Kick it in the green room with The Ghost of Paul Revere before their show in the King Pine Room on Sugarloaf Mountain for an inside look at the band that makes Maine Holler!
Announcer:
You’re road tripping to America's best music venues with Kyle Lamont. On this episode, we're in the highlands of Maine hanging out with the Ghost of Paul Revere before their show on Sugarloaf Mountain.
This is Concert Cast, the podcast an Audio Atlas filled with music, maps, conversations and discoveries to help you navigate America's soundscape. And tune into every state's live music scene. Concert culture is travel centric in every venue has a voice. So let us go and listen. Created and hosted by Kyle Lamont.
Kyle:
As I enter the King Pine room, the Ghost of Paul Revere is wrapping up their soundcheck. I spot Derek Lombardi, their longtime friend and manager, and walk what feels like the length of a football field towards the stage to say hello. I'm Kyle Lamont and the venue here on Sugarloaf Mountain is massive. It holds up to twelve hundred people. And because of the high wood beam ceilings, it feels a lot like a church. Which is ironic because the first time I ever saw the Ghost of Paul Revere play was at an actual church in Maine that boasted a bell made by Paul Revere. But I digress.
During the day, the monstrous windows that wrap around the room give you a gorgeous view of Sugarloaf Mountain, the home of the largest ski and snowboard resort on the East Coast. I've only ever skied here once. It was in sixth grade with my friend and her ski fanatic family. I remember learning how to slice pizza and the Bunny Hill or something like that. And my friend assumed I was ready for the Black Diamond. She brought me up to the top, and the rest is sort of hazy after that. I do remember ski patrol loading me onto a sled and towing me down the mountain on their snowmobile. It was somewhat of a traumatic experience, one that might attribute to me never coming back until now.
For skiers and snowboarders, Sugarloaf is a mecca because of the above average snowfall and their 162 skiable trails that in the spring and summer double down as awesome hiking and biking trails.
Aside from being a winter sports haven, Sugarloaf has a cool little music scene going on, too. Every weekend there's live and local music at the Widowmaker, a smaller venue and bar that is perched on top of the main lodge and ask anyone in the state and they'll tell you about the notorious reggae festival that happens every April at the base of the mountain. But for bigger bands, they whip open the doors to the King Pine room. And it's pretty safe to say that the Ghost of Paul Revere is one of Maine's most well-known bands. But they're humble as hell. They've been playing together since grammar school and have grown to notoriety because of their commitment to touring. They've played at practically every venue in the state. I met the band five years ago after their show in Belfast and have been a fan ever since. There's something very distinct about their sound and you can't help but gravitate to their story driven lyrics. Their charisma and heavenly harmonies draw you right in and before you know it, it's like you're inside their songs, dancing around their lyrical storybook that range from introspective and cathartic lullabies to a historical hoedown. And because the core trio have been playing together for so long, they're so dialed. Derek and I head two flights downstairs to the greenroom. Even though we're somewhat subterranean, the atmosphere is warm and cozy. Friends and family are mingling about there's a solid food and alcohol spread. The opening band is quietly practicing in a small nook. The only thing off, though, is the pint sized furniture.
Derek:
We're in the pre-school ski school at Sugarloaf and everything is so tiny, including the benches and the toilets and pretty much everything in here. It's kind of weird. I feel like I'm back in school.
Kyle:
It's funny because like, you know, fans are a lot of people just assume like glamour, rock, you know, like sex, drugs, rock and roll greenroom. And then it's like we're in a nursery school.
Derek:
Yeah. No it's not glamorous at all. And it's really just a lot of waiting around for other people and for things to happen.
Kyle:
And who do we have here? We've got the Bassist Sean. How are you Sean?
Sean:
Hello, How are you?
Kyle:
I love your Carhartt gear.
Shawn:
Thank you. I am hoping for a sponsorship someday. And I'm the biggest billboard. We got so i’m keeping going.
Kyle:
Wow. This really is trippy. To be like in a like little nursery school here is.
Sean:
It is a little weird. It is a little weird. When we first came in, there were a couple of little kids who were given us the stink eye. We tried to give them back and then we left them to it.
