Blue Oyster Cult at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts
October 6, 2019For over four decades, Blue Öyster Cult has been thrilling fans of intelligent hard rock worldwide with powerful albums loaded with classic songs. Indeed, the Long Island, NY--based band is revered within the hard rock and heavy metal scene for its pioneering work. Blue Öyster Cult occupies a unique place in rock history because it's one of very few hard rock/heavy metal bands to earn both genuine mainstream critical acclaim as well as commercial success. The band is often cited as a major influence by other acts such as Metallica, and BÖC was listed in VH1's countdown of the greatest hard rock bands of all time. Upon the release of BÖC's self--titled debut album in 1972, the band was praised for its catchy--yet--heavy music and lyrics that could be provocative, terrifying, funny or ambiguous, often all in the same song. BÖC's canon includes three stone--cold classic songs that will waft through the cosmos long after the sun has burned out: The truly haunting "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" from 1976's Agents of Fortune, the pummeling "Godzilla" from 1977's Spectres and the hypnotically melodic "Burnin' for You" from1981's Fire of Unknown Origin. Other notable BÖC songs include "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll," "Then Came the Last Days of May," "I Love the Night," "In Thee,""Veteran of the Psychic Wars," "Dominance and Submission," "Astronomy," "Black Blade" and "Shooting Shark." The intense creative vision of BÖC's original core duo of vocalist/lead guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, and vocalist/rhythm guitarist Eric Bloom are complemented by Richie Castellano on guitar and keyboards, and the longtime rhythm section of bass guitarist Danny Miranda, and drummer Jules Radino. We realized we're a 'classic rock' band. That's what we are, that's what we do best, that's what we know. The band members are proud of BÖC's classic sound, and pleased the band is creating vibrant work for disenfranchised music lovers who don't like the homogenized, prefabricated pop or sound--alike, formulaic rap--metal, which monopolizes the radio airwaves and best--seller charts. BÖC has always maintained a relentless touring schedule that brings new songs and classics to original fans and, as Bloom puts it, "teen--agers with green hair."
Rick Wakeman: Grumpy Old Rock Star Tour at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts
September 21, 2019Rick Wakeman’s Grumpy Old Rock Star Tour comes to Annapolis! This will be an intimate evening of music and laughter, featuring songs from YES, David Bowie, The Beatles and much more! Rick Wakeman hasn't been to the US since 2006. Come enjoy a night of music and humor, and all of the things you've loved about Rick Wakeman, Rock Star Genius!
GET THE LED OUT at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts
September 12, 2019From the bombastic and epic, to the folky and mystical, Get The Led Out (GTLO) have captured the essence of the recorded music of Led Zeppelin and brought it to the concert stage. The Philadelphia-based group consists of six veteran musicians intent on delivering Led Zeppelin live like you’ve never heard before. Utilizing the multi-instrumentalists at their disposal, GTLO re-create the songs in all their depth and glory with the studio overdubs that Zeppelin themselves never performed. When you hear three guitars on the album...GTLO delivers three guitarists on stage. No wigs or fake English accents, GTLO brings what the audience wants...a high energy Zeppelin concert with an honest, heart-thumping intensity. Dubbed by the media as "The American Led Zeppelin," Get The Led Out offers a strong focus on the early years. They also touch on the deeper cuts that were seldom, if ever heard in concert. GTLO also include a special “acoustic set” with Zep favorites such as “Tangerine” and the “Battle of Evermore” being performed in its’ original instrumentation with guest singer Diana DeSantis joining the band. "Led Zeppelin are sort of the classical composers of the rock era," says lead vocalist Paul Sinclair. "I believe 100 years from now they will be looked at as the Bach or Beethoven of our time. As cliché as it sounds, their music is timeless." Whether it's the passion and fury with which they deliver the blues-soaked, groove-driven rock anthems, it's their attention to detail and nuance that makes a Get The Led Out performance a truly awe-inspiring event!
Yoga in the Garden
August 20, 2019A chance to press pause. A moment to breathe. An opportunity to be outside together, as a community for renewal. Intended for all, welcome to yoga newcomers and free! Brought to you by Nature Sacred a non-profit committed to improving health through urban green space. All you need is a mat and water!
