The Philadelphia Jug Band returns for a free outdoor concert bringing their fun-filled goodtime mix of folk, rags, stomps and old-time country blues to back deck of the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Saturday July 25 at 7:00 p.m.

Bring a comfortable chair. The concert will move indoors to the Mainstay in case of rain or extreme heat. Information is available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org. This free outdoor concert is sponsored by the Kent County Arts Council, People’s Bank, the Greater Rock Hall Business Association and The Mainstay.

“If this music doesn’t make you smile, nothing will!” The Philadelphia Jug Band has used this slogan for more years than they can count. They trace their roots to the second Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1963 when two high school students, members of a band called the Ridgerunners, heard Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band. They were inspired to start playing the eclectic goodtime mix of rags, blues, stomps and hollers that the Kweskin Band was known for and they’ve been playing them ever since – long enough to earn a mention in the Wikipedia article on “Jug Bands.”

According to one of the band members, “In 1963 we discovered jug band music via Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band at the second annual Philadelphia Folk Festival. To say we were transformed, not to mention transfixed, would be an understatement. It immediately became our sound.”

They have since performed throughout southeastern Pennsylvania and further afield including performances at such prestigious venues as Philadelphia’s World Café Live. They have returned to the Philadelphia Folk Festival – now in its 54th year – in both official and unofficial capacities every year since.

Though the band members have scattered following jobs or retirement dreams they still make it a point to get together to play a few gigs and, of course, get together at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.

The core band is Frank Zemlan on guitar and vocals, Jim Klingler on guitar and vocals, Bob Beach on harmonica, flute and vocals, Dave Gauck on washtub bass and jug and Steve Miller, on washboard, blues kazoo and vocals. They play a wide ranging mix of country blues, folk, rags and stomps.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival remains near and dear to their hearts and at the 50th Festival in 2011, they played the main stage and participated in a blues and acoustic workshop with folk legends Tom Rush, Roy Book Binder, Dave Bromberg and Jorma Kaukonen. After 50 years of playing jug band tunes – and they claim that any song can be a jug band tune given the right treatment – they have become the tradition bearers they once emulated.

The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website www.mainstayrockhall.org.

Big Joe and the Dynaflows bring swinging, danceable jump blues, retro blues and jazz/blues to the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Saturday July 18 at 8:00 p.m. as part of the MainstayBlues series of blues concerts. Admission is $20. For information and reservations call 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website www.mainstayrockhall.org.

Big Joe Maher is a rarity in the blues world. He’s a drummer who doubles as a vocalist. With a voice reminiscent of Delbert McClinton, he relies on well-chosen vintage material and his own first-class originals. His music is a mix of rocking, often humorous jump blues, retro-blues, and swinging jazz/blues with the occasional swamp-pop weeper like his own “Evangeline.

Maher started out his music career in his Maryland high school jazz band “The Starliners.” Musical greats like Clark Terry, Urbie Green, Mundell Lowe & James Moody often sat in with the band as guest performers and they were an inspiration to him along with the recorded music of jump blues greats like Louis Jordon and Big Joe Turner.

In his early career, he shared the stage, opened up for or backed up music legends like Willie Dixon, Delbert McClinton, Johnnie Johnson, Mick Fleetwood, Jimmy McCracklin, Jimmy Rogers, Pinetop Perkins, Jimmy Witherspoon, Otis Rush and Earl King.

In the late 80’s after managing and performing with the nine piece swing band “The Uptown Rhythm Kings,” and after a few years as drummer with the Tom Principato Band, Maher formed his own five piece jump blues group “Big Joe & The Dynaflows.”

In between touring and local performances with the Dynaflows in the mid-90’s, Maher accepted the role as Music Coordinator for Mick Fleetwood’s nightclub in Alexandria, VA “Fleetwoods.” His knowledge of the local and national blues & jazz scene helped him land the position which had the nightclub consistently filled with top notch talent.

In 1997, Big Joe and the Dynaflows had the honor to perform at an Inauguration Ball for the 42nd President of the United States. in Washington, DC. They continue to play locally, regionally and nationally and have toured Europe.

