Dear Readers,

Did you catch the show at the Opera House at Boothbay Harbor last Thursday?

If not, you missed a good one.

Cathy Sherrill and her mostly volunteer crew booked a premier Scottish folk singer, Dougie MacLean. More than 300 folks filled the Opera House in a good kickoff to the 2013 summer season.

“We had some folks from Halifax while others came from Detroit,” Sherrill said. “Can you imagine driving all the way from Detroit to the Maine coast in May for a Thursday night show?”

It was just one of 10 American appearances for MacLean in 2013. Fans from far and wide jumped at the chance to catch a live performance of this Scottish all-star musician.

Of course, it meant more to the community than a chance to listen to the quiet poetry of this Highland favorite; it also meant our people filled our hotel rooms and ate at local resturants. MacLean also helped out the local economy when he bought a pair of blue canvas deck shoes.

He gave a quiet and engaging performance filled with images of love of Scotland and its people, with tunes celebrating the Australian outback and Alaska.

His quiet banter charmed the audience. He explained his dislike of both dangerous Aussie spiders and erupting Alaskan volcanoes. It seemed more like a living room conversation rather than a rehearsed show. The crowd even agreed to sing and hum along on cue.

The oldsters, and there were many, and the youngsters, they were there too, gave him a standing salute at the end.

So far, the old Opera House will feature 35 live shows this season. Of course, the headliner will be Jackson Browne in a special performance marking the 10th anniversary of this elderly, elegant restored facility. Sorry, that show is sold out.

In this day, when digital is king, theft of copyrighted music is called “sampling,” and home computers can whisk tunes from one website to another in a wink of an electron, the Opera House is a bit of a throwback.

First of all, you have to go to a facility and pay money to get in the door. Then you have to sit down and listen to a real person make real music on real instruments.

Sure, it is great to watch TV, or hunker down over a smartphone and stick the buds in your ears to listen to a digital song or two. But there is always something magical about a live performance.

This season, you can see performances ranging from classical chamber music to a fine brass quintet. There are folk singing stars, jazz players, magicians and humorists booked. There are shows featuring everything from master guitarists like Frank Vignola and Michael Johnson to pianist and composer Jimmy Webb in a show sponsored by the Boothbay Register.

You like country? How about Kathy Mattea? Are you a fan of blues, gospel or soul music? How about Francine Reed? New Orleans jazz master Delfeayo Marsalis will be there along with Eileen Ivers, the nine-time all Irish fiddle champ.

I can't wait for the Bigelow Lab's own Barney Balch to hang up his lab coat and sit down with the Novel Jazz Septet for an evening of tunes by Ellington and Strayhorn. And you can catch Livingston Taylor, too.

What I am trying to say, is Boothbay residents and visitors are in for a summer of top shelf entertainment. It is a chance to treat your friend, wife, husband, significant other, partner or even your loving mother-in-law to an evening of music and mirth.

And it is happening right here in beautiful downtown Boothbay Harbor.