NEW GLOUCESTER — The Nashville-based trio Kindling Stone will return to Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village on Friday, Aug. 19, for an evening of inspirational music and folk hymns from 19th century America.

Kindling Stone offers a mix of the contemporary and the traditional. Its repertoire includes thought-provoking original songs and instrumentals, along with early-American sacred music from the Shaker and the Sacred Harp traditions.

The 1794 Meeting House at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, where many of these beautiful melodies have resonated for the past two centuries, seems a perfect setting for the concert.

“It’s a special treat for us to perform in the Meetinghouse in New Gloucester — so much history and that also makes it a palpable and powerful experience for the audience,” said Chris Moore, a member of Kindling Stone along with Charlotte Avant and Mark Wingate.

“Since we last played at Shaker Village (a couple of years ago), we’ve been working hard to establish our group as a leading proponent of 19th century folk hymns, particularly the music of the Shakers and the Sacred Harp tradition.”

“These wonderful early-American sacred music traditions also inform and influence our original material,” he added.

Kindling Stone’s instrumentation is that of a simpler time — fiddle, mandolin, banjo — while the three vocalists ask listeners to consider the ancient, timeless, poetic and philosophical.

Moore said the trio recently created and performed Shaker music programs in conjunction with the “Gather Up The Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection” of Shaker art and artifacts. “This exhibit has been on display at the Frist Center for Visual Arts in Nashville for the past few months and, interestingly, will travel next to the Portland Museum of Art (showing Oct. 27 to Feb. 5, 2012),” he said.

Go and do

WHO: Kindling Stone trio of Nashville

WHAT: Early-American sacred music from Shaker and Sacred Harp traditions

WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 19

WHERE: 1794 Meeting House, off Shaker Road, Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village

TICKETS: $15 for adults, $5 for children, children under 6 free

MORE INFO: Call 926-4597