The Mainstay, in Rock Hall Maryland, presents “Hello Sailor: A Bawdy Song Sing-Along” on Saturday August 8 at 8:00 p.m. as a part of Rock Hall’s Pirates and Wenches Fantasy Weekend. You must be age 18 or older to attend. Admission is $20.
For information and reservations call 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website 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, which includes an ethnomusicologist, a folklorist, a traditional singer and a member of Pyrates Royale has presented this show in the past at the Annapolis Maritime Museum at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut and at Rock Hall Pirates Weekend where two years ago they had the crowd laughing out loud and singing lustily.
The material has been so well received, that the group plans to make a recording of bawdy songs next year.
This year, audience will again 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, all gathered from musty books, scratchy recordings and 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 working 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 for more than 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 from the University of Pennsylvania. 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 article and reviews for the Huffington Post.
Rock Hall’s Pirates and Wenches Fantasy Weekend has been voted “Best of the Bay” six times by the readers of Chesapeake Bay Magazine. The 8th annual festival runs from August 7th through 9th, 2015 and includes a Decorated Dinghy Contest & Caribbean-Style Beach Party, a Pirate Dinghy Poker Run, A 5-K Run/ Walk. 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/
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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