Sadly, after 12 years, our concert series has ended. We started with ‘what’s left of the Left Bank Café’ and brought dozens of performers to Downeast Maine area. Thanks so much for all your support over the years. But all hope is not lost, there is another great concert series in Ellsworth, we highly recommend you check out the series at 430 Bayside

We had a great time but, to quote the lyrics from ‘The Minstrel Show’ “This old show has played its run, and run the curtain down” You can listen Lissa Schneckenberger sing it here; http://www.myspace.com/music/player?sid=78218693&ac=now

The Minstrel Show

By Bob Coltman

A poster’s peeling underneath last summer’s morning glory vines
An old white hat, a stubbed cigar, an empty bottle of wine

(Ch)
Lay me down, Carolina lay me down
Don’t want to wake up in the morning no more
Sing me one slow sad song
For this one last old time before they close the Minstrel Show

The money and the crowd ran out before we hit the last town
This old show has played its run, and run the curtain down

(Ch)

My banjo’s got a broken string, don’t expect I’ll get to fix it now
There won’t be no more time to sing I’m rusty anyhow

(Ch)

I don’t know where we go from here, come to that I just don’t care
We probably go to a better place, the minstrel show’ll be there

The Downeast Concert Collective & WERU FM are excited to present singer-songwriter & comedian Don White. He will perform in Ellsworth to benefit WERU Community Radio 89.9 FM at the Ellsworth Unitarian Universalist Church on Friday October 8th at 7:30 P.M. Doors open at 7 PM. Suggested donation is $15. Free for those under 16. Seating is limited and reservations are suggested by calling 667-7825 or emailing info@downeastmusic.org. For more information visit http://downeastmusic.org/

About Don White

If you laugh and cry within the same ten minutes, you either need a vacation or you are sitting in the audience at a Don White show. This working class family man from Lynn, Massachusetts has emerged as the thoughtful songwriter of the decade whose relevance to our lives is evidenced by the powerful reaction he evokes at every concert. Radio audiences, too, are not safe from the Don White experience. Valerie Adams of WNCS Radio, Vermont said, “I’ve never seen anything like it. Every time I play I Know What Love Is the phones light up like a Christmas tree.” Stereo Review Magazine called it “… A candidate for song of the year.”

In 1974 Don started hitch-hiking around America. “I went to Alaska and Newfoundland. That first trip I was gone eleven months and I only spent $1,100,” he says gleefully. His wife–then girlfriend–Theresa joined him on the road. They backpacked around the country for three years with a guitar and their dog–a female whose first ‘heat’ inspired the breathtakingly funny The Shameful Ballad of Lijah The Orchard Queen–finding occasional work as itinerant farm hands and laborers. “The freedom was addictive,” he says.

Since settling down in Lynn, Massachusetts, Don has worked on a craft of songwriting and performing. He learned his art in the trenches: often doing nine shows a week at Catch A Rising Star over two and a half years. Studying the masters who passed though that fabled club, he developed his own infectious brand of humor and pathos that rivets the crowd wherever he plays.

Don conducts a performance skills workshop at Club Passim, Cambridge’s legendary folk club, where he passes along his experience to aspiring performers. Guest instructors are veteran comics, performance poets, actors, and folksingers. “I see little difference between the skills of various performance artists,” says Don. “I most admire someone like Utah Phillips who weaves a seamless stream of song, story-telling, poetry, and comedy.”

Don White illuminates the human experience though his writing and performing. His motivation for doing so is eloquently expressed in the spoken word piece he performs after singing “Heartbeat of Heaven.” Whether he is singing, speaking, or setting up the sneakiest punch line of the night, Don has the hearts of his audience. They know they have his.

Download our poster to help us advertise this event by clicking on the poster image to the left.

* For more information about Don White visit www.donwhite.net/
* For more information about the Downeast Concert Collective visit downeastmusic.org/
* For more information about the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ellsworth visit uuellsworth.org/
* For more information about Community Radio WERU 89.9 FM visit weru.org/