The Dynaflows release “I’m Still Swingin” on Severn Records, received the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA)”Best Blues Recording” in 1998. WAMA also voted Big Joe “Male Blues Vocalist of the Year” both in 2005 and 2009. Other Dynaflow releases include “All Night Long” and “You Can’t Keep a Big Man Down” on the Severn label; “Layin’ in the Alley” on New Orleans based Black Top Records, which received the (WAMA) “Best Blues Recording” in 1994;.”Good Rockin’Daddy” on the Powerhouse label and “Cool Dynaflow” on a European label.

The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street.

Classical guitarist Matt Palmer brings a varied program of music from Brazil, Paraguay, the USA, Belarus, Russia, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Spain to the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Sunday July 12 at 4:00 p.m. The concert is part of The Byrd Series: Celebrating Charlie’s 90th and The Hedgelawn Classical Music Series. Admission is $15. For information and reservations call 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website at www.mainstayrockhall.org.

Matt Palmer is only in his thirties but he may be about to transform the sounds of classical guitar. In awarding him the Up and Coming Guitarist of the Year Award in 2010, Guitar International Magazine (which covers all kinds of guitar from heavy metal to classical said, “Classical guitarists don’t usually get much attention when it comes to these types of awards. They’re usually relegated to a category specifically for them, cast aside from the rest of the crowd for being “uncool,” or at least not as cool as their rock and metal brethren. But, after you hear Matt Palmer play a few notes of any piece, modern or historical, the classical guitar takes on a whole new persona, transformed into an instrument that can rival the hipness of any flashy, electric performance.”

In fact, during his teen years, Palmer was an accomplished self-taught heavy metal-shredding guitarist. He learned to read music and made the switch classical at the relatively late age of 18. Fifteen years later he had received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Arizona, where he studied with Thomas Patterson and Artists-in-Residence David Russell, Sergio Assad, and Odair Assad and had written the book, “The Virtuoso Guitarist” about his three-finger chording techniques.

In demand as a performer, Matt’s recent concert engagements have taken him to venues such as Carnegie Hall, Shakespeare Theatre, The Guitar Foundation of America International Convention, numerous universities, guitar societies, and dozens of international guitar festivals throughout the world. He has appeared as a soloist throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico, Canada, South America, and the Caribbean.

His debut CD, “Un tiempo fue Itálica famosa,” has been applauded by Guitar International Magazine as “an album of the highest quality…with flawless technique, deep levels of personal expression, and an artistic integrity that seems far too rare these days.” Classical Voice of North Carolina proclaims Palmer’s “positively nuclear” debut displays “stunning precision and unwavering accuracy enclosed in a huge dynamic envelope.”

This is not, however, classical guitar for headbangers. Concert reviews have praised his subtlety and gentle touch while noting that his palette of dynamics and tone color are broad. James Flood, in a concert review for ClevelandClassical.com praised his “ unrelenting musical vision” and said, “Never did he lapse into mere “technical showcasing.” Throughout the performance, everything, even the “flashy” moments, was placed within a clear musical purpose… [the work of] a truly accomplished and refined musician.” The review went on to mention “His three-finger scales, which he wrote a book about, were immediately on display in the Rodrigo, which is filled with fast scales. Speedy scales are difficult to do on the classical guitar, but with his technique, he breezed through them, almost fooling the experienced player into believing that quick scales are actually easy after all.”

In short, this is a classical guitarist who will intrigue guitar aficionados of any sort and classical music lovers as well. His work is deeply satisfying, displays true virtuosity and comes straight from the heart.

The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street.

Tim Sparks, an extraordinary fingerstyle guitarist will headline a free outdoor concert of early traditional country blues, gospel music, Jazz, Be Bop, classical and world music on the back deck of the Mainstay in Rock Hall, MD on Saturday July 11 at 7:00 p.m. Banjo Man (Tom McHugh) and Tom Anthony open the show with a set of folk, blues and mischief. Bring a comfortable chair. The concert will move indoors to the Mainstay in case of rain or extreme heat. Information is available at the Mainstay’s website www.mainstayrockhall.org.

This free outdoor concert is sponsored by the Kent County Arts Council, People’s Bank, the Greater Rock Hall Business Association and The Mainstay.

Guitar Player Magazine has called Tim Sparks’ music “Fresh, exotic, and totally cool.” Acoustic Guitar Magazine has called it “rich and sensuous”, and guitarist Leo Kottke simply says “He’s really one of the best musicians I know.”

Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Sparks started picking out tunes by ear on an old Stella flat top during a bout of encephalitis that kept him out of school for a year. He taught himself to play the music he heard around him: traditional country blues and the gospel his grandmother played on piano in a small church in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

At 14, Sparks was nominated by a musically astute uncle for a scholarship at the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts. There he studied the classics with Segovia protégé Jesus Silva while continuing to play all kinds of music, increasingly turning to classic jazz for inspiration. He adapted compositions by Jelly Roll Morton, Scott Joplin, and Fats Waller to the guitar, frequently reducing piano arrangements to their essence.

While recording three albums with the seminal vocal jazz ensemble Rio Nido, Sparks also became proficient in jazz styles from Brazilian to Be Bop. During this time he arranged Carla Bley’s composition “Jesus Maria” for Leo Kottke.

Sparks’ interest in classical music led him to adapt Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite for guitar, a work that has been cited as a significant contribution to solo guitar literature. For Sparks, it was a labor of love that earned him the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas in 1993.

A sojourn abroad inspired his interest in European and Mediterranean styles, particularly the music of the Balkans. Upon his return to Minnesota, Sparks immersed himself in the ethnic music scene, performing on Oud and Saz in Middle Eastern ensembles and playing guitar in Greek, Klezmer, and Sephardic groups.

His work came to the attention of John Zorn, the saxophonist, composer, and curator of Tzadik Records in New York which led to a new cycle of compositions inspired by traditional Jewish melodies: “Neshamah” (1999), a solo effort. “Tanz”, which garnered Downbeat Magazine’s highest praise, five stars, in 2000 and “At the Rebbe’s Table” (2002). All three releases have been acclaimed by a broad spectrum of critics and listeners alike. Spring of 2003 saw the release of “Masada Guitars,” featuring interpretations of John Zorn’s music by Tim, Bill Frisell, and Marc Ribot.

In recent years, Sparks’ musical focus has come full circle, returning to the country blues and classic jazz that served as a springboard for his worldwide guitar explorations. His most recent recording “Sidewalk Blues” is a mix of ragtime and Jazz from New Orleans to Harlem, country blues and gospel.

Sparks says, “In my show, I play roots-Americana fingerstyle guitar instrumentals of country blues and gospel and then I segue into 1920’s jazz and Klezmer and then I move into world music and then I play some of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite…[my goal] is to make this wonderful music enjoyable and accessible for an audience.”

The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street.

Samuel James brings his ferocious, masterful, original country blues to the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Saturday June 27 at 8:00 p.m. The concert is part of the MainstayBlues series of blues concerts. Admission is $20. For information and reservations call 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.

A deeply soulful singer, virtuoso instrumentalist and captivating storyteller, Samuel James is a blues based singer-songwriter known his dazzling innovative guitar playing, his solid fingerstyle guitar, his down-to-earth song-stories that speak volumes, and his intimate arrangements that, according to the music website popmatters.com, “suck you in so far you forget just how hard you are listening.” He has been described as a mixture of Charlie Patton, Preston Reed, Bill Withers, Tom Waits and Townes Van Zandt.

Another website, thecountryblues.com describes him as “wildly individualistic, a powerhouse of intensity, a man that packs ferocity in his virtuosity in what is unabashedly deep roots” and says his approach to the blues is “vibrant, modern and cool.”

His audiences get in the groove, stamping their feet, wondering how he’s getting all those sounds out of one guitar and then falling silent remembering old disappointments, heartbreaks and falling in love again.

Born in Biddeford, Maine and still based in New England, he says he was “born the last in a long line of performers including dancers, story tellers, choir singers, porch-stomping guitar thumpers, and a session-jazz pianist dating back to the 1890s.”

James has a critically acclaimed trilogy of albums, “Songs Famed for Sorrow and Joy” (2008), “For Rosa, Maeve and Noreen” (2009) and “For the Dark Road Ahead” (2012) all on Toronto’s Northern Blues label. They have gained him praise not only for carrying on great traditions, but for being an innovator as well.

His touring schedule over the past 10 years has taken him from Maine to California as well as to Canada and all over Europe earning standing ovations everywhere he goes.

The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. It is a 501(c)(3), nonprofit dedicated to the arts, serving Rock Hall, MD and the surrounding region. It is committed to presenting local, regional and national level talent, at a reasonable price, in an almost perfect acoustic setting. Wine, beer, sodas and snacks are available at the bar.

