back in the 1920s, members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra played on the Village Green.
Coffman said that this opportunity to do live gigs is important for musicians. “It means a LOT. Bar Harbor is the ideal place to play in the summer, as you get a new audience every week. With a regular weekly gig there (at the Annex), we get exposure that would normally require going on the road, all without the hassle of touring. So, a weekly gig at the Annex is a godsend for performing musicians. We love playing there and are grateful to have the opportunity.”
That opportunity for musicians is also an opportunity for the businesses who host them and for community to lean toward a creative (or creator) economy.
MUSIC BRINGING TOGETHER COMMUNITY
“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”
― Maya Angelou
Budd Williams’ voice winnowed its way into the crowd at the Annex, Friday, September 1. It was just after 8 p.m. A lot of the customers were finishing their dinners as Williams’ band took the stage. People turned in their stools away from the bar top and drinks. People angled their chairs away from the four-tops and listened—really listened—as the band’s music took them away.
And far away from the stage, past the bar and most of the tables, Jennings (who is also the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce board president) smiled, eyes twinkling. His brother stood next to him, friends nearby, the Annex’s owner, Jeff Young, told an anecdote. In front of them, people’s heads bobbed in time with the drumbeat. In the street beyond the Annex’s walls, people stopped, listened, even danced a little between the fallen apples and fast walkers.
Bar Harbor came alive. Right then, people weren’t talking about cruise ships or visitation numbers or infrastructure needs or tax bills. People were experiencing something else: music and connection and even joy. That’s exactly what Jennings wants and it’s also what he hopes the Annex’s first annual musical festival on October 15 will bring.
WHAT CAN MUSIC DO?
“People haven't always been there for me but music always has.”
― Taylor Swift
Jennings often tells a quick but powerful anecdote about what he thinks live music can do.
Everyone, he says, has seen it happen before. Two people in a bar are watching a ball game. One loves the Yankees, hates the Red Sox. The other? The opposite. They maybe jeer each other all night long until there’s a break in the action and “Mr. Brightside” starts playing.
Suddenly, both those stool sitters are belting out the song together, arms around each other’s shoulders as they croon. Together. For a minute, at least, they are on the same side.
Music is almost a superpower when it comes to bringing people together, to showing emotions, to inspire to dance or sing or to action.
Live music? That’s another level of magic. And it’s a magic that a community like Bar Harbor can cultivate, Jennings said.
An Annex staple this summer, The Dan Lorey trio of Lorey, Scott Allen and Brian Akeley has over 150 years of playing experience and they prefer that experience to be live instead of the studio.
“All three of us have had a passion for live performance over studio recording. There is something dynamic and ephemeral about playing live. There are skills involved that, in my humble opinion, are way more creative and responsive that having multiple takes in a studio to get it right. You have to interact with your audience and respond to their presence while creating the music. There are musicians who are WAY better at playing live than in a studio, and vice versa. The reason this trio works well together is that we three all prefer playing live. That makes it fun, which at our age is what counts!”
What’s happening in Bar Harbor is really close to the ideal for music, according to Brandon Stallard, former president of the Maine Blues Society, a local on the island, and key player of Cryin’ Out Loud, one of the best blues band in all of New England.
“There are these moments in live music that you can’t ever capture,” Stallard said. “There are these things that happen in live performances all the time. I’ve always enjoyed that more than anything else. Live—that is the real deal. That’s the real players, the real stuff.”
Is the sound right? Is the bass player late? Maybe the singer can’t hear the drummer, but she thinks she’s right there in the zone. There’s a bit of magic and trust and improv and belief that happens live, Stallard said.
“What makes it all come together is the people. I swear it’s the truth: when you play to a group of people who are giving you energy back, you play better,” he said.
And that feeling?
“I find it more often in Bar Harbor than anywhere else,” he said. “People are on vacation. They are there to enjoy. They start to give you that energy. It’s not just us. I see it happening to every band playing at the Annex.”