Kyle:
From a Wikipedia search a few theories on the origin of green room stand out to me. The first one being from Shakespearian times when actors waited in rooms filled with plants because it was believed that the moisture was good for their voices. There's also the theory that the term comes from having a green face from all your nerves. Or the opposite, because green is a calming color to help you zone out before a performance. I've been in a few green rooms that are actually painted the color green, like the Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix, Arizona, for instance. But design details like that pale in comparison to the energy that is felt backstage. And it's interesting how drastic the energy shifts throughout the course of the night. Tonight, I'm in the green room prior to the band's performance, so the energy is definitely more on the creative and giddy side of things and dare I say, a bit focused while the guys sip on Jameson. I can hear chatter about their setlist and how they're thinking of switching up some songs. And what I love about a green room is it's like a revolving door of having cool conversations. And tonight, I have the pleasure of chatting with basically the whole gang.
But this episode is mainly with Derek, the manager Griffin, the band singer, songwriter and guitarist, and with Jim their audio engineer.
Max:
We ran into each other, was in Belfast, Maine. Now was all roads, but was what was it called? It's all roads now. Who knows? free range? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Had the chicken chickens. That's right. Yeah.
Kyle:
We talked to years ago in Belfast.
Max:
That's right. Before our first kind of big show at the church. Right.
Kyle:
What the hell happened.
Max:
I don't know. That was one of the first moments where I was like what the hell's happening with our band? I don't know. Was so bizarre. We had no idea. People knew about us. And then that church was packed out to the gills.
Kyle:
And that's Max. He plays the banjo and sings, too.
Max:
This thing is getting bigger than we ever thought it would.
Kyle:
And you had longer hair.
Max:
Much longer hair.
Kyle:
I like the short do, but where's your straw hat?
Max:
I left it in the van.
Kyle:
It doesn't have insulation, huh?
Max:
No it's not warm. It looks weird. Now my head looks small.
Sean:
All of it comes down to just continue playing shows and just playing bigger and bigger shows. And just like getting your music out to as many people as possible. And it's just grown. You know, just we're not a lazy band, that's for sure.
Kyle:
For anyone who's never heard of the Ghost of Paul Revere before, they're more than just a bluegrass band. They’re—
Sean:
Maine holler folk. And that's it's a bit of a misnomer because the guys are really excellent singers, though it really doesn't have anything to do with hollering. But it's really just music from the heart. I guess it's, you know, three guys that have been singing together for 30 years and they were a little kids. They grew up together and they have a lot of great influences that sometimes they wear on their sleeves and sometimes they don't like. Every time they turn a corner in a new song, it's like, okay, I hear a little bit of this or a little bit of that, but it's always genuinely theirs.
Kyle:
And you have the coolest acoustic bass I've ever seen who made it.
Sean:
Those are done by Fender, but I've actually been playing a Gretsch Hollow Body Electric now. I mean, that is a whole other animal, but a lot of fun. A lot of fun.
Kyle:
I just really haven't seen it much in acoustic bass.
Sean:
Not a lot of people use them. I know the guy from Trampled by Turtles does, but someday he'll become the new hot thing… maybe.
Kyle:
And your bass matches your voice. It's like you were born to play bass.
Sean:
Thanks. I think so. I just belong in the low end.
Kyle:
Do you ever forget lyrics to a song?
Griffin:
All the time. Literally all the time. We're just in soundtrack, I forgot lyrics and it happens all the time when most of the times the songs have written not the covers, but like sometimes you just they the wires cross and like sometimes we like with their songs we haven't played in like a year or two and like you're just we’ll play that one tonight and we go to play it and you're like, oh shit like, I don't remember what I said here, but we're at a point now where people are singing along so much that like they get the words more correct than I do. And I'm just like, thank you for singing them correctly. So I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. It's my job and I failed at it. It's fine.
Kyle:
The band has a long relationship with the mountain as both musicians and season pass holders.
Sean:
I mean, we've been playing Sugarloaf for probably four or five years and you know, we had played a smaller space on the mountain called the Widowmaker. And it every time we play, there is more and more people. And the last couple of times there was a line out the door and so we figured we needed to step it up. And we moved up to the King Pine Room, which is a little bit nerve racking because it's twelve hundred capacity. It's a huge room. And, you know, the expenses go up, all of the production and stage and all that kind of stuff. So Jen at Sugarloaf is really a great event manager and super kind and, you know, just worked with us to to make it happen, to bring it to a bigger stage at Sugarloaf. And I think everybody's psyched about that.
