(Damariscotta, ME) The festival runs August 5th through 7th. Fun all weekend long, this is Lincoln County's only blues festival with a line up of amazing talent. For more information on the schedule of events or how to purchase tickets, please visit the Dam Blues Festival website.

Saturday, August 6th at 8:00 pm.

(Unity, ME) The LA Weekly calls them “cross pollinated gypsy music….one of the most thrilling young acts on the planet.” The dynamic, virtuosic, fiery and peripatetic quartet that comprises Fishtank Ensemble takes their roots both from their own varied musical and national backgrounds, as well as from their adventures and travels. Formed in 2005 and playing everywhere from the hippest LA clubs to festivals, cultural centers, museums, parades, and even on the street, the band includes two explosive violins, the world's best slap bass player, musical saw, flamenco and gypsy jazz guitar, trombone, opera, jazz and gypsy vocals, accordion and one little banjolele. Tackling everything from French hot jazz to wild Serbian and Transylvanian gypsy anthems, Flamenco, and oddball originals, the band is a not to be missed event for world music lovers. Whatever wild time you can expect from this band, it will never match their out of this world performance!

For more information, please visit the Unity Centre for the Performing Arts website.

(Image: "Rock 12 - Black Stack" by Tom Gaines and "Sphinx" by Paul Oberst)

(Wells, ME) Starting on August 20th, the Corey Daniels Gallery on Route 1 in Wells, Maine will exhibit the works of Tom Gaines and Paul Oberst. Gaines will be featuring works from his “Rock Series.” Oberst’s “banded” or striped sculptural work will also be installed in this contemporary gallery exhibition.

Oberst, who currently has an exhibition of his black & white and color striped sculpture and photographs at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport, will be exhibiting related works at Corey Daniels.

The artist envisions his work as evolving around the concept of an architectural “temple” or passage. Within this structure are all the ceremonial objects and guides needed to usher each journeying participant into the next metaphorical/metaphysical/aesthetic realm of consciousness. Elaborating on this theme, Oberst states, “This framework or perspective allows me to work across media. For example, a photograph can appear as a painting or as a sculpture, while a sculpture may consist of drawing or printmaking processes.” Though the work is strongly contemporary, the artist feels his art is rooted in ceremonies and rituals of the ancient past.

Gaines, a Philadelphia and Belfast based artist, has spent the past 4 plus years focused on his “Rock Series.” He has just completed Rock: 105. The artist feels his work is “based on a simple reality of sky, sea, sand and ‘figures,’ that is rocks that are at rest, those that balance precariously on each other and those that float.” He feels “this precariousness and levitating reinforces the sense of the abstract.”
The paintings are based on painterly processes and random color selections. The artist explains that this allows the paintings to evolve before he has to then make critical decisions.

Tom Gaines and Paul Oberst have had a 38-year long association. Oberst began his art studies at Centre College of Kentucky where Gaines was his professor, advisor and mentor. Gaines and his wife moved to Belfast at the urging of his former student. Oberst first established his connection to the area in 1986 and lives in Montville, Maine.

Oberst showed with the Stux Gallery in Boston and NYC during the 1980s and his work was included in shows at the ICA, Massachusetts College of Art, Addison Gallery, and the DeCordova Museum among others. The Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, represents Oberst. The photographic pieces are a collaboration between the artist and photographer Patrick McNamara of Cape Neddick, Maine. The opening reception is from 5:00 to 9:00 pm on Saturday, August 20th. The show runs through September 17th. For more information, please contact the Corey Daniels Gallery by calling 207-646-5301 or by visiting coreydanielsgallery.com.

(Rockland, ME) Two unique one-hour programs with the St. Lawrence String Quartet and Julie Smith on harp on Wednesday, August 17th. The concert features favorite French composers in an intimate museum setting at the Farnsworth Wyeth Center.

Program Part I at 6:00 pm:
St. Saens - Fantasie for Violin and Harp, Op. 124
Ravel - String Quartet in F Major

Part II at 8:15 pm:
Martinů - String Quartet No.5, H. 268
Debussy - Danses for Harp and String Quartet

For more information, please visit the Bay Chamber Concerts website.