That feeling? It’s a gift.
Lorey agrees, “All people need to experience live music. It's an organic process that draws them in, in a way that is TOTALLY different to listening to pre-recorded music. On an unconscious level, they know that they are all influencing the music that will manifest during that performance. It goes beyond words! It's symbiotic and synergistic.”
MUSIC CITIES
“Some people have lives; some people have music.”
― John Green, Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Music can also be an economic generator in multiple ways.
According to a report by Music Canada, “a music city, by its simplest definition is a place with a vibrant music economy. There is a growing recognition among governments and other stake holders that music cities can deliver significant economic, employment, cultural, and social benefits.”
That same report states,
“The essential elements of Music Cities are:
• Artists and musicians;
• A thriving music scene;
• Access to spaces and places;
• A receptive and engaged audience; and
• Record labels and other music-related businesses.”
Also, according to the report,
“Music can be a significant driver of economic activity, employment, exports, and tax revenue. These impacts derive mainly from direct spending on the production of live music and ticket purchases by local residents and tourists, as well as music-related spending on such things as food, drink, accommodation, and transport. Significant economic activity is also created in recorded music, publishing, music management and other related activities. Beyond these, music generates indirect economic benefits through spending in such areas as promotion and graphic arts.”
From somewhat secret house concerts to big events at the Criterion Theatre hosting Francis Fortier and the Bar Harbor Music Festival earlier this summer or the Wallflowers this week, live music exists in Bar Harbor in multiple venues and in multiple genres. Some, like Jennings and Criterion Managing Director Taylor Valarik, draw on their time in Nashville, to increase those happenings. Peter and Christina Hastings, co-owners of the Ivy Manor Inn have a similar drive.
“The Ivy Manor Inn offers live music seven days a week, throughout the summer from a wide range of musicians,” co-owner Peter Hastings said. “Most are local, but many travel from afar just to play in the spotlight of Maine that is Bar Harbor. We have even had cruise ship passengers reach out to us months in advance for a chance to play on the lawn. Nothing quite brings a town together and to life as much as live music. It is a true community experience. And the proof is in the pudding. The response from the locals and tourists has been specular. When done correctly and reasonably, live music has the ability to transform a community and enhance the tourist experience.”
THE FINBACK ALEHOUSE
“If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC”
― Kurt Vonnegut
There’s a different vibe at the Ivy Manor than the Annex than Mainely Meat in Town Hill than Lompoc than the Finback. That vibe, that feel, can also change depending on who is playing.
To say that the Finback Alehouse was packed on Friday night and vibing would be an understatement as locals and visitors streamed in to listen to That Maine Band, which bills itself as a “high-energy, eccentric band.” It’s based out of Bar Harbor. High energy is an understatement, too. The band fills the room with its sound and its presence and its joy.
Kegan Rae belted out a cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason” as a brown-shoed gentleman got down—maybe even jiggy with it—in the limited space of the dance floor and the bartenders pour out drink after drink. Adam Woodfin provided extra energy and power points increasing that ecstatic energy.
“This is amazing!” one local man shouted.
A town councilor sat near a window. A bartender from another restaurant strolled in to hugs and cheers, moved to a wall and leaned there, taking it all in.
In a line by the bathroom, a Bar Harbor woman said, “This is what Bar Harbor’s about, you know? But people don’t see it.”
“You’ve got to live it,” someone shout-mumbled.
She tapped on her ear. “What?”
“You’ve got to live it!” they repeated, louder.
“You do. You do.”
A lot of locals bopped and sung along, cheering at the end of tunes along with visitors. Outside on Main Street, which was mostly empty, a group of twenty-something-year-old men headed toward the Lompoc.
“Dance party at 11:30!” they shouted.
Music. Dancing. Celebration. Togetherness. Sometimes, it’s just about being alive.
