Road Diary: Brownfield, Maine

We’ve been having such a good time on our little two week tour of the north east, Mike Dillon and I. On Saturday, we played the Stone Mountain Arts Center, up in Brownfield, Maine, and it was stellar in so many ways. Small and very personal, the folks who run it go out of their way to make the time the artist is there a welcoming and unique one. Pool table, lots of things to do back there, lots and lots of foods—more than the rider. They make you dinner too. And a big fat cake.

As I get older I feel so appreciative of the people… I am reminded that we have all come to gather by the same warm fire—music, my music, and in so many ways we are surely alike. In the end the fans are peers, and they were so close, I had to look into their faces. Eyes closed, drifting, or staring at my every move, or places in between. We are this slice of time that is ours alone, our common experiences and references. Our generation. We share that.

This work is so much more than staying fit enough to sing, to travel, to be healthy in my mind to stand the spotlight—the ritual, all of it. It is a coming together of strangers who are bonded by a love of a song. That’s so much more than the negative that bonds people. It lasts longer, it ripples into the future. Complaint, anger, it hits the shore and splashes, and that’s about it. Wounds are healed, non-violence, like Jesus said, cannot be defeated. But beauty is planted in the memory. It forms new life because it’s passed on to others, in stories. In gestures. In love.

TOUR DATES

⭐️ 5/13 Old Saybrook, CT The Kate - sold out

⭐️ 5/15 Sellersville, PA Sellersville Theater - sold out

⭐️ 5/16 West Long Branch, NJ Pollak Theatre

⭐️ 5/17 Arden, DE Arden Gild Hall - sold out

⭐️ 6/23 & 24 Woodstock, NY Levon Helm Studios

⭐️ 6/25 Rochester International Jazz Festival

⭐️ 6/27 & 28 Northampton, MA Iron Horse

⭐️ 6/30 New York, NY Sony Hall / Blue Note Jazz Festival

merch | tickets *

* We released a small amount of tickets for this week’s sold out shows. The June dates are selling fast.

By Rickie Lee, 2025