BATH

Cold Chocolate will perform in Waterfront Park as one of the Chocolate Church Arts Center’s outdoor summer shows. The Boston-based bluegrass band will perform in Bath at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Cold Chocolate is an Americana band that fuses bluegrass and folk with a dash of funk. The trio performs with guitar, upright bass, percussion, and three-part harmony.

Guitarist/songwriter Ethan Robbins began as a classical violinist at four and began playing the guitar at 14. His bluegrass career began while a student at Oberlin College, where he founded The Outhouse Troubadours and met Cold Chocolate upright bassist Kirsten Lamb.

Herself a multi-instrumentalist, Lamb started focusing on the bass at 13. She earned a master’s in the contemporary improvisation department from the New England Conservatory and has been called part of “one of the finest rhythm sections ever to be fetched up in the name of bluegrass” by Mickey Clark of AmericanaUK magazine.

Percussionist Ariel Bernstein, who studied under Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Principal Percussionist Jim Tiller, finalized the Cold Chocolate lineup in 2011.

Cold Chocolate has shared bills with such bluegrass groups as Leftover Salmon and David Grisman, and has performed at numerous east coast festivals including the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Floyd Fest, Fresh- Grass Festival, and the Ossipee Valley Music Festival.

“The band’s approach is decidedly modern, with as much an influence from folk and swing as from hard driving bluegrass. Song topics also more reflect the urban environment in which they live than the country or rural themes that dominate so much bluegrass from southeastern artists,” reported John Lawless of BluegrassToday.com

Cold Chocolate will be the fifth installment of the Chocolate Church’s series On The Waterfront. Every Saturday through Aug. 26, outdoor shows take place during summer evenings along the Kennebec. Visitors can dine and explore local stores while listening to New England bands. Admission is free.