According to Bryan Eddy, the manager at Finback Alehouse, “We have live music at Finback because we love live music and supporting local musicians! Don't get me wrong, I love a good jukebox as well, but there's nothing like a live show. Unscripted jams that flow into each other, how can you not love that?”
Those unscripted jams happen all the time at Finback, but especially on Wednesday open mic nights.
“The amount of locals and out of towners that come down to play is awesome!” Eddy said. “This is why we continue to do this into the winter. Live music heals the soul!”
SOUL HEALING
“My ambition was to live like music.”
― Mary Gaitskill
Music therapist, Erin Seiber agrees with Eddy and has said, “Music is one of the longest standing self-prescribed therapies in history.”
It’s the same way many people describe hiking or walking or just living on Mount Desert Island.
When Jennings came to Bar Harbor in 2020, there was little in the way of live music—or live anything—thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. And he could tell that was what the Annex could become. In 2021, one or two nights a week performers stepped on stage. Then in 2022, Jennings’ hit his personal goal of live music seven nights a week.
“Coming from Nashville, I love live music,” Jennings said.
The Annex team looked at what other live entertainment was out there, searching through Facebook and other social media for music events happening within two hours of Bar Harbor. They’d go to the pages and reach out to some of the acts that might be a good fit.
Seven acts a week in Bar Harbor is nothing like the 150 live music acts that happen in Nashville, but it’s not necessarily about having masses of music in a town of 5,000 that explodes each night in the high season to an estimated 20,000 at the season’s peak, according to a report by Planning Director Michele Gagnon. It’s about quality, about keeping the music going and the party going.
“Once the music starts, you don’t want it to stop,” Jennings said.
Another difference between the municipalities is that people tip really well in Nashville. There’s an understanding that the musicians, like servers, rely on tips. QR codes and Venmo links are common. For establishments with limited seating that reduces the base pay of musicians, and those tips are important.
“If the audience members hear songs that they know and the musicians are good, the more people are generous that way, and then the better we can entice musicians to come,” Jennings said.
The goal for the Annex is to have a variety of genres. There might be a chill acoustic act on Sunday, blues on Friday, a father-daughter duo on Saturday.
“The thing that I’ve most enjoyed doing is putting together musical acts and making it satisfying for everyone,” Jennings said.
“I think we see that all the time. It’s the reason the Annex wants the doors open and stuff. You hear the music from the street. They’ll be twenty, thirty, forty people in the streets. That’s where that energy comes from. You can’t fake that,” Stallard said. “They came for a drink and a cheeseburger. And they stay for two hours.”
Composer Philip Glass once said, “Each time you play music, it becomes new. This is one way I’ve been thinking about memory and the present, past, and future times all fitting together. I called it an exquisite moment. It’s an exquisite moment because the audience and the situation of performing allows us, requires us, to think of that moment. Very often we go through life without thinking about that moment. We talk about mindfulness but we’re not very mindful, most of us.”
The employees at the Annex, Ivy Manor, and Finback work hard to bring in that music to create those moments and do so at the Annex with the support of owners Jeff and Jena Young, who Jennings said were passionate about bringing live music into town before he arrived. Jeff Young is also on the Criterion Theatre board. Employees Jasmine Burne and Mac Patterson did all the work to get the Annex’s lounge renovated and up and running and keep it running, too, Jennings said. “They are a huge, huge asset.”
“The Annex is our favorite place to play, in large part because the people there are so great—the owners, management, and staff. It really feels like home. It's great to have a dedicated stage to play on, with lighting. The atmosphere is awesome. And it's great that in the summer the front is open to the street, so people walking by can see and hear the performers, and get drawn in,” Coffman said.
“Live music is something that’s a great asset to us and other bars in town,” Jennings said.
For newcomers, it is a litany at night. Where can we go? What can we do? Where’s the live music? Is there any live music?
At the 8-10 p.m. time slot, the Annex eases in after the Ivy Manor, and before places like Fogtown and the Finback Alehouse get started. Lompoc also caters to a later crowd.
