On Friday, May 17 at 8 PM, The Mainstay in Rock Hall presents another night of outstanding Blues music with return of the Mikey Junior Blues Band. This program is scheduled for the outdoor performance space located to the rear of The Mainstay, weather permitting.

Surveys of the Mainstay’s large email list consistently endorse and request more Blues programs in the venue’s year-round music schedule.

Mikey Junior — Blues harmonica player, vocalist, and frontman for the group — burst onto the Blues scene less than a dozen years ago and since that time has amassed an impressive repertoire of classic Blues music, earning praise from both music fans and industry insiders.

Self-taught from his impressive collection of old Blues vinyl LPs, Mikey was a full-time musician before he even graduated high-school. By the time he was in his early twenties, seasoned players were taking notice and it wasn’t long before one Blues society after another scrambled to get him to perform on their stage. Before long, Mikey was a staple of the summer Blues circuit on the East Coast.

For a musical style that has historically placed so much weight on the lineage of legendary Blues men, the passing of more and more of these old masters poses a dire question: What is the future of the Blues and who will lead the charge? For fans who follow the touring Blues circuit, that question is routinely answered every night Mikey Junior hits the stage. His infectious personality, muscular vocals, and absolute command of both the diatonic and chromatic harmonicas are exactly what Blues music needs today — a front man who is talented, engaging, and vital. He attacks the more traditional diatonic harp with a vengeance, but is “smooth as Southern Comfort on ice” when playing the chromatic harmonica. In doing so he convincingly entices new generations of music lovers to love something old-school.

Tickets are $20 in advance of the show and can be purchased online at mainstayrockhall.org. Phone reservations are accepted by calling (410) 639-9133 (tickets reserved by phone are $25 when paid at the door). The Mainstay is located at 5753 N Main Street in Rock Hall.

Diana Sanches and Alina Antonenko

Matt Mielnick, Executive Director of The Mainstay in Rock Hall, has announced the performers and program for the venue’s April 28th Classical Music Series concert that is part of the Hedgelawn Classical Series at The Mainstay in honor of Judy Kohl.

“We are very pleased to welcome violinist Diana Sanchez and pianist Alina Antonenko to the Mainstay,” Mielnick said recently. “These two musicians from Baltimore have planned an innovative and delightful program that will appeal to a broad audience.”

The program opens with Jules Massenet’s hauntingly beautiful Meditation from his opera “Thaïs” and closes with Italian composer Vittorio Monti’s Csárdás, a vibrant piece of music based on a folklore tune. In between, the audience will be treated to pieces by Mozart, J.S. Bach, Handel, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, and Schumann, as well as less often performed composers such as Pablo de Sarasate, Manuel Ponce, and Edmund Severn. The program will feature pieces for duets by the two instruments As well as solo pieces for violin and piano.

Diana Sanchez teaches at the Peabody Preparatory of Johns Hopkins University and currently performs with the Iris Music Project Piano Trio and the String Quartet Alma Ensemble. Pianist Alina Antonenko is an active teacher, music director at St. John Lutheran Church, and collaborative pianist working with musicians and dancers. She is a community musician-in-residence with the Iris Music project.

Showtime for the Mainstay concert event is 4 pm. Tickets are $15 in advance of the show and can be purchased online at mainstayrockhall.org. Phone reservations are accepted by calling (410) 639-9133 (tickets reserved by phone are $20 when paid at the door). The Mainstay is located at 5753 N Main Street in Rock Hall, Maryland. Its regular calendar of local, regional, and nationally touring artists features a live performance every week of the year (February through December) in a variety of music genres.

The programs of the Mainstay are also supported with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Kent Cultural Alliance.

On Saturday, April 20^th The Mainstay is proud to present nationally acclaimed bluegrass banjo player Tony Trischka. He and his group will perform a program they have titled “EarlJam”, a tribute to one of the heroes of bluegrass, Earl Scruggs whose “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” brought bluegrass to popular attention in 1949. Trischka credits Scruggs with moving him to “put the guitar aside and take up the banjo” at age 13.

The New York Times has hailed Tony Trischka as “the father of modern bluegrass”.

Tony was born in Syracuse, N.Y. As a young boy he was influenced by the folk music his father held dear, including the work of Woody Guthrie, the Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger, and Leadbelly. He positioned himself in the New York City-centered folk revival in the early ’70s and settled in among a peer group of extraordinary musicians who saw American roots music as a thriving, living language. The experience offered him the opportunity to broaden his style and acknowledge the influences of different musical genres. His numerous albums that followed found him refining his eclectic bluegrass style and featured such newgrass royalty as violinist Darol Anger, guitarist Tony Rice and mandolinist David Grisman. Béla Fleck began studying with Trischka as a teenage bluegrass wunderkind. Trischka was also a mentor of Steve Martin.

Earl Scruggs actually recorded with Trischka on his Grammy-nominated album “Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular.” The EarlJams program includes Trischka’s note-for-note transcriptions of jam sessions Scruggs played with John Hartford and others.

Trischka will be joined on stage by guitarist/ bluegrass vocalist Michael Daves, fiddler Nate Lee and bassist Jared Engel.

Showtime for the Mainstay concert event is 8 pm. Tickets are $20 in advance of the show and can be purchased online at mainstayrockhall.org. Phone reservations are accepted by calling (410) 639-9133 (tickets reserved by phone are $25 when paid at the door). The Mainstay is located at 5753 N Main Street in Rock Hall, Maryland. Its regular calendar of local, regional, and nationally touring artists features a live performance every week of the year (February through December) in a variety of music genres.

The programs of the Mainstay are supported with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Kent Cultural Alliance.

For more about The Mainstay, go here.

Peacemakers’ Concert on May 6^th at 7 pm (doors open 6:30) at The Mainstay in Rock Hall, MD. There’s live music from Ordinary Elephant, a cash bar, a raffle, and a silent auction. This is a charitable event. Ticket sales benefit Community Mediation Upper Shore. Cash bar benefits the Mainstay. Cash tips for the band. Tickets go on sale April 8th, here.