CALAIS, Maine — Calais High School alumni Ken and Jane Brooks will be returning to the area for a concert at 7 p.m. Saturday at Washington County Community College.
In addition to bringing their assortment of folk gospel bluegrass melodies and classic country songs, the couple will be raising money to benefit the Calais High School music program and a scholarship fund in their name at the community college.
For the past four years, the Brookses have given out two to three $250 scholarships each year to Washington County Community College students who graduated from a high school in Washington County.
Two years ago, they also began donating $100 to $200 to the high school from the proceeds of their annual concert in October.
“We thought it would be nice to help out the high school program,” said Ken Brooks in a telephone interview Monday.
Funding for the donation to the high school and the scholarship fund comes from the proceeds of tickets sold, Brooks said. However, much of the money for the scholarship comes from donations solicited by the couple all year.
Brooks said he was not involved in the high school music program before his graduation in 1966. However, he had been playing guitar since the age of 11, and by his senior year in high school, he was performing weekly on a live radio show called the Jonesport Opry.
“I didn’t think of myself as a performer. I just loved the guitar,” he said, adding, “I was actually very shy.”
While serving in the Air Force from 1966 to 1971, Brooks was stationed in California where he played in nightclubs all over the state, he said.
When he returned to Maine in the early to mid 1970s, he began playing in dance clubs in Calais and in Canada, he said. Back then, his music was about 60 percent rock and 40 percent country.
In the late 1970s or early 1980s, he said, “I bumped into some bluegrass music.”
In 1988, Brooks joined an award-winning band called Bluegrass Supply Co. He served as the lead singer until the band broke up in 1995, he said.
In the meantime, he attended his 20th class reunion in 1986 and connected with classmate Jane, who became his wife in February 1987.
About 10 years ago, Brooks said, he began to feel burned out and wanted to stop performing. He decided to focus on the fine arts.
“That’s probably even less lucrative than being a musician,” he quipped.
Jane Brooks, who wanted him to return to performing, asked him if he would return if she learned an instrument.
He said he would and she learned the acoustic base, he said.
She encouraged him to play music that told stories instead of the dance music he’d gravitated to in the past, he said. His style is now a mixture of bluegrass, gospel, country and rock rather than the dance music he used to play.
Ken Brooks said she learned fairly quickly and was playing with him within a year.
“She already could sing,” he said. “She’d been on stage with me a few times.”
Since that time, the Ken and Jane Brooks have garnered numerous awards including the 2012 Vocal Duo of the Year from the Maine Country Music Association and the 2014 Vocal Duo of the year from the Maine Academy of Country Music. Ken Brooks was inducted into the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame in 2012.
Tickets are $15 at the door or $12 in advance and $10 for students and children. For advance tickets, call Tess at 726-4776 or 454-2130, or Irene at 454-3027.