Generations Left to Right: Larry Latour, Kathy Sikkema, Leslie Hemberger-White, and Joel Gold

UMCoA's Feature Band
A Celebration of mid-Maine folk music

Generations, a mid-Maine folk foursome, features a variety of rousing and poignant songs in the style of Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and the Weavers. Their mix of guitar, banjo, and three part harmonies is guaranteed to get you singing and stomping your feet to your old favorites, from This Land is Your Land to Irene Goodnight. The group has performed a number of concerts for local organizations, and It’s cross-generational philosophy and dedication to music of the working people has earned it the role of feature band for the University of Maine’s Center on Aging.

Visit Generations website.

Meet the Band

KATHLEEN SIKKEMA (KATHY)
Music has been Kathleen’s main interest since her childhood in Ridgewood, New Jersey. At age 16 she became an established church soloist at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Passaic, NJ and continued in that profession throughout much of the rest of her lifetime. She majored in music at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and studied classical guitar with Rodrigo Riera, a student of Andres Segovia and with Aaron Shearer at Peabody Conservatory. She has performed in opera, oratorio and as a concert artist throughout the East, in Europe and Japan, appearing in such well known halls as Town Hall, Lincoln Center, the United Nations Concert Hall in New York, and the Tchaikowsky Hall in Moscow.

In the late ‘50’s Kathleen became interested in folk music - international and of the United States - and was a popular and busy folk festival producer and performer in that field throughout the ‘60’s. Her women’s acapella singing group was featured in the New Jersey Tercentenary Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, and earned an award from UNICEF, the recipient of all their profits. She has been a music teacher all of her adult life, teaching guitar and other fretted instruments, voice, keyboard, and school music professionally as well as filling organist and music director positions in many different churches and private organizations.

In 1968 Kathleen and her four children moved to Maine where she took a position as manager of a music store in Ellsworth for the next 10 years. She continued her musical adventures in Maine performing classical and folk music in many venues including University of Maine in Orono and Farmington, acting as soloist and flamenco guitarist with the Spanish Dance Theatre, as soloist with the Surry Opera Company, and as organist and choral director in various places.

At this time Kathleen is still active with the Surry Opera, is Director of Music at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Ellsworth, Maine, and is involved there in the Performer’s Showcase case - a coffee house and folk concert project.

LESLIE HEMBERGER-WHITE
Leslie Hemberger-White is an artist, singer, and consultant and educator in family substance abuse and mental health in Bangor, Me. She grew up in a family of musicians and artists in Bronxville, NY and Hamden, Conn. Raised on the music of Joan Baez, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Pete Seegar., she is equally at home with traditional folk music and the early folk rock of the Beatles, Bee Gees, and Carol King. She sings with various musicians in the area, interpreting songs of great political and social import.

JOEL GOLD
Joel Gold is professor in the Psychology department at the University of Maine, and is also a longtime folk singer and interpretor of traditional folk music. He has been playing his long neck banjo since he was a student at Ohio State University in the ‘60’s, and recently has begun performing his music in a number of local mid-Maine venues. Singing songs in the spirit of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Joel will delight audiences with songs of the sea, songs of protest, and songs of great historical import.

LARRY LATOUR
Larry Latour has been bringing his own personal brand of contemporary folk music to folk sings and coffeehouses in the Mid-Maine area since moving to Maine in 1985. He writes songs in the traditional folk spirit, singing about family, friendship, struggle, and a few cats thrown in for good measure. His recently released first album, Little by Little, is a collection of twelve of his original works, and is a window into his musical soul.

Larry grew up in New York City during the turbulent ‘60’s and early ’70’s. His music was influenced by musicians such as Carol King, Gordon Lightfoot, and James Taylor, and he spent many hours around college campfires playing their music. But it was a trip aboard the schooner Harvey Gamage in ‘82 that was the greatest influence on his musical life.

"A Maine schooner captain by the name of Will Gates taught me a wonderful collection of old and new sea chanties and folk songs, introducing me to the music of Maine and the sea, and showing me the way to true folk music. For the first time I wrapped myself around the lyrics of songs, finding a much deeper meaning in the music I'd already been playing."

Little by little Larry and his music evolved together, and it was the Mid-Maine coffeehouse scene in the '90's that encouraged him to begin writing and performing his own music. Larry began working on and refining his songs and performances at a number of wonderfully supportive open mike venues - the Rushin' Turtle coffeehouse in Skowhegan, the Easy Street Café in Pittsfield, the Frozen Yankee coffeehouse in Detroit, and the DADGAD coffeehouse in Orono. His album Little by Little contains songs introduced and perfected at those coffeehouses, and expounds on such topics as the beauty of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the strange sensation of eating alone in a Restaurant, the rantings of an old protest singer, and the inadequacies of an unhandy husband.

Larry has a PhD in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology, and is a faculty member in the University of Maine Department of Computer Science in Orono, Maine. He lives there with his wife Lois, son Jeremy, and cats Jake and Elwood. Despite his obsession with music his wife still loves him, and his son still tolerates him. His cats couldn’t care less.