Bob Hipkens
Vocals, Dobro, and Standard Guitar
Bob won Outer Circle critics and Drama desk awards for Best Musical of the 1991-92 season, as co-writer and lyricist for SONG OF SINGAPORE. With Richard Lieberson he founded the country-swing band, The Central Park Sheiks. He has opened for Freddy Fender, Emmy Lou Harris, Loretta Lynn, Doc Watson, Jimmy Martin, Bonnie Raitt, The Incredible String Band and Hank Thompson. He was side-man for Leon Redbone and Erik Frandsen, In 1994, Bob was a featured artist with Skitch Henderson’s New York Pops Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. For years he has been a regular at The Sweet Chariot Music Festival held every August on Swan’s Island and MDI’s own Seal Harbor Boys.
MEMBERS
Tom Karnofsky
Upright Bass
Tom has played bass with a multitude of Downeast musicians in nearly every imaginable venue in the Pine Tree State for over 50 years.
Phil Kell
Guitar
Phil Kell lives in Bernard where he teaches guitar and bass lessons. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from the University of Maine.
Phil has played in the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and in pit orchestras for many local theater companies. He has also played in more country, rock, blues, and jazz groups than he can remember and lately with Stephen Bowman, Naramissic Drive, Mondo Charlie, Jones’n, Dan Lorey Trio, Bee Parks and the Hornets, Night and Day Jazz Trio, Maine Street R&B Revue.
Chris Nemeth
Violin
Chris has performed throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe and Canada. He has participated in numerous festivals including the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival (Blue Hill) and the International Youth and Music Festival (Vienna, Austria).
Chris performs regularly with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, Baroque Orchestra of Maine, the Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony and with a host of local Maine artists including Max Treitler, Heidi Powell, Trond Saverud, Marissa Solomon, Paul Sullivan and Bob Hipkens.
He is one of the founders of HarborHouse Partners, a business consulting firm focused on helping Maine-based companies.
Jim Coffman
Mandolin, Fiddle, Guitar, and Trombone
Jim Coffman is a multi-instrumentalist who has been performing in various musical ventures since the mid 1970s. He has lived on MDI since 2005 where he founded the original rock trio Banned from Eden, with whom he performs regularly. He also plays with several other musical ensembles covering genres ranging from Americana, bluegrass, country, blues, and jazz. A composer and songwriter, he has self-produced six albums of original music (Overloaded Circus volumes I, II and III, Existential Opera, A Treasure-trove of Trash, and Far From Perfect Blues), which are available on the Facebook, Soundcloud, and Reverbnation pages of his online alter ego, Joyus Crynoid.
GUEST ARTISTS
Sarah Hipkens
Guitar and Vocals
Sarah Hipkens is a singer and a guitarist (and a family physician!). She loves all music the best – maybe West African kora music is her favorite. She served previously as the director of the Yale Women’s Slavic Chorus and more recently as the director of a Brooklyn based Alumni Slavic Chorus. While living in the Bay Area she had a folk/bluegrass band called Ula and made the album “Come Home”. More recently she has moved with her family to Portland, Maine and is enjoying learning Cajun-style music and playing at bluegrass jam sessions. Throughout her life her best gig has been playing with her dad, Robert Hipkens