Editorial

Crosby, Stills and Nash — and Young Enough to Get Up off of that Thing

Okay, Okay, we confess. When James Brown demanded his Calvert Marine Museum audience “Get up offa that thing!,” Bay Weekly followed his orders.

And yes, that was us gettin’ our groove on (such as it is) at the museum with the Neville Brothers, B.B. King and Bonnie Raitt.

Up front, Bay Weekly has been a co-sponsor for many years of the Calvert Marine Museum’s concert series. If you’re seeking objectivity, better look elsewhere. We’re in the tank, like the aquatic creatures at the museum.

Our wholehearted endorsement of the museum’s concerts probably have something to do with the enjoyment they bring us. We mark these dates indelibly on our calendar and haul friends down to Solomons whenever we can.

Even so, we never knew the whole story behind the concerts. We thought it somewhat odd that icons like Bob Dylan and James Brown would journey to Calvert County. But we don’t know how a lot of things work. (Electricity, for instance.)

Now, thanks to Margaret Tearman’s feature story in this issue of Bay Weekly, we understand what’s shaking in Calvert County. And we’re more impressed and more devoted than ever to this good cause.

Margaret takes us back to the beginning on the museum’s wooden stage when Lee Ann Wright, the museum’s director of development then and an adventuresome dreamer, had the mission of bringing more people to the museum and more cash into its coffers.

Her first act? A group of sea chanters. (Don’t you want to get up and boogie at the thought?)

By 1995, Wright had used her networking skills to bring in Los Lobos, perhaps the hottest group in Los Angeles at the time.

Margaret’s piece not only gives the history but takes us behind the scenes. What besides a massage table did the Godfather of Soul need for that performance? And how did Travis Tritt surprise his fans?

What emerges from this week’s feature is a story of a great success that has sent ripples of profit through Chesapeake Country — from otters, skates and rays to museum organizers and visitors to Solomons and Calvert business people to music lovers to bold dreamers everywhere.

Word is that tickets remain for Crosby, Stills and Nash on Sunday, August 14. To get into their history-making groove, you don’t have to take a long, congested trip to Columbia or Virginia. Thanks to Calvert Marine Museum, the stars come play under the stars on Chesapeake Bay.