The Mainstay is supported by ticket sales, fundraising including donations from friends and audience members and an operating grant from the Maryland State Arts Council.

For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.

 

Upcoming Mainstay performances include:

July 11                        Tim Sparks, free outdoor concert

July 12                        Matt Palmer, classical guitar

July 18                        Big Joe Maher and the Dynaflows

July 25                        Philadelphia Jug Band , free outdoor concert

August 1                     Dan Paisley and Southern Grass

 

Deanna Bogart brings her dazzling keyboards, soulful saxophone, smoky vocals and bluesy songwriting to the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Saturday June 20 at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $20. Reservations are a must.

For information and reservations call 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.

Perennially popular with a knack for engaging her audiences, Deanna Bogart combines boogie-woogie, rocking contemporary blues, country and jazz into a splendid blend she calls “blusion.” In defining it, she says, “…it all grows out of the blues… it just doesn’t always end there…”

Her fusion/blusion is spontaneous, sophisticated, fearless and fun and has garnered her three consecutive Blues Music Awards for Horn Instrumentalist of the Year and an endorsement contract with Rico Reeds. She has won more than 20 Wammies, the music awards for the Washington, D.C. region where she used to live.

Long a favorite in this area, at Rock Hall FallFest and at the Mainstay, this is now a rare trip East as she is now based on the West coast. She will be joined by Mike Aubin on drums and Eric Scott on bass.

Born in Detroit, Bogart spent her early years in Phoenix and New York City, climbing on any available piano bench to plunk and play with uncanny panache. As a child, she was “gently removed” from the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music for playing piano by ear instead of learning to read music.

While in middle school, she yearned to play the saxophone. Typical of those times though, she was told, “Girls play the clarinet, not the sax.” Fortunately that didn’t slow her down. One of her most popular numbers is her own song, “Still the Girl in the Band.” Her most recent recording is “Just a Wish Away,” recorded in a studio near New Orleans and released on Blind Pig Records.

The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street.

The legendary blues and roots-rock singer, songwriter and piano player Marcia Ball plays a very special solo concert in the intimate space of the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Sunday June 14 at 7:00 p.m. Admission is $25. Reservations are a must.

For information and reservations call 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.

No one covers the musical the territory between New Orleans and Austin better than Marcia Ball. For 30 years she has blended Texas blues, soul, boogie-woogie, Louisiana swamp ballads, and New Orleans second-line rhythms into her distinctive piano-based roadhouse roots-rock. She’s also a fine singer, songwriter and a first-rate observer of life. Sophisticated and earthy, her piano playing mixes equal parts of Jerry Lee Lewis’ flash and Professor Longhair’s elegant groove and has earned her the Blues Foundations’s award as the 2015 Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the year. Her original songs sound like timeless classics and southern soul masterpieces.

The Texas-born, Louisiana-raised musical storyteller has earned worldwide fame for her ability to ignite a full-scale roadhouse rhythm and blues party every time she strolls onto the stage. The sponsorship of Peoples Bank has made this concert possible in The Mainstay’s intimate space with its great piano and fine acoustics.

Ball’s groove-laden New Orleans boogie, deeply soulful ballads and rollicking Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite with music fans all over the world. In 2010, she was inducted into the Gulf Coast Hall Of Fame and in 2012 into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. She’s received a total of six Living Blues Awards and nine Blues Music Awards and has a whopping 42 nominations. She’s received five Grammy Award nominations, including for five of her six previous Alligator albums.

Always known for her songwriting, her most recent recordings “Roadside Attractions” and “The Tattooed Lady and The Alligator Man” are mostly original material.

The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street.For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.

The great jazz guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola and Steve Abshire will recreate the thrill of Charlie Byrd’s “Great Guitars” in a concert that is part of “The Byrd Series: Celebrating Charlie’s 90th” at The Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Friday June 12 at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $20.

For information and reservations call 410-639-9133. Information is also available at The Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.

Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola and Steve Abshire pay tribute to The Great Guitars (Charlie Byrd, Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel) with a program of swinging jazz classics including music by Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fats Waller, Charlie Christian; some blues, some bossa nova and beyond. Pizzarelli, Vignola and Abshire will be joined by Chuck Redd on drums, Tommy Cecil on bass and special guest Vinny Raniolo on guitar.

