Rock Hall FallFest begins with a concert by Irish singer and songwriter Anthony John Clarke at The Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Friday October 9 at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $15. For information and reservations call 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
Irishman Anthony John Clarke is a wonderful singer, a serious songwriter and an entertainer with the ability to captivate listeners with his humor, intelligent lyrics and musicianship. He says, “Once you let a song under your skin it’s harder to remove than a tattoo.”
He has played in hundreds of clubs and festivals in the UK, Europe, Australia and Asia and, less frequently, in the USA but he is a favorite at the Mainstay. His finely crafted songs and stories are based on his experiences in his native Ireland and in the UK.
Mainstay Founder-Director Tom McHugh says “[his] songs range far and wide, covering the whole range of… human…joys and frailties. From a song about an innocent Irishman on the border who is earning a few pounds making a delivery, and is assassinated for it….to nuns singing karaoke…Anthony John will make you cry, laugh and think when he sings.”
Clarke was born in Belfast in 1956. He started songwriting at the age of nine but it was not until when he left Ireland for England as a young man that he actively pursued his passion for writing. Since then he has recorded multiple albums and singles and published two songbooks.
He made his mark on the British contemporary folk scene with songs like “Irish Eyes” and the beautiful “Seven In Ireland.” About the craft of songwriting he says, “The songwriter has a responsibility. It’s not enough to put a tune to some words or some words to a tune. The song is a vehicle for a notion that the writer has about something. If it wasn’t, then the song would have no beginning, middle or end. It’s not complicated. The notion is what starts the process and the completed song is the fruition. It invites others into the notion, the idea, the feeling, the celebration, the private moment. And if you can provide a laugh or two along the way it gets my vote.”
An accomplished entertainer, he often has pub audiences in Britain singing along with gusto to the choruses of such vastly different songs as ‘The Only Life Gloria Knows’, ‘Blame it on Dolores’ and ‘Tuesday Night is Always Karaoke.” He believes that “people don’t leave the house to be bored to death. You have a responsibility to entertain and avoid being self-indulgent. I avoid being professionally Irish as much as I can. Just because I’m an Irish songwriter doesn’t mean I can’t love the Kinks and the Small Faces.”
Founded in large part by Tom McHugh, Rock Hall FallFest, A Celebration of Family, Community and Oysters, continues with strong involvement by The Mainstay. In addition to the Friday and Saturday evening ticketed events at The Mainstay, FallFest includes many free activities on Main Street between 10 and 4 pm on Saturday October 10. Included are performances on two stages, one at each end of Main Street, crafts booths, food vendors, and free children’s activities in Kids Kourt in Rock Hall Village near the intersection of Main Street and Route 20.
The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street.
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