The Artist Says - Jesse Pilgrim

I am going to start this out saying that this is going to be very biased. I am a Mainer. I was born in Maine, I grew up in Maine, and I really haven't ever lived anywhere else. Maine is my home and I think that Maine has a damn good music scene. Biased? Yes. But there has to be a little bit of truth to my biased view.

I have been playing music out and about in Portland for the last two years or so and in those two short years I have played with some of the best acts I have ever heard. From singers like Jakob Battick and Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, who can turn Geno's from a noisy punk bar into an environment as intimate as a living room, to acts like Dead End Armory and Grant Street Orchestra, who make Dogfish or Slainte feel the size of Port City.

Maine's music scene isn't just located in Portland even though sometimes it definitely feels that way. There are little oasises planted all around this state. Two of my favorite establishments are Hogfarm Sudio's Annex in Biddeford and She Doesn't Like Guthries in Lewiston. Both are in struggling mill towns, but people still manage to make it out to support local music. Even northern Maine has Arootsakoostik, which was by far the highlight of my summer. It was my first time to the county and it was very nice to see that six hours north of Portland there was still a music scene.

What makes Maine so special? Is it special? Fucked if I know. Maybe the closing of The State Theatre forced Portland to evolve. There was no longer a venue for mid level bands to tour to, the Civic Center was too big to fill and The Space is sadly a tad too small for some bands. So Portland's musicians decided that they themselves had to fill that void by making music that is of the same caliber as touring acts.

I don't know if this played a pivotal role in the shaping of the Maine music scene, but it couldn't have hurt it. I know I'm biased, I know that every state has a scene of some kind, and I know that there is probably some kid writing right now about how Boise, Idaho is going to be the next Haight Ashbury.

I also know that for a state of a million Mainers we have a heck of a lot of decent musicians and Maine has a damn good music scene.

Posted by Jesse Pilgrim