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An Evening of Song & Story: Denny Breau, Carole Wise & Bruce Marshall in Concert
Get ready for a magical evening of music, heart, and harmony as three celebrated singer/songwriters—Denny Breau, Carole Wise, and Bruce Marshall—share the stage for an unforgettable concert experience.
Denny Breau, a Maine music legend, brings his world-class guitar chops and soulful voice to the spotlight. Known for his genre-blending style and smooth fingerpicking, Denny’s music is equal parts intricate artistry and heartfelt storytelling.
Carole Wise offers a deeply personal touch with her poignant lyrics and luminous melodies. Her songs draw from a lifetime of experience and passion, captivating audiences with warmth, wisdom, and authenticity.
Bruce Marshall, a dynamic performer with roots in blues, rock, and Americana, rounds out the evening with his signature slide guitar and rich vocals. With decades on stage and collaborations with the likes of Toy Caldwell and James Montgomery, Bruce delivers every song with soul and finesse.
Three voices. One night. Endless stories. Don’t miss this intimate concert celebrating the power of original music, shared on one stage by three of the region’s most inspiring artists.
Denny Breau – A Musician’s Musician
Denny Breau’s rhythmically flawless and dazzlingly clear style allows him to do amazing and stunning things with a six-string guitar. He first draws in an audience with a finely arranged melody and then slides effortlessly into scorching fingerwork that sets ears aflame. The lightning-fast guitar lines that seem almost humanly impossible to accomplish are balanced with those that have a quiet intimacy and wrap tenderly around his carefully crafted songs. He mixes genres with ease — folk, Delta blues, counter,y and jazz — “creating a totally accessible musical mélange that captivates as it entertains,” according to Lucky Clark writing for the Kennebec (Maine) Journal.
Guitarists in the audience often suspect that they have been left in the dust and regularly tell Denny that they might as well hang up their guitars! As Denny greets concert-goers and shakes hands following his performances, guitar players invariably ask how he performs certain techniques and Denny, who has a passion for teaching, is happy to show them. This is especially true when demonstrating the guitar style of Chet Atkins, who was a family friend and major influence. Shows usually include a “smartly executed Chet Atkins medley by Breau who truly does the late Atkins proud,” according to a review in Dirty Linen magazine.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Denny was born to the instrument on May 26, 1952. His parents, Hal Lone Pine and Betty Cody, were popular country performers and RCA recording artists beginning in the 1940s. His older brother, the late Lenny Breau, is considered a jazz guitar giant. A recent Dirty Linen review of Denny’s solo CD of “neighborly song portraits of weathered souls” said that “listening to Denny nimbly bend his acoustic steel strings…one can hear a jazz player’s elegant fluidity.”
Denny started playing guitar when he was 9 years old and was performing professionally by his early teens. During more than 30 years as a full-time musician, he has performed with many well-known artists and picked alongside outstanding guitarists, including Bryan Sutton, Harvey Reid, J.P. Cormier, Pat Donohue, Dan Crary, Steve Kaufman, and Tommy Emmanuel. He has long been in demand as a studio musician and has done jingles and soundtracks for radio and television as well as recorded and produced albums for other artists. Denny was a member of roots music trio Turkey Hollow with Tom Rowe and Tom’s son Dave, starting in 1998. Since Tom’s death in early 2004, Denny and Dave have continued to perform as Turkey Hollow on a limited basis. Denny was inducted into the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004, the youngest inductee in the history of the organization.
In addition to an active solo career, Denny gives private guitar lessons and teaches music clinics. He also fronts the Denny Breau Trio. Both in solo and trio performances, musical boundaries disappear as Denny takes his music to wherever the joy and spirit of the moment leads him.
Denny is a triple threat: a consummate picker, an evocative songwriter, and a singer with a ” voice that is warm and inviting but completely unpretentious— much like the singer himself,” according to Lucky Clark. Mainers have long considered Denny a “must–see,” but they are happy to share a favorite son with those “from away.”
About Carole Wise
Carole Wise is a singer/songwriter from Brunswick, Maine. Her music is sweet and soulful, drawing on a lifelong passion for education, the beauty of the natural world, and the adventures of finding truth through life's challenges.
Carole Wise’s new album, THE LONG WAY HOME, is a compilation of lyric and melody that grew from its creative seed: a calling of the heart. Listeners will connect their own life journeys home - to a physical space, self or new beginnings - in Carole’s songs of gratitude and courage. Themes of nature, social justice, emotions and feelings infuse her songs with meaning: The album is about our human journey and each song, a chosen path. On what journey will our paths cross?
Compelling instrumentation by Carole and her eclectic group of musician friends imbue the album with sensory magic. “View From Our Window” and “Listen In” share a message that the views from our windows can offer vastly different realities. Looking out from our isolated bubbles at Covid, Black Lives Matter and Climate Change teases the questions - How do we proceed from where we are as individuals, and how do we journey with our ears, eyes and heart wide open to join together.
