On Sunday, December 11, the Mainstay, in partnership with the Hedgelawn Foundation, presents perennial musical favorites Harp and Soul, in a program they have titled “Harp and Soul: Songs for the Season.”  The group consists of Meredith Hadaway (harp and concertina), Ben Bennington (guitar and vocals), Rebekah Hardy (oboe), Bob Ortiz (percussion and vocals), and Nevin Dawson (viola), They will be joined by special guests, singer/songwriter Pam Ortiz (who will lead the group in new original compositions, one written for the occasion) and vocalist Sue Matthews. This year’s program will include songs in Spanish, Ukrainian, and Hebrew. As usual, the British Isles will be well-represented with some lively Celtic tunes and traditional English carols. This year’s concert aims to usher in the winter solstice with songs that inspire hope and courage as well as joy.

Showtime for the live concert event is 4 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 also supported in part with funding from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Kent Cultural Alliance.

The Mainstay in Rock Hall MD hosts the acclaimed gospel trio Sombarkin’ on Saturday, November 26 at 8 PM. Sombarkin’ features the vocal talents of Karen Somerville, Lester Barrett, Jr. and Jerome McKinney. The group uses the skill of vocal instrumentation and precision harmonies to deliver an explosive performance of Negro spirituals, map (code) songs, folk, gospel, and contemporary selections. Their polyphonic technique is reminiscent of the ‘ole time religion’ and ‘campground’ styles of a cappella music. They surround and surprise their audiences with their soulful sound, and add jazz licks and blues bends to find a groove. Sombarkin’ is a trio of vocalists whose sound is so cohesive, it is a challenge to discover just who is singing which part.

Playing with Sombarkin’ on November 26th will be Gerry Werner on piano, Charlie Werner on guitar, and Ray Anthony on drums.

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.

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

On Friday, November 11, the Mainstay, in partnership with the Hedgelawn Foundation, welcomes a return visit from the one of Kent County’s favorite bluegrass groups, The High and Wides.

The High andWides were formed in 2015, and have roots both in Baltimore and the rural Delmarva peninsula. They draw on a shared background playing straight ahead bluegrass, but weave in influences from new wave to old time to make music that evokes the era before country, bluegrass, rockabilly, western swing, and rock’n’roll broke off into separate and strictly defined genres.

They have released two full-length albums of original music, 2018’s “Lifted” (Lifted” reached #10 on Billboard’s bluegrass chart and was hailed as “quietly revolutionary” by David Bromberg in No Depression magazine).   and 2019’s “Seven True Stories”. In March 2022 they released their first album of covers, “Blood”, which pays tribute to exemplars of the two-part “brother duet” singing style that first inspired the formation of the band.

Members are Marc Dykeman (guitar, vocals), Sam Guthridge (banjo, mandolin, vocals), Nate Grower (fiddle), and Mike Buccino (bass).

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 of the Mainstay are also supported in part with funding from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Kent Cultural Alliance.

On Friday, October 21, the Mainstay, in partnership with the Hedgelawn Foundation, welcomes a return visit from the nationally prominent bluegrass group, the Seldom Scene.

They began playing together at weekly jam sessions in Ben Eldridge’s Bethesda, Md. Basement. Their legendary weekly DC-area residencies were so popular that it soon forced them to play more than often, but they continued to maintain their image as being “seldom seen” (a name given to them as they all had careers, and felt they would seldom be seen playing on stage).  Since that time the Seldom Scene has become one of the single greatest contributors to the modern bluegrass genre, all the while setting a new standard and attracting new audiences. Their shows include bluegrass versions of country, rock, and pop favorites, and always played a little differently than everyone else.

They have performed at the White House many times and the group continue to tour year-round.

The group’s current lineup is Lou Reid (mandolin/vocals), Dudley Connell (guitar/vocals), Ronnie Simpkins (bass/vocals) Fred Travers (dobro/vocals) and Ron Stewart (banjo, fiddle). The last founding member, Ben Eldridge, retired in July 2016.

Showtime for the live concert event is 8 pm. Tickets are$25 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 $30 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.

On Saturday night, October 8, following a full day schedule of music at Rock Hall’s popular FallFest event, the Mainstay is pleased to present a return visit by the Dixie Power Trio. This is a 7:00 p.m. concert and will be held inside the Mainstay, or weather permitting. on its backyard stage.