“Music is one of the strongest bonds to bring people together,” Jennings said. “We work really hard to do it.”
Though not in Bar Harbor, a good part of the music resurgence is supported by the Nor’Easter in Northeast Harbor, which has consistently having music every Saturday night from 8-10 in the summer and 7-9 in the winter, giving musicians a year round place to play.
”We’ve had the Dan Lorey Trio, Jam Company, Budd Williams, Maya Macdonald, Tim Lewis, Sara Jones Quartet, Banned From Eden, and many others,” said Adam Fraley, co-owner of the Nor’Easter. “We think live music is important to engage with the community and offer healthy creative and social outlets. It’s cool to see a different crowd based on who the band is and their network of friends or the genre of music.”
HAPPY TRAILS
“Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It’s uplifting, it’s encouraging, it’s strengthening.”
- Aretha Franklin
Jennings grew up in a house filled with music. So much so that when the family went on vacations in Northern Wisconsin, everyone would line up and sing “Happy Trails” as family members drove away and back home. His dad, a Baptist minister began playing publicly at a young age. His mother told him, “You can play at the jazz club, but you have to play at church Sunday morning.”
There’s a little bit of that vibe in Bar Harbor, too. The Bar Harbor Band plays at the Village Green throughout the summer. Mostly solo acts serenade at the Ivy Manor Inn’s front lawn in the afternoons. On Sunday mornings, choirs and church organs play. Each year the Bar Harbor Music Festival serenades concertgoers inside the Criterion Theatre.
Music isn’t just rowdy. It’s symphonic. It’s peaceful. It’s inspiring, and it connects generation after generation. Jennings believes its part of the charm and character in a town and it can be a catalyst for businesses like the Annex or Lompoc or 131 Pizzeria.
“It’s been awesome,” he said.
Victor Hugo wrote, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”
Coffman had a similar sentiment. “In my experience, music is exceptionally powerful medicine. It has healing powers. It moves you to dance and engages with your emotion. It brings people together, which is something we need now more than ever.”
BANNED FROM EDEN, CRYIN’ OUT LOUD, AND DAN LOREY TRIO
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
― Bob Marley
Ask Jim Coffman if he could make the perfect Bar Harbor in terms of music, what would it be like, and he’ll tell you, “It would have more live music venues. The Annex is filling a real need, but I think there is room for more.”
His band, Banned from Eden, plays original, homegrown rock music. They are not a cover band, although they always play a few choice covers in their sets. The band includes Coffman (guitar, mandolin, fiddle, trombone, vocals); Russell Snyder (drums, harmonica, vocals); and Jeff Walls (bass and vocals). All contribute to the songwriting.
Last year, Banned from Eden released a live album, Live at the Annex, which is on Bandcamp (Live at the Annex | Banned from Eden (bandcamp.com)), as well as Spotify and other streaming services.
Stallard’s band, Cryin’ Out Loud, has been established for a few years and tours around Maine. If the band can’t play every Friday and every Sunday at the Annex, Stallard handles it and finds different folks to fill in. Jennings calls him if he has an empty spot.
“I kind of do that all over the state. I would make it known that you can call me and if we’re booked, I will still find you a band. I do that for free. Then what happens—it’s a cool thing—all the venues call me and so do the musicians. It’s nice because it works two ways. I’m booking for 25-30 different clubs,” Stallard said.
For him, music and the community isn’t about competition. Cryin’ Out Loud begins booking in January of each year and fills up by March, performing 100-plus days a year. The network he’s built is about support, professionalism, good music, and integrity.
“It’s a nice little network and I think a lot of that is harnessed at the Annex,” Stallard said. “It’s a tiny little place. It’s always busy because it’s a tourist place. A Tuesday night is as busy as a Saturday. Staff is incredible. Truly, the Annex is a cut above. They’re dedicated to music in a way that a lot of other people aren’t. It’s every night. They want duos, trios, bands. At any given night, you are going to see quality music at the Annex.”
