Please join us in the Brubeck Room for a unique concert featuring arrangements from Songs of Ships & Sailors, a songbook written by the Castlebay Singers, Julia Lane and Fred Gosbee, and published in 2021. The book contains over 160 songs gleaned from the many hundred songs they found in archives at the Maine Folklife center, the Library of Congress, the Helen Hartness Collection, and several others.  Julia Lane and Fred Gosbee interpret these traditional songs with their own artistic skill, making them attractive and available to a modern audience while retaining historic integrity and weaving in commentary relevant to the song and its provenance.

Since 1986 Castlebay has been weaving together Maine's nautical and British Isles legacies, transporting their audience through time and across the Atlantic. Julia Lane and Fred Gosbee have loved and researched traditional music for most of their lives and blend history, legend and experience into their personable performances. Finely crafted ballads with evocative imagery and beautiful melodies depict Maine characters, history, and life close to the elemental beauty of the sea and shore. Rich and exuberant renditions of traditional and original songs are supported with Celtic harp, 14-string guitar, fiddle & woodwinds.  Castlebay has toured the Eastern US and Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Kosovo, performing at festivals, museums, schools and folk clubs and they have released over three dozen recordings.

No charge. This program is made possible by the generosity of Glenn and Louise Hemmerle. Registration required.  Please register online or call 203-762-6334.  For more information, contact asato@wiltonlibrary.org.