The “Trio” (curiously composed of four musicians) was formed in 1992 when their small rock group at the time decided to learn a couple of Dixieland tunes for a club date. Their eclectic approach to the material soon started receiving national attention through airplay on NPR’s All Things Considered, and they were invited to play some of the major stages in the U.S. such as the Kennedy Center. They are now acclaimed to be the East Coast’s premier “Louisiana variety band,” capable of playing authentic sounding New Orleans jazz, zydeco, Cajun, street parade, and Louisiana-style funk. They have carved out a niche as a fun and exciting ensemble capable of entertaining a range of audience ages and musical tastes. The group has shared concert stages with many Louisiana luminaries, including the Neville Brothers, Terrance Simien, Dr. John, Wynton Marsalis, and Beausoleil. The foundation of the Dixie Power Trio is bassist Andy Kochenour. Chuck Underwood plays rhythm guitar. The leader of the group is Zachary Smith, who plays cornet, washboard, accordion, harmonica, and just about anything else he can lay his hands on. Holding everything together is the trio’s drummer Byron McWilliams.

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.

On Sunday, October 2nd, The Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland welcomes Karen Stern in a solo harp recital. The program is made possible with the help of the Hedgelawn Foundation’s support for classical music presentations.

Karen Stern is a busy harpist in the greater metropolitan New York City area. In her words, she “enjoys sharing beautiful music with kind audiences and appreciates a warm and welcoming setting” where she can do this.

Karen grew up in Edison, NJ, where her mom, Toni Stern, also a harpist, began teaching Karen at age five. She earned a Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music.

Karen performed regularly with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for many years and is a featured soloist on several of their CDs.

Her additional orchestral experience includes performances with the American Symphony Orchestra, the NYC Ballet, the American Ballet Theater, the NYC Opera, and several Broadway shows. She performs regularly with New Jersey’s Garden State Opera, and the Trilogy Opera Company in Newark.

Her orchestral career has been supplemented with performances as high tea harpist at the Waldorf and St. Regis Hotels in NYC, and cruise ship harpist on Caribbean and trans-Atlantic voyages. She has performed in Europe, South, and Central America.

Showtime for the live 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.

On Friday, September 16, The Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland welcomes jazz drummer/ vibraphonist Chuck Redd and his guests in a program titled “A Birthday Tribute to Charlie Byrd and Bossa Nova.

September 16 is the birthday of world-renowned guitarist Charlie Byrd. Byrd, who filled large concert halls and played before royalty, was somehow persuaded to perform at The Mainstay’s modest 120 seat venue in Rock Hall during its first few years. Following that first concert, he kept returning with his famous musician friends (and a young drummer and vibes player named Chuck Redd).

In 1962 Byrd released the album Jazz Samba with saxophone great Stan Getz that launched bossa nova in the United States. The recording predated the Getz/Gilberto recording of The Girl from Ipanema by two years (one of the best-selling and most recorded songs of all time).

Chuck Redd is a frequent and well-known performer at the Mainstay. He joined the Charlie Byrd Trio at the age of 21. To his credit are 25 European tours and six tours of Japan. Redd was also the featured vibraphonist with the Mel Tormé All-Star Jazz Quintet from 1991 until 1996. Redd’s career highlights include concerts at Carnegie Hall, and appearances on The Tonight Show.

Chuck will share the stage with fingerstyle guitarist Nate Najar, another familiar name to Mainstay audiences. Nate has been cited by music critic A. D. Amorosi as “the heir apparent to Charlie Byrd.” Nate credits his teacher Frank Mullen, a Washington D.C. guitarist for introducing him to Charlie’s music and the whole D.C. jazz scene. Years later, Najar would get the stamp of approval from no less than Byrd’s widow, the Mainstay’s very own Becky Byrd, who said, “There is no doubt that there is a piece of Charlie’s soul in Nate’s mind, heart and fingers.” Stand-up bass player Herman Burney will round out the trio.

Their Mainstay program will revisit Byrd’s landmark bossa nova works, as well as songs that Charlie loved by Gershwin, Ellington and Rodgers and Hart. Chuck will also offer a few anecdotes from his 19-year stint with The Charlie Byrd Trio. As a footnote, Chuck Redd and Herman Burney are featured on Nate Najar’s July 2022 release, “Jazz Samba Pra Sempre” which is currently #8 on the national Jazz Week charts.

Showtime for the live concert event is 8 pm. Tickets are $25 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 $30 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.

