Blues to uplift wounded veterans’ program

BREAKFAST IS GOOD any time of day. The blues band Breakfast will play at a fundraiser for the Travis Mills Foundation on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Maine Blues Festival) What: Blues for the Travis Mills Foundation When: Saturday, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Where: Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern, Cost: $15 admission (Children 12 years and younger are free.)

By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — This Saturday listening to the blues could uplift someone who fought under the red-white-and-blue.

The Maine Blues Heritage Foundation and the Hall of Fame Museum will be hosting a fundraising concert called the “Blues for the Travis Mills Foundation.”

The concert will be held Saturday from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern, which is located at 678 Roosevelt Trail.

The cost is $15 and all the proceeds will go to the Maine-based Travis Mill Foundation.

Local musician Kevin Kimball helped to line up the musicians who were willing to donate their time toward the cause. There will be four different acts playing during the fundraiser. 

Kimball provided some reasons why people would want to attend this Saturday’s fundraiser.

“The Travis Mills organization in and of itself is a pretty good motivator. Travis Mills — he is quite an incredible man. His organization goes good work,” Kimball said.

“I love what they call injured American veterans. They call them re-calibrated,” he said.

Sgt. Travis Mills was injured in combat, lost his limbs and received prosthetic legs.

“The Travis Mills Foundation supports recalibrated veterans and their families through long-term programs that help these heroic men and women overcome physical obstacles, strengthen their families and provide well-deserved rest and relaxation,” according to the foundation’s website.

Kimball said the members of the Maine Blues Heritage Foundation decided that holding a fundraising concert for the well-known Travis Mills Foundation would be a good way to support veterans here in Maine, and also it would allow the Blues Heritage Foundation to do something valuable for the local community.

“Given the fact that the Maine Blues Festival is well-established in Naples, it was natural to get blues musicians for this fundraiser,” Kimball said.

“This is the Heritage’s effort to reach out to the community and to do some good work,” he said.

“In early October, we are planning is to host an open house.

The Maine Blues Heritage Foundation is housed in the brick building that was once the town hall. It is located on the Village Green overlooking Route 302.

This Saturday, the musical lineup is: Lunch Pail Jere, Breakfast, Thom Hanes and Bunk, and Dave Bottom and the All-Star Blues Revue.

“All of them are Maine Blues Festival performers,” Kimball said. 

“Lunch Pail Jere — his primary instrument is the harmonica. He plays a lot of jug music, the washboard with sound effects attached to it,” he said. “He has a sophisticated washboard he has constructed. He is quite an entertainer.”

Two of blues bands are winners from the 2019 Road to Memphis Competition.

“Thom is the winner of this year’s Road to Memphis competition, and will represent the State of Maine in the International Blues Challenge (IBC) held in Memphis Tennessee in January 2020 in the solo/duo category,” Kimball said. “Thom can make a harmonica sound like a Hammond organ!”

“The Band Breakfast is led by Noah Watts. Breakfast is an all under-twenty group that also won the Road to Memphis competition and will represent Maine at the IBC in the band category. This is the next generation of the blues,” Kimball said.

Kimball, too, has his fingers in the Blues and might sit in on some songs during the concert.

One of the bands is a special ensemble just for the fundraising concert.

“Dave Bottom is a master blues guitarist, the bandleader and front man for the Voodoo Clowns. Dave serves on the Executive Committee of the Maine Blues Festival,” Kimball said.

“His band will feature hand-picked, top-shelf blues pros,” he said.

Saturday’s concert, Blues for the Travis Mills Foundation, is sponsored by the American Legion Post 155 in Naples.

For more information about the Travis Mills Foundation, go to that website, www.travismillsfoundation.org