
NEWS
Abigail Curtis, Bangor Daily News: Trenton teen fiddler going places while ‘getting lost in the music’
For many Maine high school students, junior year is a busy time of test-taking, studying and going on college tours.
One Mount Desert Island High School student has added something else to that full plate: a burgeoning career as an in-demand traditional fiddler.
Gus La Casse, Fiddler at Large by Bowen Swersey, Stone Poet Publications
04.20.17
It’s another Monday night at Sips in Southwest Harbor, and the open mic is about to begin. Guest host Peter Lindquist stands at the helm, adjusting the PA and mic stands with the help of a tall young man with long black hair and warm brown eyes. I’ve seen Peter play before, as the bassist from Banned From Eden, but tonight he wields an acoustic guitar.
I am probably that last person on Mount Desert Island to become aware of the Gus LaCasse phenomenon. We chat while some other performers sign up for the jam session, and he is friendly, relaxed, and genuine. He has an easy quality I have come to associate with home-schoolers, as if he has no particular suspicion of people. Hopefully, his forays into professional music will not sully this quality.