Sean:
I'm excited to see what the King Pine rooms like. We've been. At the rack and the Widowmaker and over at the outdoor centre. And we're just making our way throughout all of sugarless territories and conquering one by one.
Kyle:
Next, we'll be the hot tub.
Sean:
Yes, I hope so. Once we get our waterproof guitars and everything like that, we'll just kick all the tourists out and just make it ours.
Kyle:
The room is lovely, but it's designed to be multi-purpose, fall from weddings to conferences, and during ski season it's largely the cafeteria
Griffin:
When we'd brought our stuff in there, still people eating at the tables and it's like ski teams and like families and stuff. It's funny.
Kyle:
So you're like the school band?
Griffin:
Yeah, basically. Yeah. Reminds me a lot of middle school, just like going up and playing for people while they couldn't leave the room because they were eating lunch. So how you get your first audience has forced them to listen to you.
Kyle:
And how was soundcheck?
Jim:
Good, actually. We were under the gun a little bit because the room was full of skiers when we got here, but we got everything sounded great. And that's gonna be a good show.
Kyle:
And that's Jim. He's the band's audio engineer who says that acoustically and architecturally the King Pine room is not built for live music.
Jim:
There's just some really weird frequencies bouncing around the same high ceilings and some spots and some low ceilings that he kind of just have to take into account. With the EQ of the room and make sure nothing's acting really weird and and once it's all dialed, it sounds great.
Kyle:
Derek is well known in the main music industry as a show promoter, talent buyer and band manager. But after 15 years in the biz, he was thinking of hanging the hat up. But then he heard a song by the band.
Derek:
Somebody mentioned Ghost of Paul Revere, and I think I just went down a Bull Moose and picked up the E.P. “North” and I popped it into the CD player. And out of the speakers comes the song San Anton.
[Music Plays]
Derek:
I heard that song once and I knew right away instantly I said these guys are the real deal. I need to work with them. I think the next day I called Griffin and I just said, like, what are you guys up to? And he was like, I don't know. But it seems to be working a little bit. You know, at that time they were playing at dogfish on Free Street a bunch. And there was like people that are going to see them regularly, like on a weekly basis. And then they had done a couple of shows, I think at Empire and, you know, sold 150 or 200 tickets. So they had a bit of fanbase going. But, you know, I sat down with Griffin one day and we drank a bunch of beers and just talked about the industry and we just became buds. I mean, you know, ever since that day, we have been connected. You know, myself and the band and we it just clicked.
Kyle:
What is it like working with Derek?
Griffin:
Oh, I absolutely love it. I mean, he's like he called us up and found our phone numbers and called us and was like, hey, I'm like, have a barbecue you guys wanna come over and like, we shot the shit. He was like, I think I'll get you guys some good gigs. Like, I would just get it. And like the first year he like or half a year, he kind of just start was doing work for us without like us really knowing, like what a manager was or like how to deal with it because we'd have never had any experience with it. So he's been family since then. It's it's great to have somebody in your corner that you can absolutely trust and also just go out for a beer with and not talk about the band, even though we always do. But like, it's good to have a friend in your corner for sure.
DEREK:
It's a true grassroots story. I think what we have going on right now, you know, we've been lucky along the way to have believers come on board
Kyle:
And believers in the form of the Paradigm Agency, which is the country's leading talent agency, Who book their Nationwide Tour, and with Rebecca Shapiro, a publicist at SHore Fire Media. One of the biggest moments for Team Ghost of Paul Revere was when the band played their song Montreal on the Conan O'Brien Show.
DEREK
And she called me one day and said, Yeah, I think we got Conan. And I was like, yeah, OK. Sure. Like, let me know when that's confirmed. And she's like, okay, I will. And then literally a week later, she's like, OK. So are you guys still available next week? It was January of 2018, I think. And we were inbetween tours. And I said, yeah, absolutely, we will be there, you know. So we had it like book all these flights and hotels and rent a van and all this stuff. And it was just so crazy. Like, I remember touching down at L.A.X. and thinking like this last week, getting ready for this was so crazy that I didn't even have a chance to sort of register what was happening.You know, it's like we didn't even get a chance to get nervous, which was great, you know.