The Mavericks at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts
August 18, 2019Sometimes all you need for things to come right is a little time. The Mavericks – masters of country-Latin rock’n’roll, born in the rich cultural mix of Miami then tempered in Nashville’s country hothouse – rode high in the country and rock charts of the 1990s with culture-crossing hits like ‘What A Crying Shame’ and ‘All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down’. Then they conquered Europe with the titanic feel-good party classic ‘Dance The Night Away’, a 400,000-seller in the UK. Yet nothing lasts forever, and in 2004 The Mavericks went on hiatus while frontman Raul Malo explored new musical avenues. But since a reunion in 2012, this most singular of bands has re-established itself as one of the most exciting and joyfully entertaining acts on touring and festival circuit across the planet. It’s a reputation based on their irrepressible mix of country, Tex-Mex, rockabilly and Latino sounds plus a riotously entertaining, world-renowned live show. A Mavericks gig is a guaranteed party night encompassing everything from the essential ‘Dance The Night Away’ to the infectious Tejano-ska hybrid of ‘Back In Your Arms Again’ – and, on occasion, even wild cards like a Mavericks take on The Beatles ‘Back In The USSR’. The Mavericks are true American originals, heirs to the great songwriting traditions of Cuba and Miami, of Nashville and San Antonio and Memphis. Now, on their 30th anniversary as a band, they’re back to remind the world why they’re so good. “Being away from the band felt like being in a kung fu movie where you go into the mountains on a mystical path to gain special wisdom,” laughs singer, guitarist, key songwriter and founder Mavericks member Raul Malo. “We needed that time away, and a big dose of humility too. It was good for us. That humility and that understanding of each other is what informs the band now. I think it makes us by far the best incarnation of this band yet.” Raul and drummer Paul Deakin were there at the beginning, in Miami, Florida, where Raul was born and Paul moved aged 8 years old. The melting pot of this great city where Cuban, Caribbean, Latino and rock’n’roll cultures all clash gave The Mavericks their musical DNA. In the streets Raul would hear marching band music and salsa, and at home the magnificence of his mom’s opera records. “There was a blind guy who sat outside the grocery store playing accordion music for nickels and quarters,” he recalls. “It was some of the most beautiful music I’d ever heard. I loved the drama of it. Later I realized he was playing all the Italian arias that my mom was playing at home…” Rock’n’roll came to him through Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert or The Midnight Special on TV. But the record that really changed his life was Elvis Presley’s operatic epic of love and longing ‘It’s Now or Never’. “That connected to every kind of music I liked from classical to The Beatles,” he says. “I’ve spent my life emulating that record.” “And that’s been one of the keys of our longevity,” adds Paul, who took the University of Miami’s famous jazz course before co-founding The Mavericks with Raul and friends. “Everything Raul has listened to goes into the music.” They started out aiming to be a country band, mixing Hank Williams with Johnny Cash or Patsy Cline. But as time went by other influences came in from Raul’s first-generation Cuban-American stylings to Sinatra. And when they played live it wasn’t to country audiences but to the punk and alternative crowds with acts like Marilyn Manson. Anything went. “We found that our recipe for success was the same thing that sustained us musically: mix it up,” says Paul. “Try things. And we found that nobody sounded like us.” There was something special in his musical partner too. “Some people say Raul’s become the voice of a generation,” says Paul. “I’d agree with that.” The Mavericks’ rise in the 90s was meteoric. Within a year of forming in 1989 they had signed to MCA Nashville and in 1992 they released their major label debut From Hell To Paradise. There were hits on the radio and in the Billboard charts and, from 1994 to 1996, a string of Country Music Awards. Album number three What A Crying Shame went US Platinum in 1994 and the following year they won a Grammy for their single ‘Here Comes The Rain’. And if the USA cooled a little on The Mavericks by the time of their fifth album Trampoline, 1998’s departure in style for the band, the rest of the world opened up to the classic ‘Dance The Night Away’ – a bona fide worldwide smash which remains a party standard to this day. For Raul, the highlights of The Mavericks’ first go-round included a six-night run at London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall and making the video for their hit ‘All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down’ in Santa Fé with the legendary Norteño, Tejano and Tex-Mex accordionist Flaco Jiménez (“that was special”). Paul’s greatest memories included playing on the AIDS benefit album ‘Red Hot + Country’ (“I’m in the studio with Carl Perkins and Duane Eddy!”) and opening for Robert Plant at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. “To me, this guy is just a god,” he says, “and he’s running over to us to say our ‘In Time’ record was his favorite of the year? It was just amazing.” But success takes its toll. “Looking back, none of us were ready for it,” says Raul. “It was so fast and intense that we kind of got burned out with one another. The band just started to fall apart from within.” Mismanagement of money had added to the pressure by the early 2000s. “It became an untenable situation,” explains Raul. “Our resources and goodwill started to run out. Looking back, we just didn’t have the knowledge and experience to deal with how big it got, and how fast.” “I think Raul was creatively restless too,” says Paul. He’d gotten to do some new stuff on Trampoline but the itch to explore was hard to ignore. “Raul just wanted to step out and try new things, like playing with other people. He wanted to stretch out and it was the right time. