Local harp group promotes new CD with Nov. 13 performance

    The Kindred Harps will perform a concert at the Houlton Congregational Church on Sunday, Nov. 13, at 3 p.m. The concert has been arranged in order for the group to preview a selection of lullabies and other songs that will be featured on their new CD: “Butterfly Dreams: A Collection of Lullabies for Sleepy Babies Everywhere.”
    The group consists of local artists Barbara Hogan, Dale Holden, Lou Ellis, Leigh Griffith and Lynn Tweedie. Proceeds from their CD will go to benefit viral myocarditis research, a condition that Dale Holden’s grandson, Logan Sweet, succumbed to back in 2008.
    Kindred Harps members decided as mothers, grandmothers and Dale’s friends to take on this task of making music to support research that may result in others being spared this kind of loss.
    The album is made up of lullabies and other gentle melodies, some of them standards and some original compositions written and arranged by Barbara Hogan. Harrison Roper, a local composer and musician, also contributed his song “Pavane” for the group to record, a piece originally written for the “Heavenly Harpers of Houlton”. To round out the evening’s performance, Kindred Harps will play a number written by Nancy Harris, formerly of Houlton and co-founder of “Heavenly Harpers of Houlton”, and an arrangement of a song written by Shannon Shaw, a piano student of Kaye Trickey. He was one of the winners in Mrs. Trickey’s annual composition competition and an arrangement has been made by Kindred Harps. Kelly Ellis, instrumental instructor in MSAD 70 will also perform music she is preparing for her Master’s program audition.
    Two of the group’s members, Lou Ellis and Barbara Hogan, will also be playing selections from “Butterfly Dreams” in Island Falls at the Briar Patch on November 5th. Copies of the CD will be available for purchase at that event.
     The album is available for purchase locally at Lisa’s Hair Designs and Visions Gallery. Additional locations have yet to be arranged and will be announced later. For further information on Logan Sweet and the viral myocarditis foundation, please visit logansweetfoundation.com.