On Sunday, March 30 at 4 PM The Mainstay is pleased to present the only public full presentation of Generations Band Together. This performance showcases a recent collaboration between local professional musicians and five music students from Kent County High School. The aim of the program is to support, strengthen, and celebrate the Kent County High School music program, and to give motivated students the opportunity to not only perform with seasoned professional players, but also to gain from the experience of playing publicly.  The program includes multiple styles of music from Chicago (the group) to Herbie Hancock to Mozart.

The students who will be performing are Beckett Vivier, Phoebe Preston, Teo O’Brien, Lynden Saunders, and Bjorn Birkmire. The adult players include Philip Dutton, Dave Sharp, Frank Gerber, Nevin Dawson, Mark Quigley, Dave James, and Sem Ortiz.

There is no admission charged for the show. The Mainstay is located at 5753 N Main Street in Rock Hall. For more about the Mainstay, go here.

On Saturday, March 1, The Mainstay, in partnership with the Hedgelawn Foundation, is excited to welcome back the traditional bluegrass sounds of Danny Paisley and Southern Grass

Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass play powerful, unadorned, and intense traditional bluegrass. There is no hybrid or genre-bending music here. Their combination of instrumentation and vocals convey the energy and emotion of classic bluegrass and country music. Danny’s lead vocals lead the charge. He has been described as having “the voice of bluegrass,” and his talent has been recognized by some of the leading icons of bluegrass, including Alison Krause. In 2020, Paisley joined an elite group of vocalists to be awarded the Male Bluegrass Vocalist of the Year for the second time by the IBMA, an achievement only given to eight others in Bluegrass music history.

The group has also received over 15 Bluegrass Music Award Nominations, and won the 2009 IBMA Song of the Year.

Southern Grass continues the rich family tradition started by Bob Paisley (Danny’s father) and Ted Lundy. With Danny Paisley on guitar, Southern Grass also features Danny’s son Ryan on mandolin, and Lundy’s sons (T.J. Lundy is a highly respected fiddler bridging the gap between old-time fiddling and bluegrass music, and brother Bobby is a renowned multi-instrumentalist who has gained attention for his unique bass style). The band also includes Mark Delaney on banjo (formerly with Randy Waller and the Country Gentlemen).

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,

Pam and Bob Ortiz

On Friday, February 14, The Mainstay in Rock Hall opens its 28^th season of outstanding live music performances with a return visit from the Chestertown singer songwriter duo Pam and Bob Ortiz. Joining them on some songs will be the former members of the Pam Ortiz Band — Nevin Dawson, Ford Schumann, and Philip Dutton.

Pam and Bob’s shows highlight Pam’s original material (flatteringly compared to national talent Nanci Griffith) – from blues to ballads – and Bob’s hand percussion, guitar, and piano accompaniment — with lots of stories to tell along the way. Their group, Terra Nova, performed at the Mainstay during its first year of operation (they were subsequently invited to perform at President Bill Clinton’s Inauguration ceremonies at the Kennedy Center). Bob and Pam have also been regular members of the Harp and Soul ensemble who have performed regularly here at The Mainstay with their annual December holiday programs. They have five albums in their discography.

In 2016, Pam collaborated with playwright Robert Earl Price on Red Devil Moon, a musical inspired by Harlem Renaissance writer Jean Toomer’s 1923 novel, Cane. Pam wrote the music and lyrics for the show. The entire Red Devil Moon troupe took their performance to New York City to do five shows as part of the New York International Fringe Festival.

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.

The Mainstay offers a year-round calendar of concert events. The shows are offered just about every week of the year, and feature distinguished local, regional, and national/ international touring artists of almost every genre. Upcoming concert calendar information can be found on the Mainstay website at mainstayrockhall.org. Music fans are also encouraged to sign up for email alerts by contacting us at [email protected].

The Mainstay in Rock Hall welcomes friends and neighbors to its annual New Year’s Eve Pot Luck Supper on Tuesday, December 31 from 6 until 8 pm. Bring a covered dish to share and raise your glass with us to celebrate what was great about last year and what’s hopeful about next year. Following our tradition Joe Holt will provide piano accompaniment for the festivities. And of course, there’s no admission fee. The Mainstay is located at 5753 N Main Street in Rock Hall, MD.

On Sunday, December 8, The Mainstay in Rock Hall wraps up its 2024 program season with a special presentation by the musical ensemble Harp and Soul. Showtime for the performance is 4 PM.

These local favorites, who have offered such a seasonal celebration at The Mainstay for many years, will present a program they have titled “A Hopeful Future.”

The group consists of Meredith Hadaway (harp and concertina), Ben Bennington (guitar and vocals), Rebekah Hock (oboe), and Bob Ortiz (percussion, piano, and vocals). They will be joined by special guests, including singer/songwriter Pam Ortiz, pianist Joe Holt, and vocalist Sue Matthews. Pam Ortiz has composed a new song especially for the program. This year’s concert will feature songs of remembrance, hope, and above all, optimism for the future. Come celebrate the holidays enjoying their lovely and lively traditional songs, dance tunes & carols from the British Isles, Celtic lands and other countries around the world.

This show is made possible with support from the Hedgelawn Foundation in memory of Judy Kohl.

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 Mainstay’s December 6^th concert program marks the final “First Friday” of the year with resident piano impresario and accompanist Joe Holt. Joe and his invited bandmates, spotlighting swing drummer and vocalist Jimmy Lawlor, will pay tribute to the 1940s/1950s classic jump swing tunes made famous by Louis Prima and Louis Jordan

Joining Joe and Jimmy on the bill will be Dave Schiff on sax, Max Murray on bass, and a special guest appearance by vocalist Sharon Sable (a.k.a. Keely Smith).

Louis Prima was an American jazz musician and bandleader best known for his exuberant personality, raspy voice (and for writing the swing music classic “Sing, Sing, Sing”). His style encompassed swing, big band music, boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, and jazzed-up versions of Italian folk music.

In 1949 he hired singer Keely Smith, a poker-faced stage persona who served as the perfect foil for Prima’s comical boisterousness. Their version of “That Old Black Magic” won a Grammy Award for best performance by a vocal group.

In the mid-1950s, Prima and Smith went to Las Vegas and began a residency at the Sahara Hotel. The new group was dubbed the Witnesses and gained a reputation as “The Wildest Show in Vegas.”

Prima entered the most successful phase of his recording career in 1956 with hit songs such as “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody,” “Buona Sera,” “Oh Marie,” and “Jump, Jive, an’ Wail.” In 1967 he voiced the role of King Louie, the “swinging” orangutan in Disney’s animated film The Jungle Book.

Louis Jordan was an American saxophonist-singer prominent in the 1940s and ’50s who was a seminal figure in the development of both rhythm and blues and rock and roll.

By 1942 Jordan and his band became one of the most popular recording acts in the country, with hits such as “Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens” and “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie”. He starred in numerous Hollywood short films and received equal billing on collaborations with Louis Armstrong. Jordan was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1983, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2018.

Showtime for the live 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 and presentations of The Mainstay are supported in part with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council and The Kent Cultural Alliance.