So we got into L.A. and like had one night to just hang out and then went and did Conan the next day.
But they load the bands in like 8:30 a.m. and you do a soundcheck and they do a camera check. So you run through the song three or four times and they're like, cool, great. We'll see you at 4:30. You have the rest of the day to just sit there and sort of stew in the nervousness as these like celebrities are walking into the green room. And it was like in the morning when they did the soundcheck, it was no problem. Everybody was like, cool, cool as a cucumber, ready to go. But by the time the taping rolled around, everyone was definitely getting a little bit nervous. But they did so great, like you couldn't tell at all. They handled it like the professionals that they are. But it was it was really amazing.
Kyle:
As part of the paradigm agency, the Ghost has gone from playing little bars and venues in Maine to venues all over the country.
DEREK:
We talk through what makes sense geographically and with what we have going on, you know, depending on if we're on album cycle or not or, you know, there's so many things that go into the planning of a tour. But really having people like like Joshua and Liz on board, we can lean on them to to guide us. Basically What is like a venue that would be big for you guys to play at?
DEREK
We really, really want to play at Red Rocks. That's kind of our the top of our wish list right now. So we've been really working Colorado a lot and we we definitely have some good stuff going on and some buzz in Colorado. So we're just trying to trying to build that. And it's like one of the most quintessential venues, I think, in in the country. So we're told that we're very close. So maybe not this summer, but definitely I would say in 2020.
Kyle:
And the rule of thumb while touring is plan for the unexpected.
DEREK:
We just had an issue in Chicago
Griffin:
going to play at this place called Lincoln Hall. We're headlining Lincoln Hall. And when we arrived, one of the pipes had frozen underneath the venue and burst and the whole kitchen flooded like right when we walked through the doors.
Sean:
There's nothing that could be done. The pipe burst the day of the show, and that's that
Griffin:
So we had to cancel, which is a bummer because we really love playing Chicago and it's a bigger room for us. So next time, we'll be back.
Kyle:
So you were on a huge tour. Talk to me what venues spoke to you the loudest?
Griffin:
Oh, that's a that's a tough question. You know, we played this place called the Beach Land Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio, and we buy some incredible venues this last tour. But like, this was like a dive bar attached to like a big theater and like, it was absolutely packed to the wall with people. And we were pretty worried about it because we didn't think anyone was gonna come. But that was my favorite one, because it was one of those small shows where we we got off stage and like had drinks with everybody was there and like talking about music with people and got to hang out and like, really? Like, those are my favorite show. So like and that room has a lot of history, a lot of incredible bands play in that room and it doesn't seem like much, but like that's usually around America. Like what you find is that the best rooms with the best history are small little holes in the wall.
Kyle:
So as opposed to the architecture or say acoustics or the atmosphere of it in a physical sense to you, it's the history that is more special about a venue.
Griffin:
And we just we did we got a chance to play the Ryman in Nashville, which is like Nashville's premiere met venue. We open up for Old Crow Medicine Show there and walk out of that stage. It was like most of my heroes have played that stage. And like also knowing that like in the early days, like Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, they also and Ray Charles, they all sweat on that stage and like played a lot of times without a lot of amplification to the crowd in there. And like that magic is still like in the floorboards. It's really incredible to walk into and kind of experience for the first time. Spaces exist in the world with very distinct personalities. And I think that like a lot of times you attuned to that, even if you don't really think about it. It's pretty interesting that like rooms have memory and they hold up just.
[Music Plays]
Derek:
I think a huge part of this band's success was their willingness to travel to every corner of this state and play in places that some people might not want to play at. They'll go anywhere and they'll play anywhere to anyone and people will have a good time. So we sent them up to the county. We sent them to western Maine. We sent them to little barns. We sent them out to Vinyl Haven and Isleford and places like that. And I think it's really paid off for the band. But also, it's just really cool to go into these communities and meet people and just have a good old time playing tunes and dancing and hanging out. I think one of the spots that the guys really love is Eureka Hall up in Stockholm or New Sweden. Another spot that's been so huge in terms of supporting this band is Stone Mountain Art Center out in Brownfield,
Griffin:
Carol and the team are just absolutely incredible and they like blows away every time or there. They make us feel like family. And it's also the best green room anywhere in the country. And like internationally touring artists like geniuses that go there to play like they all say the same thing. Like Carol knows how to treat musicians because she's a musician herself. So kind of like depending on what size show we want to do. Like the Portland House Music, Port City and State Theatre are all home for sure. And now that we have Ghostland at Thompson's point, that's also becoming steadily home, which is cool.
