Carol Noonan really wants to bring a wide variety of musical talent to her Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield.
So much so, in fact, that she’s willing to let people come to some shows for free. Which mean’s she’ll end up paying for those shows.
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Noonan says the center’s rural location “off the grid” makes it hard to fill the house for some concerts. So when she wants to book some up-and-coming or lesser-known musicians, she sometimes doesn’t because she doesn’t think ticket sales would justify doing it.
“Really the best way to bring those people in is to have a very low ticket price or a free show,” said Noonan, a musician herself. “There are so many musicians we’d like to have here, and this is a way to do it.”
Noonan plans to pay for the new free music series at Stone Mountain (six shows are already planned for this year) out of proceeds from her new album, “Waltzing’s for Dreamers.”
She’ll kick off the fundraising effort tonight with a CD-release show at Stone Mountain. The album is selling for $30, but people can pay more and have the money applied to funding the series. Musicians who perform in the series will get paid, Noonan said.
Noonan made the album with funding from Maine Beverage Co., and multiple Grammy winner Bob Ludwig of Gateway Mastering in Portland donated his services. The album was recorded at the arts center, though not before an audience. It includes some original music as well as three covers of Richard Thompson tunes, including the title track.
Noonan experienced wide musical success as part of the Boston-based band Knots and Crosses, which signed with Island Records in the early 1990s. the mid-’90s she was recording on her own, eventually forming her own label. She started Stone Mountain Arts Center in a barn near her home in Brownfield in 2006, attracting a huge variety of artists.
The free music series includes many musicians Noonan either knows or has heard about and has wanted to book at her venue. The series begins on Friday with Session Americana, made up of musician friends of Noonan’s from Boston who perform acoustic music in a round-table style like you might find at an Irish pub, Noonan said.
Although all the shows are free, people must call and reserve seats, Noonan said. (The Session Americana show is already full.) People need a credit card to reserve seats, and will be charged $10 if they fail to show up without trying to notify the venue, Noonan said.
Each show has a themed donation attached to it as well. For the Session Americana show, patrons were asked to bring “woodstove-worthy wood” to be donated to needy families in the area. For the March 4 show by singer-songwriters Maeve Gilchrist and Sarah Jarosz, people are asked to bring pet food to be donated to a Fryeburg animal shelter.
For other free shows at Stone Mountain, refer to the schedule above.
Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:
rrouthier@pressherald.com
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