There’s a brand new concert series happening at the Augusta Civic Center with shows in March, April and May. It’s called “Dinner and a Show: Acts You’ll Want To Remember” and the lead-off act for this month is Arielle. Her show will be next Wednesday night, March 9, by the way. April will be a hot new country act called Texas Hill and May will find the duo called Striking Matches, both acts heading up to central Maine to perform, and guess what, I’ve chatted with all three acts and after having heard their music, you readers would be well-served to check them out live when they show up. Acts You’ll Want To Remember, indeed! I reached Arielle, an accomplished guitar player and exceptional singer-songwriter in Philadelphia on the 17th of February and after listening to her CD, “Analog Girl in a Digital World,” and watching videos, I was eager to find out more.

Q: So you’re coming up to Maine for a show.
Arielle: Yeah, it’s been a while.

Q: Oh, you’ve been up here before?
Arielle: Yeah, I’ve played a couple of dates; man, it must have been four years ago now — we played in Portland. I really like Maine, it’s beautiful there.

Q: And I really like what I hear from you. I’ve watched your videos on your website and YouTube and have listened to your “Analog Girl in a Digital World” album many times. As a 72-year-old I can really resonate to the “Digital World” track, especially.
Arielle: Well, most of my friends are your age and I’ve always felt like I should have been born in ’43 or ’44 based on the things that I wish I could’ve seen. My main car is a 1973 VW camper/van, I play vintage gear and I kind of pretend to myself that I don’t live in this crazy, digital world. I mean, there’s some really cool stuff — like we got to communicate via email, and that’s neat, but I just don’t think we’ve found the balance yet, so I’m with you (laughter).

Q: Now, is that your latest album?
Arielle: It is, there’s a new one that’s going to be coming out this year that we’re just finishing up right now; “Analog Girl…” came out last year so it’s the latest as of yet but we’re about to release a new one probably in the spring.

Q: Could you talk a little more about last year’s release?
Arielle: Well, “Analog Girl…” is a concept album, like “Tommy” by The Who,” that tells a story all the way through.

Q: One of the videos I really enjoyed was the one where you were one of five up-and-coming guitarists that got to play with Vince Gill. I found myself, on the second viewing, concentrating on Gill’s bassist who was following your skills from across the stage, and when you finished your solo, he grinned, then laughed and began clapping wildly in appreciation of you guitar chops. That must have been such a validation for you, I would think.
Arielle: It was. It’s cool that you mentioned that one because I’m such a fan of Vince Gill in every way: I think he’s so inspirational and obviously he’s incredible at what he does. He’s kind and is real and is the kind of artist that I aspire to be, he’s a major inspiration for me, he’s so cool.

Q: Now, as far as the show coming up in Augusta, you’ll have a backing band, I assume?
Arielle: Yes, we’ll be playing as a trio, it was going to have keys but because of COVID some things got rearranged with the duration of it, so we ended up going back to a trio. It’s not my favorite way to perform but thankfully the set list will be okay to have a Police-style, or rough style, trio.

Q: How many albums do you have out now?
Arielle: Nine.

Q: So you have plenty of material to draw upon for that set list, that’s for sure.
Arielle: Yes, and I cheat a little bit and I’ve pulled a couple of songs off the new album to kind of experiment with them and see how they go.

Q: What can folks expect from your show up in Augusta on the 9th?
Arielle: Well, it’s important for me that when people are experiencing what it is that myself and my band can do, is that you get a bunch of different moments. So you’ll get the old-school style of guitar, you’ll get to see all my cool guitars, especially the one I built from scratch: Two Tone. There will be electric guitar moments, and then there’ll be moments in the set where we break it down a little bit more, like singer-songwriter, folk-y/rock moments, and then I have a moment where it’s completely broken down where it’s just an acoustic guitar instrumental. So if you are inspired by music of the 60s and 70s and cool guitars, but also like a little bit of folk or those kinds of things, you’ll get all sorts of that and more.

Q: Is there anything, Arielle, that you’d like me to pass on to the folks reading this article?
Arielle: Umm, I guess we could add something that’s a little bit fun: I have a nonprofit as well, where we plant trees all over the world that are normally cut down for guitars. We plant some of the more exotic woods, like mahogany or ebony, in their native habitat, but we also do walnut, spruce, maple and alder where they grow best. So for each gig that we’re doing on this tour, we’re planting 10 trees, maybe 100 years from now they can become a guitar. We’re trying to keep the resources going.

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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