FCL is pleased to host Bill Berlinghoff, a folk music entertainer with more than half a century of performing experience, for an in-person indoors evening show. Bill performs acoustic music in the Peter Seeger tradition and will draw from a personal repertoire of more than 300 songs, spanning a wide spectrum of traditions and tastes.

Bill’s musical performing roots run deep. His grandfather Henry was a drummer and bandleader. His Young American Band was the first act ever booked by the now-famous, worldwide William Morris Theatrical Agency. His first guitar came from Uncle Jim, but it stayed in a closet until Pete Seeger and The Weavers broke through the McCarthy era blacklist and gave a concert at Carnegie Hall on Christmas Eve, 1955. That concert album was so popular with Bill and his high school friends (and LOTS of other folks) that he dug out Uncle Jim’s guitar and began to learn those songs. From then on, folk music became his lifelong avocation.

Two cross-country summer trips to the Pacific Northwest and back, doing impromptu gigs, preceded a final move to Maine, where he has lived for 30 years. Since then he has been playing mostly (but not exclusively) in Maine, always looking for opportunities that give him an excuse to travel, and writing a few songs, too. His songs are well received everywhere he goes.

This event is free and open to the public; face coverings are optional in Freeport municipal buildings. For questions or directions to the library, call 207-865-3307 or visit freeportlibrary.com.