“Hello Sailor: A Bawdy Song Sing-Along” For Rock Hall Pirates And Wenches Weekend At The Mainstay August 10

In keeping with the spirit of fun that propels Rock Hall’s Pirates and Wenches FantasyWeekend, The Mainstay, in Rock Hall Maryland, presents “Hello Sailor: A Bawdy Song Sing-Along” on Saturday August 10 at 8:00 p.m. You must be age 18 or older to be admitted. Admission is $15. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.

“Hello Sailor! A Bawdy Song Sing-Along” is a raucous romp through centuries of dirty ditties presented by master balladeers Jennifer Cutting, Steve Winick, Riki Schneyer and Craig Williams. The group has presented this show in the past at the Annapolis Maritime Museum and Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. The group includes an ethnomusicologist, a folklorist, a traditional singer and a member of Pyrates Royale. The audience will be invited to join in on the choruses of naughty songs from medieval brothels, pubs, tall ships, British music halls, armies, navies, schoolyards, and wherever such songs are sung, gathered from dusty archives and presented to gales of laughter.

According to Jennifer Cutting, “This will be an ample show of shameless songs that have propelled innocent sailors to their moral doom from time immemorial. [Our research] will ensure that this isn’t just any old bawdy songs show – you’re bound to hear refreshingly raunchy songs you’ve never heard before and be entertained in the time-honored tradition of gathering to raise our voices in song.”

Jennifer Cutting is a composer and bandleader by family tradition and a musician and ethnomusicologist by training. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in conducting, and developed her passion for folk music through a Master’s degree with British folk revival legend A.L. Lloyd, mentor to groups such as Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span.

She spent more than ten years as director, composer, arranger and performer with the band The New St. George and over the last 10 years has composed, arranged, played on and produced the outstanding and award-winning CDs “OCEAN: Songs for the Night Sea Journey” and “Song of Solstice”, collaborating with international superstars such as Maddy Prior and Peter Knight (Steeleye Span), Annie Haslam (Renaissance), Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention), and John Roberts (Ye Mariners All). She is currently the leader of Jennifer Cutting’s Ocean Orchestra and is a multiple award winner in all areas of her musical career.

Riki Schneyer has been singing traditional folksongs all her life. The daughter of famed folksinger Helen Schneyer (who appeared several times on “A Prairie Home Companion”), Riki was raised in a musical, artistic, social activist family, and has performed throughout the country, promoting the folk music of the Americas, Britain and France. She has sung everything in American folk music from African-American spirituals to the ballads of southern Appalachia, from broadsides to sea chanties to blues. (and, of course, bawdy songs.) She can be heard on numerous recordings, and several film soundtracks, including “The Wobblies,” and is currently finishing a solo album. In moments between songs, she has had a 27 year career as a psychotherapist, from which she has now retired, in order to pursue a second career as a visual artist.

Craig Williams has performed folk, Celtic, and maritime music for over twenty years, both alone and with such accomplished groups as Ironweed. He is best known for his portrayal of Long John Skivee, the singing, guitar-playing first mate of the popular group The Pyrates Royale. For over twenty years, the Pyrates have been delighting and offending audiences with questionable songs of sea-faring debauchery at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville . They also perform at folk and maritime festivals up and down the east coast, and have released many acclaimed CDs of maritime songs.

Steve Winick has been singing traditional British, Irish, American, and French folksongs for many years. He currently performs with Ship’s Company Chanteymen, in which he reenacts eighteenth and nineteenth century singing sailors, and with Celtic rock ensemble Jennifer Cutting’s Ocean Orchestra. He is also in demand as an actor and a master of ceremonies, and has appeared at folk, Celtic and pirate festivals throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Steve is also an ace folksong researcher, with a PhD. In folklore. His first job as a folklorist was transcribing dirty songs for folklore expert Kenneth S. Goldstein. He currently researches and writes about folk music for the Library of Congress and writes for the Huffington Post.

Rock Hall’s Pirates and Wenches Fantasy Weekend has been voted “Best of the Bay” for the last 5 years by the readers of Chesapeake Bay Magazine. The 6^th edition of the festival runs from August 9^th through 11^th 2013 and includes a Decorated Dinghy Contest & Caribbean-Style Beach Party, a Pirate Dinghy Poker Run, the Buccaneer’s Ball, Kid’s Games, Crafts and  Storytelling, a Live Pirate Encampment, Live Entertainment & Street Performers, Merchants, Artisans and Crafters and many individual events. A complete schedule is available on the Rock Hall Pirates & Wenches Fantasy Weekend website, https://www.rockhallpirates.com/