Blues Festival Aims To Restore Johns Hopkins Home

From John Hopkins House: The first Hopkins Blues Festival benefit concert is planned for Saturday, Oct. 13, from 11 am-6:30 pm at the birthplace of Johns Hopkins, 2173 Johns Hopkins Road in Gambrills. Organizers hope to raise money to help save and restore the birthplace and boyhood home of Hopkins — the historic Whites Hall Plantation (circa 1780).

While Hopkin's most famous creations, Johns Hopkins Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University are in Baltimore, his family home is a few miles south of Baltimore, in Gambrills. The newer, suburban town of Crofton has grown up around the old home place. We're putting up 4 great blues acts throughout the day and a beer-garden evening chill-out with acoustic blues.

There are no lightweight acts here. The day starts at 11am with food, beer, wine and games. Get here early, settle in because first up is SWAMPCANDY, a Mississippi-Stomp hard edged act that tours in and outside the USA whose home base is Annapolis. Next up is Baltimore's RUBEN MONTOYA, a strong blues/contemporary guitarist, singer and songwriter who knows how to make a Fender Strat sing. His dark soulfull voice, guitar work and grooves absolutely work.

BAD INFLUENCE featuring special guest MARY SHAVER hits the stage next. Either of these performers alone is remarkable but combined they are astounding. Roger Edsall's harp and Michael Jr Tash's guitar work make BAD INFLUENCE a strong hit with anchors in Chicago blues. Mary Shaver is a soul/blues singer who absolutely gets-it. This will be a treat. Finishing out the big-bad-blues daytime is REGGIE WAYNE MORRIS. Reggie pours his soul into a strong hard style with a solid band behind him - another great local act. As if that weren’t enough, we round out the day with Beer Garden time and the Unplugged version of the RagingImmortals where we head to the back porch and hit the acoustic lower-key side of the blues and wherever that may take us.

All of this is to raise funds to preserve and restore the 1780 colonial house and grounds of WHITES HALL which is the legacy of Johns Hopkins, the man who founded Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medical Center. It's a strong part of local history and a great cause. Come on out!
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