March 28, 2024
Annapolis, US 47 F

333 Coffeehouse Presents Special Concert Featuring Max Ochs & Neil Harpe

333coffeehouse333 Coffeehouse presents a special concert featuring Max Ochs & Neil Harpe and Calico Jack

The 333 Coffeehouse, Annapolis’ monthly listening space for folk and acoustic music, will hold a special concert featuring former 333 hosts Max Ochs (with Neil Harpe) and Janie Meneely (with Paul DiBlasi as the duo Calico Jack). This will be a double bill concert with a set from each act.

Admission: $10 (students, senior citizens and members $8).

Max Ochs is a folksinger, songwriter and guitarist and a longtime presence on the Annapolis music scene.

Ochs grew up in Annapolis. In his 20s he pursued his musical life in New York City, where he was a founding member of the Seventh Sons, and in California, where he recorded for seminal fingerstyle guitar label Takoma Records. He developed a lifelong love for old blues music and studied blues guitar styles with the legendary Mississippi John Hurt, among others. Max has recorded two solo albums in recent years, Letter to the Editor and a self-titled CD featuring a mixture of poetry and music. In 2007 he recorded a duo album of favorite blues tunes, Got These Blues, with Neil Harpe; Ochs and Harpe have been frequent collaborators since then, and will perform together for this concert. (For more about Neil Harpe, see below.) Max Ochs co-founded the 333 Coffeehouse in 1992 and was its host for over a decade.

Janie Meneely began her musical career with the group Crab Alley, and in more recent years has produced three albums of Bay-inspired tunes and other maritime music, with a fourth on the way. Her duo with partner Paul DiBlasi is Calico Jack. Their music celebrates the people, places and history of the Chesapeake. Meneely delves deep into the well of Bay lore to produce songs evocative of the waterman’s way of life – some serious, some humorous. Her nautically inspired tunes have been recorded by artists throughout the country. Meneely sings and plays guitar and concertina; DiBlasi adds powerful vocals, a penchant for harmony, and a strong hand on the guitar. “Sometimes serious, sometimes saucy, they slide easily between old and new,” says Annapolis Maritime Museum Director Jeff Holland.

Janie Meneely replaced Max Ochs as host of 333 Coffeehouse in 2005 and managed the concerts until 2011, when she “passed the tiller” to current hosts Tom Rhoads and Amy Ksir.

Neil Harpe has been an active performer all of his adult life and is an accomplished guitarist. He has performed for the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival, Herndon Blues Festival, Hirshhorn Museum (in conjunction with Black History Month), Washington Folk Festival, Northern Virginia Folk Festival, Quiet Waters Park and the D.C. Blues Festival. He recorded an LP entitled “Neil Harpe”, for Adelphi Records in 1972. Harpe recently released a solo CD of all new material. Along with longtime musical partners Rick Franklin and Rick Usilton, he has also released two albums of blues and “hokum” ragtime duets. With Max Ochs, he recorded Got These Blues in 2007.

  • Who: Max Ochs & Neil Harpe / Calico Jack (double bill)
  • When: Friday, October 18, 2013, 7:30 PM (Doors open at 7:00)
  • Where: Annapolis Friends Meeting House |  351 DuBois Rd., Annapolis, MD 21401 (off N. Bestgate Rd)
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