Bar Harbor Maine Musician Nathan Grant

Nathan Grant is a Maine-based musician with more than two decades in the local music scene. He’s known for his versatile, audience-friendly style that blends rock, folk, reggae, and classic pop influences. Born in the Bangor area and raised on Deer Isle, Grant grew up surrounded by small-town coastal culture, an environment he credits with shaping both his musicianship and his sense of humor on stage. Though his primary instrument is guitar—often acoustic, but just as often electric—he also plays bass, piano, drums, mandolin, and banjo, and has performed in countless bands and one-off collaborations over the years. In recent seasons he has been a regular performer at the Ivy Manor Inn, where his relaxed solo sets reflect his belief that live music should feel spontaneous, familiar, and connected to the community, much like the creative, salt-air towns of coastal Maine where he learned to play.

Nathan 

Nathan Grant is a Maine musician and singer/songwriter who has been part of the local music scene for more than twenty years, playing in bands, sitting in with other performers, and performing solo throughout the Downeast coast. Born in the Bangor area and raised on Deer Isle, Grant grew up in a small island community after his mother took a teaching job there, and he often jokes that living on the island gave him the accent and the outlook even though he was technically “from away.” Music became part of his life early on, inspired by the kind of guitar-driven performances he saw in movies as a kid, and by the time he was in elementary school he was already getting on stage at talent shows, experimenting with whatever styles he was listening to at the time. That early experience helped him get past his shyness and set the tone for the way he still approaches performing today.

“Pandering pastiche. That’s how I’d classify my style. I don’t do heavy metal. I don’t do polka, but I’ll go pretty much everywhere else.” – Nathan Grant

Grant’s main instrument is guitar, and in the summer he splits his time between acoustic and electric, often switching from a clean acoustic set to playing his Telecaster with a bit of overdrive whenever the setting allows. He also plays piano, bass, drums, mandolin, and banjo, though he says he does not always get the chance to use them in performance. Over the years he has played in reggae bands, Irish groups, and plenty of one-off projects, and he prides himself on being willing to try almost any style of music. He sometimes describes his approach as a kind of “pandering pastiche,” meaning he enjoys playing songs people recognize and respond to, even if they come from completely different genres. For him, the goal is not to stay inside one category but to make the performance entertaining and to meet the audience where they are.

In recent seasons, Grant has been a regular performer at the Ivy Manor Inn, where he often plays solo sets and enjoys the relaxed, open setting. He likes the way the music connects with everything happening around it — people sitting outside, walking by, talking, listening, and gradually getting drawn into the performance. He sees places like this as part of what makes the Maine coast special, with a strong concentration of artists, musicians, and people willing to try creative things. Having grown up on an island and spent most of his life around the water, Grant feels that the coastal communities have always had a certain energy that keeps him playing, experimenting, and coming back each season.

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Ivy Afternoons

Every afternoon from May through October, musicians from Mount Desert Island and abroad gather at the Ivy Manor Inn’s garden in Bar Harbor, Maine for good drinks, great music, and some outside goodness.

Ivy Afternoons is a 6 part documentary series.

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