News Release

Annapolis Maritime Museum / 723 Second St / Annapolis, MD 21403
Contact: Jenny Kottler / 410 295-0104

What:      Bawdy Songs Night at the Museum: Hey, Sailor, Pass the Salt!
When:      Saturday, February 2, 2013 
Time:      7 - 9 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
Admission: $15/museum members; $20/advance; $25 at the door
Where:     Annapolis Maritime Museum, 723 Second Street,Annapolis, MD 21403
More info: www.amaritime.org or Janie Meneely, 443 786-0463

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Jan. 3, 2013

Bawdy Songs Night at the Museum: Hey, Sailor, Pass the Salt!

Join musicalista Jennifer Cutting on a raucous romp through centuries of dirty ditties, bawdy ballads and lusty lyrics culled from seaside bar rooms and brothels far and wide. Along with colleagues Long John Skivee (a retired sailor, aka Craig Williams), Miss Lucy Snatch (a retired Lady of Convenience, aka Riki Schneyer), Cornelius “Connie” Lingus (First Mate, aka Steve Winick), Cutting, as the inimitable Regina Dentata, comes to the Annapolis Maritime Museum on Saturday, February 2, for an ample show of shameless songs that have propelled innocent sailors to their moral doom from time immemorial. In the low-tech, time-honored tradition of gathering to raise our voices in song, this is community music-making at its best. The audience is absolutely expected to chime in on the choruses of naughty songs that have come down to us from pubs, tall ships, British music halls, the army, the schoolyard, and wherever such songs are sung. No experience necessary!

Photo left to right: Hey Sailor! Long John Skivee (aka Craig Williams), Regina Dentata (aka Jennifer Cutting), Miss Lucy Snatch (aka Riki Schneyer) and Cornelius “Connie” Lingus (aka Steve Winick)

A Cutting show is always fun, always frolicsome and nearly always offers something beyond the norm, whether it be Morris dancers with bells a jingling or a surprise find from her years of digging through old files at the Library of Congress. Her skills as an ethnomusicologist come into play whether she’s directing her award-winning OCEAN Orchestra or hamming it up with a few old friends.

Cutting (left) is a composer and bandleader by family tradition and a musician and ethnomusicologist by training. Her two grandfathers, one from England and the other from Ireland, were the inspiration for her natural synthesis of British and Irish musical traditions. Her English grandfather, Ernest Cutting, was a conductor and talent scout for NBC in the 1930s, directing orchestras for Kate Smith, Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Fred Astaire, Rudy Vallee, and others. Following in his footsteps, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in orchestral and choral conducting. Her passion for folk music was developed through her association with British folk revival leader A.L. Lloyd. In the early 1980s she became Lloyd's last and youngest protégée, soaking up the same blend of scholarship and joy in performance that he had also imparted to members of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span.

After returning to the U.S., Cutting spent more than ten years as director, composer, arranger and performer with The New St. George, one of the most significant British folk-rock groups on this side of the Atlantic. Following the retirement of that band, Cutting spent years composing, arranging, playing and producing the outstanding and award-winning CD OCEAN: Songs for the Night Sea Journey, collaborating with international superstars such as Maddy Prior and Peter Knight (Steeleye Span), Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention) Tony Cuffe (Ossian) and Troy Donockley (Iona [UK]).

Cutting is a multiple award winner in all areas of her musical career. The New St. George earned her fifteen WAMMIE awards from the Washington Area Music Association. She won the 2003 WAMMIE for best contemporary folk instrumentalist. Most dramatically, she swept the 2004 WAMMIE awards, winning “Musician of the Year,” “Songwriter of the Year,” and “Best New Artist,” as well as “Album of the Year” and “Best Contemporary Folk Recording” for OCEAN. She has won two Maryland Governor’s Citations for composition, and prestigious national-level songwriting awards, such as First Prize in songwriting at the Merle Watson Festival, and American Songwriter Magazine’s Song of the Year.

Whether as Jennifer Cutting or Regina Dentata, she’ll be letting her hair down in more ways than one at the Annapolis Maritime Museum, 723 Second Street, Annapolis, Md., on Saturday, February 2, from 7-9 p.m. Admission is $20 advance; $25 at the door ($15 for AMM members). Wine and beer will be available for sale. For more information or tickets contact the Annapolis Maritime Museum at 410-295- 0104 or go to www.amaritime.org.

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