The title cut, “Long Way Home,” speaks to journeying and as such reveals the common thread that runs through all the songs on this album. “One Path” is an homage to life’s journey and the mysteries and dreams waiting to be discovered and lived. Carole chose the soulful fullness of the cello to give resonance and lift the message of support, love, loss, memory, gratitude, and courage that weave their way through “New Frontier”, “Still,” and “Now and Here”. Carole’s songs invite the listener to be part of the bigger picture while always honoring the Self. She explores life’s sometimes difficult paths, always evoking the silver lining.
The LONG WAY HOME was co-produced by Carole Wise and Jud Caswell. It was recorded, mixed and mastered by Jud Caswell of Frog Hollow Studio, Topsham, Maine. Carole’s vocal and acoustic guitar performance is accompanied by a stellar ensemble of Maine musicians: Mike Burd, Denny Breau, David Wakefield, April Reed-Cox, and Jud Caswell.
Carole Wise has opened for, shared the stage with, and performed solo in support of social justice issues. Carole has appeared on several compilations featuring nationally recognized folk artists. Carole was honored to be part of a compilation of Maine artists, Listen to the Children, in support of The Jason Program.
Bruce Marshall took up guitar in 1966 at age 12 when his father gave him his ¾ Kay acoustic. He grew up in a musical household; both parents and the 4 Marshall children were always singing, playing guitar and piano, and their parents taught them vocal harmony at a young age. Like many of his peers, seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan was a watershed moment, and Bruce absorbed the sounds from that era, especially vocal groups like The Rascals, Beach Boys, Everly Brothers, and Buffalo Springfield. When he discovered the likes of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, BB King, and Muddy Waters, Marshall developed a love of soul music and the blues. He turned to music full time about a year out of High School with Whitecap, his first professional band. The Sudbury, MA native honed his craft in juke joints and gin mills for 7 very formative years and about this time started writing his own music. In the early 80’s, Bruce Marshall and the Clue emerged, a five piece band assembled around a batch of original songs Bruce had written that touched on his love of R and B, Blues and Pop. The band developed a loyal following in NE and hit the road non-stop for most of the decade while headlining the top venues in greater Boston and beyond.
The Clue put out a vinyl EP “Prove It” on ATM Records in ’87, appeared on numerous compilation albums including “Boston Does the Beatles” and shared the stage with James Brown, Gregg Allman, Todd Rundgren, The Beach Boys, Kenny Loggins, Orleans and Hot Tuna, among others. By 1989, Bruce had accepted an invitation to join the Toy Caldwell Band. Toy was the founder, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter for the Marshall Tucker Band, one of the top groups in the country in the 70s. Caldwell started the Toy Caldwell Band shortly after leaving Marshall Tucker in ’84, and 5 years later hired Bruce Marshall to sing lead, play keyboards and guitar. The band toured with Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniel,s and The Outlaws when they weren’t headlining their own shows and festivals.
During this time, the band recorded a Bruce Marshall original, “Welcome to the Human Race,” with platinum producer Paul Hornsby, and it appeared on Marshall’s 2nd release in ’92. Anxious to get a brand new project off the ground, Marshall put together the 8 Pc Bruce Marshall Group in ‘91 and still performs under that name today. With more emphasis on Blues, Roots, and R and B, the Group put out 6 records and, along the way, shared the stage with Bo Diddley, Blood Sweat and Tears, Joe Cocker, John Hiatt, Bryan Adams, Boz Scaggs, Doobie Brothers, The Band and a host of others. Their first record, “Love of the Ride” came out in ’92 and featured Marshall’s “If Dreams Were Money”, which won an ASCAP Songwriter Award, (and would later be recorded by Southern Rocker Michael Allman in ’09 and Micah Willis '23) and “Human Race” from the Toy Caldwell sessions. This CD set the bar for all of Marshall’s releases, a very well-played and beautifully recorded collection of songs that got rave reviews.
Their next record, “Sneak Preview Vol 2,” came out in ’97 with a scaled-down 5-piece band and a more driving rock approach. “Haunts You” was the single and is still a popular song in the live set.
In 2003, the band released “Kalispell”, their best selling CD to date has enjoyed extensive airplay nationally. The title cut was featured in a film and their most downloaded song to date. A tenth-anniversary edition was put out recently with a bonus track, “Engine 54 Battalion 9”, a tribute to first responders on 9-11.
In 2007, Bruce released his first all acoustic record, “Restless Soul,” and it’s been a big seller at his live solo shows. There are 15 originals, including new compositions and scaled-down versions of songs typically done with the band.
The next studio release was 2010’s “Misspent Youth” and featured the single “Three Chords and the Truth” with guest James Montgomery on harp and vocals. The record received extensive airplay, and the single was the second most downloaded song in the catalog. “There Go I” is a song Bruce wrote for our veterans and is frequently requested at shows.
Followed by their next to most recent CD, “Borrowed Time,” which came out in 2018 and has hit the ground running with several songs in regular rotation on FM and College Radio. There are 11 new Bruce Marshall originals and a cover of “Sleepwalk” by Santo and Johnny. Also of note, the band redid “If Dreams Were Money” by popular demand and almost 30 years after the original version with The Clue.
Their newest CD is "Vintage to Verdict," and it marks the first recording on the independent label Verdict Music. This recording features both remastered fan favorites as well as two new tracks not previously released.