This concert is part of The Mainstay’s year-long “The Byrd Series: Celebrating Charlie’s 90th” and will capture the essence and excitement of the original Great Guitars who joined forces in 1973 and issued the first of four exceptional jazz recordings in 1974. Like the original concerts, this will be an evening of hard driving swing, sensitive ballads and good-natured, respectful interplay.

The legendary Bucky Pizzarelli has had a stellar career and has been a fixture in jazz and the studios since the early ‘50s. The list of big bands and vocalists with whom he has performed and recorded reads like a veritable Who’s Who of Jazz. One of the era’s most solid rhythm players, Pizzarelli was in high demand, playing and touring with Benny Goodman, Zoot Sims, Bud Freeman, and Stephane Grappelli, and, later, recording with George Van Eps, Carl Kress and George Barnes. He is the master of the seven-string guitar, a Benedetto Bucky Pizzarelli Signature Guitar, which provides him with a continuous bass line and gives him the ability to play melody, harmony and bass all at the same time.

Frank Vignola’s stunning virtuosity has made him the guitarist of choice for many of the world’s top musicians, including Ringo Starr, Madonna, Donald Fagen, Wynton Marsalis, Tommy Emmanuel, Mark O Connor, the Boston Pops, the New York Pops, and guitar legend Les Paul, who named Vignola to his “Five Most Admired Guitarists List” for the Wall Street Journal. Vignola’s jaw-dropping technique explains why the New York Times deemed him “one of the brightest…stars of the guitar.” His solos are legendary and his sly humor has made him a favorite with audiences around the world and at The Mainstay where he has appeared once or twice a year for many years.

Steve Abshire is no stranger to The Mainstay. He is a regular in Max’s Mainstay All-Stars, The Mainstay house band. His recording with Vince Lewis was the first on the Mainstay Music label and his new recording with Steve Herberman was just released last week. Abshire performed with various Navy Bands for 24 years and was the guitarist and a featured soloist with the Commodores, the Navy’s premiere jazz ensemble, for 18 of those years. He appeared in concert with the original “Great Guitars”, sitting in for Barney Kessel. He is noted for his rock solid rhythm guitar, his impressive solos and his ability to bring the blues to life in a jazz setting.

Charlie Byrd, Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis, the original Great Guitars, met in Australia where they were all doing solo concerts in 1973. At some point they were all at some event and starting playing pieces together.

According to Becky Byrd, Charlies’s widow (and Mainstay Board President), “They and the crowds loved it and when they returned to the U.S., they started playing together. The concept really took off at the Concord Jazz Festival in 1974. Their first record was in 1974 and it was one of the very early Concord recordings. They had diverse backgrounds – Charlie from Virginia, Barney Kessel from Oklahoma and Herb Ellis from Texas and it showed in their repertoire described as “from classical to Bossa Nova to Bebop.” They made four recordings as the Great Guitars. The last was recorded in 1983.

The Byrd Series of concerts at The Mainstay pays tribute to memory and legacy of Charlie Byrd, the world renowned and Annapolis-based jazz guitarist who played mostly the nylon string classical guitar and influenced every style of music that uses the instrument. Byrd, who would have been 90 this year, died in 1999. He was an early supporter of the Mainstay and helped expand the Mainstay’s reputation as a premier venue for jazz. Mainstay founder and director, Tom McHugh says, “Byrd played at The Mainstay several times. He charged us very little, and seemed to realize that small places like ours needed nurturing. Charlie passed our name on to others…and they came and played… and soon our jazz reputation just took off.”

The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.

Jazz guitarists Steve Abshire and Steve Herberman celebrate the release of their new duo guitar recording at the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Saturday June 6 at 8:00 p.m. The recording is the second on the Mainstay Music label. Admission is $15. For information and reservations call 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website www.mainstayrockhall.org.

Steve Abshire (6 string guitar) and Steve Herberman (7-string guitar) will celebrate the release of their new CD “Between Friends” (the second recording on the Mainstay Music label) with a concert at The Mainstay. The CD is a live concert recording made last summer in Annapolis.

At the Mainstay, they will play some of the selections from the CD, songs from the Great American Songbook, some well-known Brazilian standards and will be joined by 16-year-old jazz guitar phenom Jan Knutson.