Sean:
You know I think of last year when we did the Ghostland Festival. Yeah, that was the biggest show that we've ever done. We also have really amazing partners in our promoter, especially in Portland, the State Theatre, Lauren Wayne and her entire organization. They are the quintessential promoter. Like, I don't know what we would do without them. We wouldn't be what we are without those guys.
Kyle:
What's your favorite venue in Maine to mix in?
Jim:
That's a tough question because there's a lot of really good ones. I really like the opera houses like Waterville Opera House and Merrill Auditorium's really great, but I really enjoy mixing at Thompson's point, you know, the big outside venue, that's a really fun place to mix and it's outside. You don't have to worry about weird reflections and weird rooms and things. It's a great place to mix. And Port City Music Hall. I mix there for years and years and that's a great room to mix into.
Kyle:
Now, inquiring minds want to know what are the first three songs you scroll through to test the room?
Jim:
Well, that's a good question. I mean, lately there's one of the first topics I put on the Tedeschi Trucks song “Come See About Me” from a couple records ago. Peter Gabriel Sledge Hammer is in that list, of course, because I'm an audio engineer. There's a Steely Dan song in there, but there's also a couple of tracks from Audio slave. There's a Radiohead song. It also depends on the room. There's a death cab for cutie song on there called Cath. That's kind of like a really nice guitar sound that I used to like tweak my midrange. So there's probably a dozen or 20 or so songs in that and I'll choose different songs depending on the room and also my mood. Sometimes I'll pick like a piano song, you know, like a Jamie Cullen piano song or something like that. That really that's what I'm feeling.
Kyle:
Up next, we talk about recording their new studio album.
Announcer:
Two middle aged dads just want to spend a quiet day with their daughters at the park. But when an obnoxious group of teens drive by too fast and too loud, it spurs the aging, disgruntled dads into a self-righteous act of passive aggression. From Producer Kyle Lamont and writer and Director Jim Picariello. Watch the award winning dark comedy Passive Aggressive Dads at Good to goodtogostudios.com
Kyle:
The ghost has been hard at work finalizing their new studio album called “Good at Losing Everything”. What are your pros and cons of being in a studio versus like being in a venue?
Griffin:
I think that like in the early stages, the band, we didn't quite see the difference between two. But now I kind of understand it's like a very big fundamental difference between the two and whereas the last record, as with the new record that we just finished tracking the approach in the studio has to be really different in a live record. I've found it's better to attack them as two different entities entirely like you have your live show and then you have your studio album and the album allows you to do a lot of things musically that you might not be able to do on stage, but you want to accomplish, which I think is really important. And for this new record, we actually like setup shop and we played all of the songs like Over and Over Again for a month before we went in the studio in a practice space in Portland, which we'd never done before.
Kyle:
So I love too how, you know, you have the song, you sort of have the backbone of it. And now you can go in and have a little bit more fun as the producer can throw out ideas. You guys can jam a little bit more, find a different sound. When is the album done?
Griffin:
For me, it's what I like. I go through like a kind of a honeymoon period with it. We're like, whatever we recorded, I'm really interested in listening to it. And then that ends pretty quickly and I don't want to listen to it at all. Like the former records I really don't pick up anymore. They're more interested in what we're gonna do next than what we've done. And also like part of that is like I was found that as a problem, as like a fine artists were like, I don't know when to stop because I always want to tweak things. I was like, I go back and I'm like, Oh, that's not right. So same thing with the record. Like, you really have to put it down. And like, so once it's mixed and mastered and like we've finished the artwork, then I put it down and it's onto the next thing. And that's that's when it's done. It has to be done. I mean, you can nitpick things for ages and eventually you just gonna ruin it.