Stallard grew up in a music family and has always gravitated toward that, but “sometime in my late twenties—and others’ late twenties—life comes knocking and you put down the guitar and you start paying taxes.”
Still, the pull was always there.
“When I moved up to Maine, I sort of had this—my wife had a really great job opportunity up here. I’d never lived anywhere, but this little town in Virginia,” he recalled. But when they moved here, he told her that he kind of wanted to just smoke cigars and play the blues. She said okay.
“You go play at the Annex, and you give it your all, and you’re sweaty, and it’s amazing, and you head down the street and get your drink on,” he said. “It’s exactly what you would expect from a night in Bar Harbor.”
In the past, he’d play at Little Anthony’s until 2 a.m., head up Cadillac Mountain and watch the sunrise all by himself. He thinks he’s seen about 500 of them. “It was all part of the experience.”
Now, for him, that experience is at the Annex. “I’m going to sip on an old fashioned and I’m going to play some nasty blues.”
“The annex itself committing to music at this level that is the highest probability of success to make it that way. The smoothness and enthusiasm of it ever since Bo Jennings took over? His hands are in it,” Stallard said. “He’s got a background in booking stuff. He’s from that whole Nashville circuit. He’s seen high-level acts and mid-level acts. When communicating with him, nothing is alien. This is someone who knows what’s up.”
For Stallard, like Coffman, that constant access to local gigs is key. “There’s a place to play consistently.” And also a place to see good music. “The Dan Lorey Trio is phenomenal. Kip and his daughter Emily (Emily and Co.). Wow, what a freaking phenomenal duo. Everyone you see across the board is just a great player and you wouldn’t get that if you weren’t committed to the music.”
Whether it’s John Tercyak calling out from the Ivy Manor lawn enticing people walking by to sing with him the chorus of “Sweet Caroline” or the thumping joy of That Maine Band enticing people standing outside the Finback to dance on a Main Street sidewalk, the walls between the inside and the outside start to blur, with music bringing it all together.
For Stallard, anyone who has ever stood in the rain to listen to music and to get tickets knows how powerful music can be. And there can be a thirst for it.
“We saw that during COVID. Everyone had to join into live chats,” he said. He’d wake up or fail to fall asleep and see Troy Youngblood do a candle lit performance in his house. Chris Ross, Cliff Eberhardt, the Indigo Girls, all the same thing.
“Everyone during that COVID time went through some weird stuff,” he said.
The hope now is that the weird stuff is over and Bar Harbor and its live music renaissance can begin again.
To that end, Jennings and the Annex staff have created the October 15 Music Festival. Acts like Banned From Eden, Quiet for Sue, Cryin’ Out Loud, Em & Co, the Dan Lorey Trio, Rob Reid, and Nathan Grant will grace the stage and fill the venue and maybe a bit of the street with community and music.
“When music is needed, it’s really there and it serves a purpose.”
Composer Jóhann Jóhannsson
PLACES MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Lompoc – Rodick Street
The Annex – Rodick Street
Finback Alehouse – Cottage Street
Fogtown Bar Harbor – Cottage Street
Pizzeria 131 – Cottage Street (far end)
Criterion Theatre – Cottage Street
Ivy Manor Inn — Main Street
Bar Harbor Beer Works - Main Street
Bar Harbor Lobster Pound - Route 3
Mainely Meat Barbeque - 15 Knox Road, Town Hill
The Sand Bar Cottage Inn - 106 West Street
The Nor’Easter — 10 Huntington Road, Northeast Harbor
ACTS MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Bar Harbor Music Festival (almost an act, but not quite)
Jam Company
Budd Williams
UPCOMING AT THE ANNEX AND THE MUSIC FESTIVAL DETAILS
If you have a place that offers live music, please let us know and we'll include it in the story! If you are a local musical act and you'd like us to feature you, let us know that, too!
Another terrific piece of writing! Simply superb; your really paint a compelling picture with your words. Bravo.