Sandy River Ramblers Submitted photo

MADRID — The Reeds Mill Church in Madrid will host their fourth annual Sandy River Ramblers concert of Gospel Music and Songs About Maine on Sunday, September 29. The concert will begin at 2 p.m., and is free to the public. A free will offering will be taken. There will be delicious desserts for sale at intermission.

“We love to play at the historic Reeds Mill Church,” says Stan Keach, bandleader of the Ramblers. “We love to sing Gospel songs and hymns, and this show gives us a chance to do that.” Keach has written most of the original songs about Maine that the Ramblers have recorded on two CDs, Cry of the Loon and other original songs about Maine (2012) and Home in the Heart of Maine (May, 2019). The concert will also feature songs from those recordings.

The Ramblers boast the stunning banjo playing of Madrid’s own Bud Godsoe (who will also play some dobro and finger-style guitar). Godsoe first learned to play banjo while he was working on the Alaska pipeline.

Vocally, the band features gorgeous three-and-four-part harmonies, and the lead singing of Keach, 17-year-old Dana Reynolds, and Julie Davenport, who Keach claims is “the best Bluegrass singer in Maine.”

The concert will benefit the Reeds Mill Church, called “the Church in the Wildwood,” after the old hymn. It is a beautiful old one-room church built in 1892 (founded in 1831).

Reeds Mill Church is at 142 Reeds Mill Road. To get to the Reeds Mill Church, take Reeds Mill Road from Rte. 4, and go exactly five miles. Then look for the church, which will be well-marked, on the right. For more information, call Virginia Robie at (207) 639-2713, or Stan Keach at (207) 397-2241.