Back by popular demand,the legendary High & Wides rock the stage at the Riverfront Concert series on Thursday, July 26. Hosted by the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College, the final 2018 riverfront concert is free and open to the public. The program begins at 6:30 p.m. on the lawn of the Custom House at 101 S. Water Street, Chestertown.
We invite you to bring friends and family (all ages are welcome), a picnic, and your own chairs or blanket. Or just relax on the grass and partake of free lemonade and cookies. Either way, come and enjoy the energetic sounds of this innovative band recently described by the Washington Post as “apostles of hillbilly boogie.”
The High & Wides, like the large-haul trains for which the band is named, project a big, driving sound—mountain musical traditions re-imagined for a new century. Formed on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in 2015, the band makes music about arson and hourly motels, dystopian love songs, and ballads of violent history. The High & Wides draw from members’ extensive backgrounds in bluegrass and take the music to a place all their own, recalling an era when old-time, rockabilly, and proto-rock’n’roll coexisted in a murky soup of hillbilly string band music. The High & Wides include Marc Dykeman (guitar and vocals), Sam Guthridge (banjo, mandolin and vocals), Nate Grower (fiddle), and Mike Buccino (upright bass). Their new album, titled Lifted, was released this spring to popular acclaim.
The Starr Center’s riverfront concerts — a summer tradition for the past eight years — present American music in all its breadth and diversity, with performers in a variety of genres from across the region and beyond. As part of each event, Starr Center program manager Michael Buckley, who is also a longtime radio host on WRNR-FM, leads a Q&A with the visiting artists.
For more information, visit starrcenter.washcoll.edu or contact Michael Buckley, [email protected], 410-810-7156. In case of rain, the concert will take place in Hynson Pavilion, Wilmer Park. Special support for the summer concert series is provided by Yerkes Construction and Washington College Student Events Board.
About Washington College
Founded in 1782, Washington College is the tenth oldest college in the nation and the first chartered under the new Republic. It enrolls approximately 1,450 undergraduates from more than 35 states and a dozen nations. With an emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning in the arts and sciences, and more than 40 multidisciplinary areas of study, the College is home to nationally recognized academic centers in the environment, history, and writing. Learn more at washcoll.edu.
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