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to do The Mavericks, it was a desire to try new things.” Not long after the release of their 2003 album The Mavericks the band split. Raul Malo went on to a series of solo and band projects including time with the acclaimed Latino supergroup Los Super Seven alongside Los Lobos, Caetano Veloso, Lyle Lovett and Calexico. Paul stepped away to tour with different bands and fulfilled a lifelong ambition to train as a carpenter, building a successful company from scratch (he’s still doing it, and recently put in a fine set of sliding doors for Mavericks sax player Max Abrams. Call for a quote). For extrovert guitarist Eddie Perez, who’d only joined The Mavericks in 2003, the split was kind of a surprise. “I never felt excluded in the band, but I was born and raised in Los Angeles not Miami, and I was stepping into something that already existed,” he explains. “I’d jumped on to a moving train with its own drama that I knew nothing about. I was just glad to be playing music with these guys, I was the youngest guy in the band – and I was learning. “Looking back I guess I wasn’t as grateful for the opportunity as I should have been. At the time I didn’t feel I could put anything of myself into it. But I always felt that one day if we could get The Mavericks back together, I’d try to inject more of myself into the band.” For Raul, The Mavericks’ hiatus years became “a kind of musical quest… I threw myself into the lion’s den.” But playing with other people gave him some perspective on why he does what he does. There were rumors that the band would get back together and though they weren’t true, he kept them at the back of his mind as a ‘What If?’ Then the offers of touring deals became more real, and he realized that the songs he was writing had more and more of a Mavericks vibe. “It made me think, Damn, is this the time?” When his friend and fellow singer-songwriter Seth Walker asked him to help finish a song of his, the signs became unmistakable. “I was like you’re shitting me,” Raul laughs. “The Mavericks are going to get back together with a song called ‘Back In Your Arms Again’? Sometimes life gives you signs and it’s up to you if you read them.” Within a few months, management had orchestrated a reunion tour, the band members sat down and laid down some new rules… “and here we are”. The band was clear from Day One that this was not some nostalgia trip. The Mavericks were back for real. When the band sat down for their first dinner together in many years, Raul was clear that he didn’t just want to play the old stuff this time. He’d written a really great record, a Mavericks record. Did they want to do it? Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Records, home of Taylor Swift, were interested and within two weeks the reformed Mavericks were in the studio with Niko Bolas producing. The first track they did was ‘Back In Your Arms Again’. “From that note when we first played together, those eight years we’d been apart were just wiped away,” says Paul Deakin. “Whatever that indispensable connection we had, it’s right there.” The band are now four albums into their second phase and thoroughly enjoying the new world of the music business, where it’s all about the live performance – an arena where The Mavericks always excelled. A Mavericks show mixes the best of the past with the new material and the fans love the latter as much – if not more – than the former. For Eddie Perez it’s more fun this time around. “In all my years of being a touring musician this moment is the most special one,” he says. “It feels like this band are doing things that are right. Being kinder to each other but challenging each other too, in the best way. We’re grateful and we know that not too many bands get to come back and write their own ticket like we did. “You have to work at it – even chemistry takes work. But if you stay focused on the bigger picture, you can make it work. What’s different now is that we recognize that everything everyone says is for the best and the betterment of the band.” And now the band is in charge of its destiny. They run their own label Mono Mundo Recordings, deal directly with their booking agents, develop their own artists and choose their own path. They’ve long transcended the country bracket and now play eclectic festivals with artists from across the board – in 2019 they’ll again perform at Glastonbury, perhaps the planet’s most diverse musical event. Thirty years in, The Mavericks are doing it their own way – and enjoying it. “Musically it’s way more interesting now and I love that the fans will go with us wherever we’re going,” says Raul. “We have a great canvas that we can use at will, and that’s the ultimate reward for an artist. There’s nothing more satisfying.” “And the best thing is,” adds soft-spoken keyboard player Jerry Dale McFadden, “we’ve stayed true to the name of the band. I don’t know if these guys knew, when they chose the name just how maverick The Mavericks would turn out to be. But we are. “I loved the past with The Mavericks,” says Jerry Dale, who joined The Mavericks in 1994 and stayed through the highs and lows. “But we’re a better band now than we were then. No question.”