Kyle:
Is there a song that you went into the studio and it sounded one way and it's coming out of the studio sounding another?
Griffin:
Oh, for sure. I think that the song "Travel On” is probably the biggest one on the new record.
[Music Plays]
We brought some friends in to play some horns, and like the overall structure of a changed dramatically. That's real cool.
Kyle:
Is that because you guys were in the studio and you're like. Yeah. Horns. Horns. Gotta get horns. Call them up. Let's go tomorrow. Come in. Yeah. Okay, cool. We're doing horns. Is that sort of the energy?
Griffin:
That's exactly how it happened, basically. We're like we didn't write the parts before the game. And we're gonna like here's a spitball, some ideas. We're going to play it and we're going to play a track for you guys need to start recording and we're just gonna see what happens. And like eventually we found something really incredible, on a bunch of songs. So it's great. That's my favorite style of recording in a studio is like you can endlessly prepare for like weeks and days and days and like you should know the song back in front. But like the magic of the studio happens when people make mistakes or like your kind of unprepared and like the adrenaline starts to kick in. You start to make music subconsciously and not formulaically.
Kyle:
Do you come up with songs while driving?
Griffin:
I do. I mean, not necessarily in the van. I think there's like a good amount of like cognitive shut off that happens when we're traveling gig to gig because like, it's pretty relentless. And we did over 230 shows last year. Those are not travel days, but like shows. So we're on the road all the time. And like we are, van just turned four and we just hit two hundred and five thousand miles on it. We got it new with 50 miles on it. So like we put in our times on the road, like I tend to write stuff in the green room or like in a hotel room. But when I'm driving on my own all the time. My voice memos on my iPhone is like just full of half-baked ideas or like things like like how to just get down. And like Tom White spoke on that very well. As as Tom Waits speaks on most things very well, he was talking about how if a song pops in your head and you'd like, it's your duty to pull over immediately and capture that moment because it's fleeting and it'll it'll disappear to might be the greatest thing you've ever thought of and I very much agree. Like it comes in waves for sure.
Kyle:
And would you attribute a lot of Maine scenery and Maine's back roads to your lyrics?
Griffin:
I think so. I mean, they definitely influenced my life in general, like, you know, who spent high school. As soon as I got my license of fifteen, it was like just driving backroads for hours and hours after school, just for fun, just to drive and like see things. And I absolutely adore being on the road and seeing the country. And if we can afford the time taking the scenic route through things like it adds so much to your vocabulary. And also just like thank think your your personality and being if you experienced that we've taken that much visually of the landscape. America's like.. and it just changes so drastically from place to place. And like us having the opportunity to experience pretty much all of it at this point, most of it at least has been incredible. Really incredible.
Kyle:
Do you listen to music in your car?
Jim:
Oh, constantly. Yeah. The car is a great place to reference mixes and reference audio. And if I worked in the studio for years and years, mixin records for bands and I would almost always when I was done with the mixs, make a copy and listen to it on the way home in the car so that I could reference it in my car stereo. I live and breathe it. Everything I do is, you know, I'm listening to music and listening to audio and making it as good as I can.
Kyle:
And it's cool, like, you know, being sort of an extension of the band, you know, fourth, fifth band member, if you well, you know how to hit their harmonies, you know, when to fall back on their bass or however, it works out like talk to me just a little bit more about navigating their sound.
Jim:
You know, a lot of people that do what I do. You know, they kind of get everything up and sound good and they kind of like let it ride. And I really work with these guys from song to song to really change up the mix and bring out what needs to be brought out. And, you know, I know where all the solos are. And I know with a banjo solo has and I know where Max comes in with a harmony that's really cool. And and I know where you know, I know which songs that Griffin sings versus Sean sings lead, you know, that kind of stuff. So I know how to blend it on the fly so that each song is the best it can be. It's been great to see these guys grow and from mixing them in small clubs in Portland to, you know, traveling with them to you know, sell out The Paradise and Boston couple weeks ago. And and do you know, whatever it was 7000 people at Thompson's point for their ghost land show last summer. It's been really incredible to see them grow and expand and their fan base just, you know, keep coming and keep coming. It's awesome.
Kyle:
And you've been on tour for so long now, but you keep calling Maine home.
