Chester River Runoff to Perform at the Ruark Boatworks Wednesday, July 27

     Cambridge, Md. --  The James B. Richardson Foundation, Inc. is presenting live music Wednesday evenings throughout the summer months on Cambridge Creek at the Ruark Boatworks, located at the intersection of Maryland Avenue and Hayward Street in Cambridge. The foundation requests a $5 donation for those 12 and older. Lawn seating only, bring chairs or blankets. Hot Dogs, nachos, snow cones, ice cream and drinks will be available for purchase.
     The rain location for concerts is inside the Richardson Maritime Museum, 401 High Street in Cambridge. For more information on this live music series, contact Gladys Taylor at 410-221-1871, stop by the Ruark Boatworks or visit www.richardsonmuseum.org.
     For harmonies, run away instrumentals and sheer delight, no one does bluegrass like Chester River Runoff. This group of enterprising young men from the Chestertown countryside have honed their musical prowess through hours of barn practice and miles on the road. Their repertoire goes well beyond the bluegrass standards to embrace homegrown material that reflects their Eastern Shore roots: call it eelgrass, call it bluecrabgrass, call it an incredible mix of fiddle, banjo, guitar, bass and vocals. Come hear them at The Ruark Boatworks on Wednesday, July 27 from 6 to 8 pm.
     Many musical groups describe themselves as "a family." But in the case of Chester River Runoff, it's not a simple cliché. It's an accurate description. For nearly seven years they've been laughing, bickering, and making music together from their home on the Eastern Shore and up and down the East Coast. The band is known for shows that combine three and four-part harmonies and a mastery of the bluegrass idiom with the high energy of some of the more far-flung torch-bearers of modern acoustic music.
     Says banjo player Sam Guthridge, "For the first few years we did our homework on traditional bluegrass until we got a handle on it, and then we moved on to doing our own thing. The time we spent really trying to toe the line on bluegrass traditions sets us apart from a lot of the bands we're compared to."
     No strict traditionalists, the Runoff's original songs draw inspiration from all over the map, and their sets are sprinkled with covers from artists as disparate as Pavement and Waylon Jennings, as well as songs the band has mined from old field recordings.
     Guthridge and guitarist Ben Armiger formed the band in the fall of 2004. After losing their original bassist and mandolin player, the pair did some searching and managed to convince bassist Marc Dykeman and ace fiddler Nate Grower to come along for the ride. Over the next 5 years, Dykeman and Grower became integral to the group, with Dykeman's rock-and-roll background livening up the mixture and Grower bringing the bluegrass chops that have enabled him to share the stage with some of the genre's legends.
     Chester River Runoff now plays at numerous venues and festivals up and down the East Coast. With the release of their debut studio album "Blue Heron Farm," and a consistent drive to write, learn, and expand their musical horizons, more growth is on the way for the band.