Yoga in the Garden
August 10, 2019A chance to press pause. A moment to breathe. An opportunity to be outside together, as a community for renewal. Intended for all, welcome to yoga newcomers and free! Brought to you by Nature Sacred a non-profit committed to improving health through urban green space. All you need is a mat and water!
Art Garfunkel at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts
July 25, 2019Rams Head is thrilled to announce that iconic singer and author ART GARFUNKEL will be heading back to Annapolis on Thursday, July 25! Blessed with what the New York Times described as a “beautiful countertenor,” singer Art Garfunkel has made an indelible mark on the music world as both a solo artist and half of the unrivaled Simon & Garfunkel. He has also enjoyed a successful film career, published a book of poetry and released 12 solo albums. Garfunkel was originally revered for his Grammy-winning, chart-topping songs and albums with partner and fellow NYC native Paul Simon. Their greatest hits collection, which includes “Mrs. Robinson,” “Scarborough Fair,” “The Sound Of Silence,” “The Boxer” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” among others, is one of the biggest selling albums ever. The late ‘80s brought two new challenges for Garfunkel: he published Still Water, a collection of poetry in ‘89, and began an amazing trek across America--on foot. But the ‘80s and ‘90s found Garfunkel doing what he does best: singing for an audience. “Taking on the fear and vulnerability of a live show keeps you vital,” says Garfunkel, who relishes the opportunity to perform new and classic material for fans around the world. “I’m a singer trying to get away with a lucky job. I try to soothe, to lift...That’s my life.” Garfunkel's latest book, "What Is It All But Luminous (Notes From An Underground Man)" was released in September of 2017 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Tommy Emmanuel at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts
July 24, 2019“If you like guitar playing, it simply doesn’t get any better than Tommy.” – Jason Isbell Tommy Emmanuel has achieved enough musical milestones to satisfy several lifetimes. Or at least they would if he was the kind of artist who was ever satisfied. At the age of six, he was touring regional Australia with his family band. By 30, he was a rock n’ roll lead guitarist burning up stadiums in Europe. At 44, he became one of five people ever named a Certified Guitar Player by his idol, music icon Chet Atkins. Today, he plays hundreds of sold-out shows every year from Nashville to Sydney to London. All the while, Tommy has hungered for what’s next. When you’re widely acknowledged as the international master of the solo acoustic guitar, what’s next is Accomplice One, an album of collaborations with some of the finest singers, songwriters and, yes, guitarists alive today – a list including Jason Isbell, Mark Knopfler, Rodney Crowell, Jerry Douglas, Amanda Shires, Ricky Skaggs, J.D. Simo, David Grisman, Bryan Sutton, Suzy Bogguss and many more. Since he and his brother Phil taught themselves to play as toddlers, the guitar has been Tommy’s real first language–and he’s more articulate on his signature Melbourne-made Maton acoustics than most people are with words. Influenced by the Merle Travis/Chet Atkins fingerstyle of guitar picking, Tommy developed a style of solo guitar playing that encompasses the range of a whole band– covering drums, bass, rhythm and lead guitar and a vocal melody simultaneously. No loop pedals, no overdubs, just one man and ten fingers. While some artists take ten-piece bands on the road and still fill out the sound with backing tracks, Tommy builds a complete sonic world entirely on his own. For many players, the technical mastery of the technique would overwhelm the emotion of the music, but not for Tommy. His idols are not just the great players, but also the great pop songwriters and singers–Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, The Beatles and their ilk. While thousands of fans have spent years trying to unpack and imitate Tommy’s technique, for him it’s just the delivery system. His approach is always song and emotion first, his music the embodiment of his soulful spirit, sense of hope and his love for entertaining. Which is not to say he dismisses the CGP, the Guitar Player awards, the Grammy nominations, the numerous magazine polls naming him the greatest acoustic guitarist alive. He’s grateful for it all, and the incredible journey that’s led him to the most invigorating period of his career–six decades into it. For Tommy though, the greatest reward is always the same–to make the next great record, and to see the beaming audience at the next great show. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be in show business. Now I just want to be in the happiness business–I make music, you get happy. That’s a good job.”
Yoga in the Garden
July 23, 2019A chance to press pause. A moment to breathe. An opportunity to be outside together, as a community for renewal. Intended for all, welcome to yoga newcomers and free! Brought to you by Nature Sacred a non-profit committed to improving health through urban green space. All you need is a mat and water!