The Annapolis Maritime Museum wraps up its summer concert season Thursday with a performance from Baltimore reggae band Jah Works, closing out a run of free weekly shows that have drawn crowds to the Eastport waterfront since June. The Tides & Tunes series, which runs from 7 to 9 p.m., has featured a different band each Thursday since June 11, and Jah Works takes the stage for the final installment on August 20.
According to Eye On Annapolis, the concerts take place at the museum's McNasby's Museum Campus at 723 Second Street, a scenic Eastport venue in Anne Arundel County. Admission is free, though the museum accepts donations, and food and spirits are available for purchase on-site — outside alcohol is not permitted. Attendees are advised to bring a chair or blanket for the evening.
Jah Works has a long history connecting it to communities like Annapolis. The band formed in 1993 when students at Loyola University Maryland were studying abroad in Leuven, Belgium, and took their name from a 1978 song by Jamaican roots reggae group The Gladiators, according to Voyage Baltimore. Since joining Armed Forces Entertainment in 2002, the band has toured to perform for U.S. service members stationed in more than a dozen countries, including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Japan and South Korea, per Wikipedia — a touring history that carries particular resonance in a naval community like Annapolis.
Beverage Sales Fund Bay Education
Every purchase at the bar and every donation dropped at Tides & Tunes goes toward something bigger than a Thursday night on the water. Beverage sales support the Annapolis Maritime Museum's education program, which reaches more than 14,000 students and adults annually through hands-on environmental literacy programs and Chesapeake Bay ecology field trips, according to the museum's own account of its work.
The museum operates out of the historic McNasby Oyster Company building, established in 1886 and now the last remaining oyster-packing plant in Annapolis. Founded in 2000 out of the Eastport Historical Society, the museum suffered severe structural damage during Hurricane Isabel in 2003 before fully reopening in 2008 with permanent exhibits on Chesapeake Bay ecology and oyster history. Beyond the McNasby's waterfront site, the museum also runs a 12-acre nature park campus across Back Creek, featuring converted 1930s waterworks classrooms, trails and an urban ecology park.
A Working Skipjack on the Water
Concertgoers at McNasby's are docked alongside a piece of living Bay history. In June 2018, the museum acquired the 1940 skipjack Wilma Lee — one of only 23 remaining active Chesapeake Bay skipjacks listed on the National Register of Historic Places — to serve as a floating classroom and heritage cruise vessel.
The museum's profile has grown beyond the concert series this year. In March, Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County named the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park a key stop on the countywide America 250 trail, a digital passport initiative linking more than 50 historic and cultural landmarks across Anne Arundel County.
Getting There
There's no on-site parking at the McNasby's campus, so venue guidelines advise concertgoers to use ride-share services like Uber and Lyft or look for limited street parking in the surrounding Eastport neighborhood. Those interested in sponsoring future Tides & Tunes events can direct inquiries to Kelly Swartout, who handles sponsorship for the series.