Steve Abshire is no stranger to The Mainstay. He is a regular in Max’s Mainstay All-Stars, the Mainstay house band and his holiday recording with Vince Lewis “Tis the Season”, was the first on the Mainstay Music label. He performed with various Navy Bands for 24 years and was the guitarist/featured soloist with the Commodores, the Navy’s premiere jazz ensemble, for 18 of those years. He retired in 1997. Twice he went to Europe to perform at the famed “Jazz In Marciac” jazz festival in Marciac, France.

Abshire has taught at the Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C. and currently teaches guitar privately. As a clinician, he has given Master Classes in guitar and rhythm section technique at the Armed Forces School of Music, James Madison University, Elon University, and various other local colleges and high schools.

Abshire can be found on numerous recordings, including six of his own. In 1987, his first recording, “Big Brass Bed Blues” received a 4 1/2-star rating from Downbeat Magazine, which called him “…fluent, assured, directly communicative…definitely one to watch”.

Steve Herberman is a graduate of Berklee College Of Music who adoped the seven-string guitar in 1993. He has performed at major jazz venues across the country and at European Jazz Festivals including a slot recently as featured guest artist at the North Wales jazz guitar weekend in the U.K. Closer to home he has performed at Blues Alley, the Smithsonian Jazz Cafe, and the Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts.

Herberman has recorded three CDs as a leader; “Thoughtlines” (2001) “Action:Reaction” (2006) and “Ideals” (2008.) His recordings have received wide critical acclaim in JazzTimes, Downbeat, Jazz Improv and many others.

Herberman has taught at Towson University in Baltimore since 1999, has presented masterclasses in the U.K. and at many universities across the U.S. and has written instructional material for Downbeat magazine, Mel Bay’s Guitar Sessions, Just Jazz Guitar, the National Guitar Workshop newsletter and columns for the Modern Guitars webzine. He is an online instructor for www.mikesmasterclasses.com where he has taught dozens of popular jazz video lessons. He was featured on the cover of Just Jazz Guitar Magazine (Feb. 2009) with his Comins guitar that he has endorsed for many years.

Both Steve Abshire and Steve Herberman play regularly in the DC area.

Sixteen-year-old jazz guitar phenom Jan Knutson from College Park, MD has studied with both Steve Abshire and Frank Vignola. He recorded his first CD, “Out of Nowhere,” produced by Frank Vignola in August of last year at Sweetfoot Studio in Easton MD. The recording has been played on radio stations across the country and was reviewed in Just Jazz Guitar magazine. In April, 2015 Knutson was selected as one of six artists in Residence for the Strathmore Music Center in Rockville, MD.

The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.

Nevin Dawson, a fixture in Kent County’s thriving music scene, explores his varied musical interests and showcases many aspects of the viola in concert at the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Saturday May 30 at 8:00 p.m. The concert also features Sammy Marshall on piano, Meredith Davies Hadaway on harp, Tom Anthony on bass and guitar, and Ray Anthony on drums. Admission is $15.

Nevin Dawson will spotlight the many facets of the viola, the oft-forgotten middle child between the violin and cello in this concert that will move seamlessly from classical music to Celtic to jazz to rock. Dawson will share how he grew from a third grader playing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” into a semi-professional musician comfortable in many genres.

He will start solo, building a one-man backup band on the spot with a looper pedal, and thenwill be joined by Sammy Marshall on piano (US Army Soldiers’ Chorus and Chester River Chorale), Meredith Davies Hadaway on harp (Harp and Soul), Tom Anthony on bass and guitar (Banjo Man & Bill and The Van Williamson Trio), and Ray Anthony on drums (Mike Buccino Trio and Blues Keepers). Look for some vocal numbers as well.

Dawson studied viola at Penn State University while earning a degree in Forestry and has played with many symphonies and chamber ensembles, including Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.

He currently teaches violin, viola, and cello at Music Life in Chestertown and plays with Shore Strings, the Londontowne Symphony, The Pam Ortiz Band, Harp & Soul, and Ricky Walls and the North County Pickers. He has played on seven recordings. He also sings with the Chester River Chorale and performs in the concert version of “Red Devil Moon,” a forthcoming musical by Robert Earl Price and Pam Ortiz.

Nevin Dawson currently lives in Chestertown with his wife and their three-legged Pomeranian, and serves as Sustainable Agriculture Coordinator with University of Maryland Extension during the day.

Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.