Free Fair will include a weekend of music

HARMONY — The Harmony Free Fair,  which aims to be Maine’s best small-town fair, is also a weekend full of music from Sept. 4-7.

Among the highlights, Perkins Music House of Skowhegan and the Harmony Patriarchs Club bring the Opus One Big Band to the outdoor stage on Saturday, Sept. 5 at 6:30 p.m. for an evening of jazz and big band music by artists such as Glen Miller, Count Basie, Quincy Jones, Horace Silver, Hoagy Carmichael, Les Hooper and Duke Ellington.

The band is currently under the direction of Dale Perkins, who says that the band is comprised of professional Maine musicians and includes music educators and performers from across the state, who rehearse a song sometimes only once in the afternoon before performing together; all the musicians are sight-reading the music as they go.  Opus One has been playing for over 20 years and has performed for church concert series, music booster fundraisers, and other charitable events throughout the state.  

There will be room for dancing on the grass on a fine late-summer evening, or in the big tent if rain threatens. Admission to the concert and to the Harmony Fair are free.

On Sunday evening, Sept. 6 before the fireworks, Sharon Hood & Dixon Road put on a high energy, modern country music show. A central Maine band, the group opened for Luke Bryan in New Hampshire this summer.  They were the Pine Tree State Country Music Association Band of the Year and in 2014 Hood was nominated for the New England Music Awards for Female Artist of the Year. With seasoned, talented musicians Jimmy Bell, Bruce Burpee, Ed Nevins and Craig Stutzman they play everything from Johnny Cash to Carrie Underwood and there is never a dull moment on stage. Followed by fireworks later in the evening, this is not an evening of small-town, American fun to miss to miss.

After the Labor Day parade down Main Street at 11 a.m. on Monday, Bill Thibodeau comes back to Harmony with his “Descendants of Bluegrass”. Thibodeau remembers appearing on the fair stage as a young boy, with his brother and his father, the great Sam Tidwell who, with The Kennebec Valley Boys, was a major figure in the 1970s bluegrass revival, in the days of the Salty Dog Bluegrass Festival in Cambridge. Thibodeau is looking forward to meeting old friends, and it should be a day of top-notch bluegrass.