News Release

Annapolis Maritime Museum / 723 Second St / Annapolis, MD 21403
Contact: Jeff Holland / 410 295-0104 / director@amaritime.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - October 1, 2009

Woods Tea Co. brings its rousing sea shanties, Celtic, bluegrass and folk music to the Annapolis Maritime Museum on Friday, Nov. 13, beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Tickets can be purchased on line at www.amaritime.org. 

The dynamic quartet specializes in maritime and Americana music culled from decades of performing and entertaining audiences throughout the U.S. “The spirit of the sea will be the theme for the concert,” says Howard Wooden, the group’s leader. “And in keeping with the maritime tradition, our audience should expect to be a part of the show. We’ll share a range of familiar a capella sea shanties as well as a raft of original songs and tunes.” The group accompanies itself on as many as a dozen different instruments from banjos, bouzoukis and bodhrans to guitars and tin whistles

Woods Tea Co.’s original material includes “Petticoat Whalers,” a song about wives of whalers who accompanied their seafaring husbands to sea in the 19th century. “The Passage” re-tells the quest for the Northwest Passage. Other songs of note include the pirate songs “Arrgh” and “Bedford Harbor.” Hammered Dulcimer player Tom MacKenzie hints that there may even be some new material that evening. “I suspect we will have a great singing audience, which is just what we love,” he says, “Perhaps we’ll learn some new songs from them.”

Performing nationally since 1983, the members of Woods Tea Co. include Howard Wooden, Tom MacKenzie, Mike Lussen and newest member Patti Casey. Casey has appeared live on “A Prairie Home Companion” with Garrison Keillor, has won Texas’s prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk songwriter’s competition, and was a winner of the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at the legendary Merlefest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Patti brings her skills on the guitar, pennywhistle, flute— and she’s also a French-Canadian-style clogger, which adds an interesting percussive twist to the show.

The Woods Tea Co. performs about 120 days a year, playing at venues ranging from town greens to college auditoriums and churches. Information about this acclaimed musical group can be found at www.woodstea.net.

The Annapolis Maritime Museum is located at 723 Second Street. For parking directions and on-line ticket purchases, see www.amaritime.org. 

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