SUMMER CONCERT SERIES: Calico Jack

Free admission, suggested $10 donation for traveling expenses

Calico Jack performs songs and stories of the Chesapeake Bay.

About 25 years ago Janie Meneely began writing songs about the Bay, and she hasn't stopped yet. "There's still so much sing about," she says. She and her partner Paul DiBlasi perform together as the duo Calico Jack, bringing their songs and stories about Bay people, places and traditions to stages throughout the Bay watershed.

"I grew up on the Annapolis waterfront," Meneely says. "I can remember when the City Dock was jammed with workboats." Nowadays recreational boaters have replaced the sleek working vessels that hauled crabs, fish and oysters to markets around the Bay. "So many people come here now, to revel in what the Bay has to offer, but they have little knowledge of what used to happen here," Meneely continues. "They never got to sit around the liar's bench in a country store. They never got to watch a fleet of skipjacks dredge for oysters." Her remedy for that is to write songs chronicling her own Bay experiences and capturing the stories she's heard over the years—either as a little girl hanging around her father’s boatyard, or during her professional stint as a journalist for Chesapeake Bay Magazine. From local ghosts to tragic shipwrecks, her songs bring to life some of the characters who add spice and color to Bay history.

Be sure to bring your lawn chair!  Pack a picnic dinner and enjoy the evening with us! Refreshments will be for sale.