On Saturday, July 30 The Mainstay in Rock Hall presents an evening of soulful jazz with the Greg Burrows Trio. The trio is premiering a new project they call Soul Jazz on the Mainstay new outdoor stage, featuring area musicians Greg Burrows on drums (perhaps most familiar to Mainstay audiences as jazz pianist Dick Durham’s drummer), Judd Nielsen on organ (from the Centreville/Philadelphia area) and Mike Benjamin, a rising young talent out of Baltimore on guitar. Soul jazz refers to a historical offshoot of jazz incorporating strong influences from soul music, blues, gospel and rhythm and blues, as played by a jazz combo. In the tradition of the jazz organ greats of the 1960s, the Greg Burrows Trio revives that big, seductive, and instantly recognizable sound of a Hammond B3 organ coming through a Leslie cabinet as the audience is invited to share the groove. This spicy program highlights the likes of the trailblazing Jimmy Smith Trio and Art Blakey, and will be accompanied by a few favorite jazz standards/ballads and soulful originals, as well as more recent innovators like Medeski, Martin,& Wood with whom Greg has performed and recorded. Come celebrate echoes of the legendary 1960s Chitlin Circuit, marinated in contemporary swinging jazz.

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

For the month of June, The Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland found several opportunities to pay tribute to the immensely popular American music offerings that spanned three decades and collectively came to be grouped as The Great American Songbook. These familiar tunes, composed by the likes of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, et al, developed a world-wide audience on radio and in the Hollywood musicals of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. These classics were interpreted many times by the vocal, big band and jazz giants of their day. On Friday, July 1^st, Joe Holt, pianist, musical collaborator and host of the Mainstay’s recurring First Friday series guides us into the new musical wave of hits that new audiences of the 60s and 70s embraced once the Songbook was retired; from artists such as Sam Cooke, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, and The Beatles, among many others.

Holt is well known on the Eastern Shore as being a creative accompanist. Known primarily as a jazz pianist, The First Friday series allows Joe to stretch these limits by inviting different musical guests each month, often from quite different musical genres, to explore their common ground

Joe’s guests for this July program are guitarist Nick Bucci and vocalist Keli Valein a celebration he calls “The Next Great American Songbook”.Keli and Nick are well-known in the musical circles of Wilmington, Delaware. They have been making music together for over a decade and began writing and recording their own material in 2015. They’ve both played Jazz, Blues, R&B, Classic Rock, Fusion – you name it! All this musical experience archived within them is what makes their live gigs so diverse and interesting, and a perfect match for Joe Holt’s diverse tastes.

Advance tickets are $15, and are available at www.mainstayrockhall.org. Telephone reservations are also accepted by calling 410-639-9133. The Mainstay is located at 5753 N. Main Street in Rock Hall. It receives funding from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Kent Cultural Alliance.

On Saturday, June 25, The Mainstay in Rock Hall caps off its month-long tribute to the Great American Songbook with a program led by Mainstay favorite, pianist Robert Redd. Redd will be joined by alto sax player Marty Nau and jazz guitarist Steve Abshire for a show they have titled “Swinging with the Songbook.”

Robert Redd is a member of the prestigious Duke Ellington Orchestra that tours across the U.S as well as abroad (most recent tours have included Japan, Singapore, Israel, Great Britain, and Brazil). He is also the pianist and leader of the Wolf Trap Jazz Trio. From 1995 to 998 Redd was pianist and musical director for singer/ songwriter Kenny Rankin. He still finds time to perform with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. Redd worked frequently with legendary performers, guitarist Charlie Byrd and sax great Phil Woods. He is a featured artist at the annual W.C. Handy Music Festival in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Robert has performed with jazz luminaries such as John Pizzarelli, James Moody, Melba Moore, the Harry James Band, and the Artie Shaw Band to name just a few.

Marty Nau is a highly active and sought-after jazz alto saxophone player in the Washington DC Area. He has performed with such performers as Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, Joe Williams, Rosemary Clooney, Nancy Wilson, Maureen McGovern, Snooky Young, and many others. Marty also played lead alto sax and conducted for the Navy’s premiere jazz ensemble, the Commodores before retiring from the group in 1997.

Jazz guitarist Steve Abshire’s accomplished musical style is distilled from years of influence and study with jazz greats Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, and Barney Kessel. Abshire, also an alumnus of the Commodores, has accompanied well-known vocalists Della Reese, Etta Jones, and Diane Shuur. He has appeared in concert with the Great Guitars as Barney Kessel’s substitute, and is a repeat performer at the famed Jazz in Marciac Jazz Festival in France.

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