Griffin:
Yeah, I think. Oh, is always. Every time I've ever thought about leaving, I just like can’t. I love it here. It's like it's too beautiful the people and the land itself are like just so elemental that you really can't find anyone like that around the country. And there's a lot of places I love around the united states, but I think that Maine is always going to be home for sure.
Kyle:
Where do you like to vacation or staycation in Maine?
Sean:
Up on Moosehead Lake at my family's camp on lily bay. That is every chance I can get for sure.
Kyle:
I feel like if your your spirit animal is a moose.
Sean:
I have been told that before.
Kyle:
You're just strapping up.
Sean:
I'm going to tell the boys that; l like that.
Kyle:
I think especially for Maine music. I feel like we're like underdogs in a sense in the grand scheme of America's music scene, and it's just it's really fun to have Ghost of Paul Revere just pushing forward and giving Maine more of an identity when it comes to live music in this day and age.
Sean:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we feel a little bit like ambassadors for lack of a better word. And we just want to make sure that we're trying to represent the state that we love so much well. I hope to think that we're doing that.
Kyle:
Do you get excited going in to the show, if you will, like when all the pieces and the people start arriving and like, are you going through a mental checklist of everything? Are you feeling pretty good?
Derek:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I still get nervous at some of our bigger shows. You know, just because we always we pride ourselves on providing a good experience for the people that come to see the show, the fans and everybody that come to see the band play, we want everything to be perfect. And I do I get nervous and I'm running through my checklist, making sure that there's plenty of beer and that it sounds great. And we've got all of our merchandise set up and all that kind of stuff.
Kyle:
And then is there like a communal way of getting stoked together before you hit the stage?
Griffin:
We have like a hands in chant that we do. We've been doing for a long time. We still do, which is like a lot of fun. It's just a good way to get everybody pumped up and everybody in the same mindset. It's great works on our harmonies at same time.
[Music Plays]
Kyle:
I can hear the guys talking about dinner plans, which is a good indicator to thank everyone for their time and say “bye, guys. Good luck tonight.”
At 10 o'clock, the ghost gracefully saunters onto the stage and then immediately bust out some boots stompers. They break up the set with some witty banter, which for many can be a risky move. But considering it's a crowd of Mainers, it feels like catching up with old friends.
By 11:30, the ghost is rounding the corner into the Encore with their song, The Ballad of 20th of Maine, which was recently designated the Maine state ballad by Governor Janet Mills. People are belting out the words and beaming with Maine pride, and a rush of sentimentality just washes right over me. Seeing this band is definitely the best way to close out. Season one of Concert Cast The podcast.
[Music Plays]
Kyle:
Arriving at a music venue, innate curiosity takes over. I mindfully meander, absorb the architecture and chat with concert goers and like a roller coaster climbing to the top. I embrace the suspense and as soon as the band takes the stage, internal joy is released and I feel weightless. I grip on to the railing and enjoy the euphoria of connection. Then, as the band merges into a favorite song, I give thanks to all the venue ventures that have brought me here and throw my hands up for a wild ride. Maine is my magnet, but concerts are my compass and I'm driven to keep exploring every state's live music scene and the way to discover it all starts at the music venue. Thank you so much for listening to Season 1 of Concert Cast the podcast and won't you join me for Season 2? I look forward to hitting the road with you.
Announcer:
Lots of options for lodging on Sugarloaf Mountain. Stay at their hotel or rent a condo for the week.
Of course, plenty of air BNB isn't hostels too, or head into Kingsfield and stay at the Herbert Grand Hotel. Ask to stay in ROOM 318 (the Haunted room) and make sure to eat at Rolling Fatties is the best burrito place in town. Subscribe rate in review concert cast on your podcast, app of Choice. Type in ConcertCast.live for a music centric itinerary and to learn how you can be part of the show and find us on Spotify to listen to our Maine music playlist. This has been a Good To Go Studios production made in Ellsworth Maine. Our resident Mastermind is Mark Tekushan special thanks to everyone at Ghost of Paul Revere and to Pepper Little, Abbey Rock Jessiman, Corey Chandler. Amy Charley, Emma Thieme, Eddie Contento, Jesse Couto. And thank you for listening.