This week, I’m bring you an update of Pat Pepin, one of Maine’s venerable performers who’s humor, sax skills and singing has delighted audiences for many years. She recently appeared as part of the Johnson Hall’s Waterfront Concert Series and that alerted me that Pepin was out performing once more, so I decided to reconnect with this talented artist having not heard from her in over a decade. After the initial phone call to see if she was up for a chat, a time and day were set and I reached her at her Augusta home.

Q: When we set this interview up, you mentioned some big changes — could you elaborate?
Pepin: Well, I lived in Readfield for 25 years, I built the place, but it was just too big. So I said, “I’m going to down-size,” and I just sold it and put everything in the car and drove off.

Q: To where?
Pepin: I ended up in Greenville, South Carolina, for a year. I was on my way to Oregon but it was November and you don’t go there in the winter (chuckle), so I stayed in Greenville for a year and then headed back home.

Q: Where in Maine did you finally settle?
Pepin: I got an apartment in Hallowell, which is the Mecca for music, in Kennebec County at least. But I eventually bought a house in Augusta, a little fixer-upper, and then, a couple of years later, met Louis (Moniz, her new husband); so, yeah, there have definitely been changes!

Q: Has this change in your life produced any new songs?
Pepin: I’m living new material, I haven’t put it to song yet but I still feel like I’m in the living stage of new material.

Q: Well, you’ve got to live with it a while before you can document it.
Pepin: Exactly, most all songs come from reality and someone’s experiences, either it’s heard through others or is personal experiences. And most of the materials on any of the records I have are something I’ve heard about somebody else or I’ve lived it. I keep telling people, “You can’t make this stuff up!”

Q: Do you write a lot or are you backing off that for a while?
Pepin: Well, the creative process is always there, I’m always writing ideas down, and it’s the music that makes me happy. I find such joy in sharing the gifts that I have been given to make people smile, to make them think and dance, and giving them a moment of non-reality. Reality is like “Do I have enough to pay the bills?” so people go out to be entertained somehow, it gives me great joy to be able to give that to them.

Q: Another thing you mentioned when we were setting this up was that you were teaming up with an old friend of mine, Mr. Breau.
Pepin: Oh, Denny, I love Denny, we all love Denny, he’s so talented and so funny, he’s just a dear, genuine person. When I did my last show in Hallowell, I needed a guitar player, I’m using mostly side players now because it’s hard to keep a band together if you’re only working a couple of times a month, and it gives me a chance to perform with people I love dearly. So I called Denny and he said, “Yes,” and we just rocked the place in Hallowell, we had such a great time, and it was the last hurrah. He called the next day and said, “Hey, Pat, that was a blast — let’s have a band!” And I thought, “Wow, Denny said that to me?!” because I’ve idolized him, so I went, “Yeah, okay.” So we’ve just been throwing each other work, whatever we get calls for, but it’s not really a band because he has his favorites that he works with and I have mine up here, because, financially, it makes more sense to have one or two people travel a distance. I mean, he doesn’t need to bring guys up from Portland when I have them here.

Q: It sounds like a good arrangement both financially and musically.
Pepin: Well, we’ve just been having some fun, he says it gives him a chance to step out on electric guitar. When he does his solo shows, he’s playing his acoustic, which he does beautifully, but with me, if I can have a band, he gets to play electric guitar. And it’s so much fun because you don’t know where the songs are going to go, and that’s fine with me, we could take a rock song and turn it into a salsa, who knows?! I mean, we both fly by the seats of our pants (laughter). We both enjoy being in the moment and life is really fulfilling when you’re living in the moment, don’t look back, don’t look too far forward.

Q: When you told me about teaming up with Denny, you mentioned a show you’ll be doing with him in Belgrade Lakes on the 8th of September, I believe.
Pepin: Hold on, I’ll check my schedule. Yes, it’s on the 8th from 6:30 to 8 p.m., it’s a free concert for the town and is usually well-attended, and it’s part of the Village Green Music Series. And the next night we’ll be in Boothbay Harbor at the Boothbay Opera House doing the same sort of thing. I’m not sure of the times but a Google search will find it for you.

Q: Is there anything you’d like to pass on to the folks reading this article?
Pepin: Well, just live in the moment and enjoy yourself: life is short, be kind, have some humor, be nice to each other … and definitely come out and do some dancing, or sing along or heckle us (laughter), we can take it!

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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