One Longfellow Square is one of Portland, Maine’s most charming and versatile, non-profit performing arts and concert venues, offering a warm and intimate atmosphere and setting the stage for unforgettable live music, performing arts, and community events.
Located in Portland’s West End at the entrance to the city’s vibrant Arts District, One Longfellow Square accommodates a wide range of events including film, theater, dance, and of course, live music.
Väsen-Duo, Mikael Marin and Olov Johansson have, after 37 years of interaction and touring, refined their sound and their stage presence to the extent that today they are unique in their kind. With their playful and perfect interplay, they seem to defy the laws of physics in what appears to be a telepathic communication.
The music is intense and full of humour. They create their very own musical language which in its appeal is as modern as it is ancient. With the foundation firmly rooted in the traditional music of Uppland, they have always looked curiously at new musical goals.
Olov & Micke have played together since 1983 when they met at Oktoberstämman in Uppsala and discovered that they had a large common repertoire and a similar way of playing. It turned out that Micke had learned from Ivar Tallroth in Uppsala and Olov had learned from Curt Tallroth in Harbo. They had been introduced to the rich Bohlin / Tallroth tradition by the two brothers. Olov & Micke started playing intensively together and released their first recording, “Det rister i Örat,” in 1985. They have played an incredible amount together over the years in Väsen. Now they go on adventures among old fine musicians, stories and trad tunes and at the same time they continue to break new ground. They perform on a variety of stringed instruments, including a silverbasharpa, oktavharpa, three-rowed Nyckelharpa, violoncello da spalla and a blue electric viola.
David Wilcox is a penetrating storyteller. The revered folk musician has an effortless talent for spinning lyrics that quietly cut deep, and crafting melodies that seamlessly ride the plot twists and turns. Wilcox handily exemplifies the power of lyrical and musical catharsis.
Pick any song from Wilcox’s new acoustic album, My Good Friends, and you will find yourself instantly immersed. Sometimes you’ll see yourself in the lyrics, other times you’ll marvel at the four-minute mini-movie. My Good Friends is a stripped-down, acoustic collection of ten songs, a fan-requested creative respite for Wilcox as he also continues to work on a full band album coming in 2024.
Of special note on the new recording is “Jolt,” with its jittery rhythm playing perfect backdrop to lyrics about today’s obsession with online fear mongering and internet disinformation. The title track is a folk-blues number about living a life filled with close calls and surviving them all. Then there’s a trio of story songs – “Dead Man’s Phone,” “This Is How It Ends,” and “Lost Man” – that are as cinematic as they are charismatic. Wilcox says those last three songs “create a whole movie in my imagination.”
In fact, the way Wilcox feels about every tune on My Good Friends proves this is indeed a fan-requested labor of love. “I am grateful for the community that sustains me – my good friends,” he says. “These are the kind of friends that get you through difficult times. The kind of friends that you go to for a fresh perspective when the future looks grim. These songs grew out of conversations with friends, and they hold ideas that I like to have around.”
Such dedication to honoring personal and heartfelt music has been the backbone of David Wilcox’s entire career. The Ohio native with the warm baritone found his artistic muse in North Carolina during the mid-1980s. In 1987, he released his debut album, The Nightshift Watchman, which led to winning the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival in 1988. That translated to a four-album stint with A&M Records starting with 1989’s How Did You Find Me Here, which sold 100,000 copies by word of mouth. Thirty-plus years and twenty-plus albums later, Wilcox won top honors in the 23rd annual USA Songwriting Competition in 2018 for his effervescent “We Make the Way by Walking” from his last album release, The View From the Edge. Wilcox has deservedly earned praise over the years in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, and Rolling Stone, to name a few. He also has a dedicated and vocal core of fans who regularly write to thank him for his work and the impact his songs have had on their lives.
Today, Wilcox is still earning his admirers with storytelling that cuts deep into the soul and observes the human condition from both the nerve center and the outside looking in. That kind of storytelling is certain to become a good friend.
Forget “School of Rock”…get ready for “Ghoul of Rock”!
Each Halloween season MAMM’s student rock bands melt faces at the creepiest all-ages costume party in town. Come witness the terror at One Longfellow on Sunday, October 27th and ring in the spookiest time of year with MAMM! Costumes are highly encouraged.
Blog Mentions
