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Out & About | Annapolis Events May 2009

Boogie-Woogie at the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival

After a year hiatus, the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival will bring a stellar lineup of top talent to the stage at Sandy Point State Park, just outside of Annapolis, on May 16–17. Fans of 12-bar bottleneck guitar, bar-room ballads, key pounding piano, and soulful singing will want to flock to the weekend-long event, where the music is as refreshing as the bayside breezes. The weekend features 17 musicians/bands headlined by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Los Lonely Boys on Saturday evening, followed by Eric Burden & The Animals and Jonny Lang on Sunday evening.

What’s Up? recently enjoyed an exclusive interview with renowned blues and boogie pianist/saxophonist Deanna Bogart, a 2008 Blues Music Awards-winner and 2009 nominee, about her experiences performing at past festivals (she played at the first in 1998!) and what excites her about this year’s event.

What’s Up?: Do you have any fond memories of the first blues fest in ’98?

Deanna Bogart: I love the memory. It was a very rainy Mother’s Day. Everyone was rain-soaked, mud was everywhere, but nobody left and at the end of our set my daughter Alix, who was four, walked out on stage and brought me a rose. Then she and I went to have our faces painted, took off our shoes, and danced with people in the mud, while the paint ran down our faces. Each of the CBB festivals I’ve been part of, have been special.

What’s Up?: What drew you into blues music early on?

DB: My mother would play a lot of blues, boogie-woogie, and folk/Americana on, yes, her eight track tapes in the house. I was particularly drawn to boogie-woogie and for whatever reason, the mechanics of it made sense to me. I started playing piano by ear so I could copy what I heard.

What’s Up? The festival over the years has drawn the largest crowds to Sandy Point. What’s it like to get on the stage for that crowd? What do you enjoy most about playing the festival?

DB: We play a lot of festivals all over and it’s really nice that the one that’s home for me stands up with the best of them. Don [Don Hooker, event founder] truly cares about all aspects of the musicians’ experience.

What’s Up?: Do you plan any collaborations with other artists at the festival, or do they sort of happen spontaneously?

DB: Sometimes you plan, sometimes things just happen, and sometimes it’s both. This year, myself, Nadine Rae, Melanie Mason, and Patty Reese—the Mid Atlantic Mommas—will play together on Saturday at 11 a.m. And that’s all I’ll tell you.

What’s Up? Is there any one performer on this year’s bill that you look forward to either playing with or hearing?

DB: I have a gig on Sunday, so I only have Saturday at the festival. I’ve never seen Big Bad Voodoo Daddy or the Los Lonely Boys live, or Davy Knowles. I love Lonnie Brooks and Ana Popovic. Haven’t seen Sugar Blue in a long time. Hmmm . . . guess I’ll be there all day!

–James Houck

The Skinny

What: Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival
When: Saturday and Sunday, May 16–17
Where: Sandy Point State Park, Annapolis. Due to limited parking, shuttle service is available from Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.

Proceeds from the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival benefit Special Olympics of Maryland, We Care & Friends, and The Johns Hopkins Cleft & Craniofacial Center. Advance tickets are available until May 15th at BayBlues.org or by calling 1-800-514-ETIX (3849). Tickets are $45/day, $80/weekend, and VIP packages cost $500. General admission tickets purchased at the gate are priced at $65/day and $115/weekend (VIP package not sold the day of the event). For the event’s full lineup of musicians visit BayBlues.org.

Paying Tribute to Our Maryland Veterans of WWII

This May, we honor the men and women in our lives that performed invaluable roles during their military service to ensure that American freedom forever stays strong, with liberty and justice for all. The Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore unveiled a new exhibit, appropriately enough this past November on Veteran’s Day, that salutes our state heroes of World War II. Titled Maryland Veterans of World War II: Our Arsenal of Democracy, the exhibit continues through December 31 of this year and features an exceptional collection of memorabilia, such as Army-issued boots, a pilot’s logbook, posters, and many photographs.

Chronicling such a magnanimous event of 20th century history in the context of Marylanders’ perspective is not an easy task, but fortunately the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS) received ample help from local World War II veterans and enthusiasts, in addition to drawing from its own collection of artifacts. Colonel (MD) George S. Rich, a WWII buff, contributed many of the items from his personal collection to the exhibit.

“The genesis of the exhibit was knowing that George Rich had this amazing collection of WWII artifacts,” says Anne Garside, director of communications at MdHS. “There are many collectors of WWII memorabilia, but George has collected with great discrimination so that each piece has a fully documented story attached to it.”

Because WWII veterans are now in their eighties and nineties and nationally are disappearing at the rate of about 1,500/day, MdHS wanted to honor our Maryland veterans before it was too late for some and capture their personal stories of the war. “We also saw the exhibition as a wonderful way of teaching WWII history to schoolchildren,” adds Garside.

A fantastic example of an otherwise ordinary artifact with an extraordinary story is that of the pair of Army-issued boots belonging to Major Douglas Stone. On June 6, 1944, Dr. Stone made landfall at Utah Beach, as a member of Johns Hopkins Hospital No. 18 unit. Casualties were so high that, as he operated for three days and nights non-stop, his boots filled up and overflowed with blood. In the same case are pieces of parachute silk. When Dr. Stone ran out of bandages, he scavenged the beach for parachutes and ripped the silk up to make bandages.

Another can’t-miss artifact is the German Kubelwagen, one of the most rare artifacts on display. Volkswagen produced only 55,000 of these vehicles, which were somewhat the equivalent of the American jeep, and very few survived the war. The vehicle on display was shipped on April 13, 1944, to a Waffen SS Division that was pulled out of Russia to oppose the advancing allies in Normandy.

When speaking of the importance and affect this exhibit has had on Maryland’s veterans, Garside recalls an emotional moment. “The most emotional moment [for me] came when the invitations had gone out to veterans to attend the opening Commemoration Ceremony on November 11 (Veterans Day) last year. I got a call from a veteran named Donald J. Jewell, who had been in the campaigns in North Africa, France (with Patton’s Third Army), Battle of Bulge, Rhineland, and Central Europe. Don thanked me for the invitation but told me he couldn’t come because he never attended veterans’ events—it was just too emotional for him. He said he would just break down and cry. I talked with him for about forty minutes and told him that we would all cry with him. At the age of 89, Don did come to the ceremony and has since given us some of his personal photos taken during the war.”

Make this month and Memorial Day Weekend memorable for a veteran you know by taking them to this remarkable exhibit. You’ll both be thankful.

–James Houck

The Skinny

What: Maryland Veterans of World War II: Our Arsenal of Democracy exhibit
Where: Maryland Historical Society, 201 West Monument St., Baltimore
When: Through December 31, 2009

The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission is $4 adults, $3 students and seniors; children under 12 free. For more information call 410-685-3750 or visit MdHS.org.

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