Pride of Baltimore

Sing the Bay Fantastic!
2026-04-23 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Sing the Bay Fantastic!
Celebrating Chesapeake Traditions in Song

Baltimore Museum of Industry
April 23, 2026 | 6 to 8 PM

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Privateer Society & Donor Admission | $20General Admission | $25Door Admission | $35

The folk duo Meneely & van Sante bring a breath of salt air to any stage.

From heroic rescues to titillating tales of maritime miscreants, the music of Janie Meneely and Rob van Sante celebrates the history, characters and traditions of the Chesapeake Bay waterfront. Singer/songwriter/sailmaker/sailor Janie Meneely grew up in Annapolis and raised a family on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Masquerading as a recreational boating writer (Chesapeake Bay Magazine) she traveled the Bay collecting stories and crafting songs to reflect the lives of people who make a living “working” the water. Sometime in the last century, she partnered with Eastern Shore songstress Chris Noyes and Annapolis poet laureate Jeff Holland to create a folk band called Crab Alley, showcasing original music about the Bay and beyond. Life always changes things, and Crab Alley parted ways eons ago. Nowadays Janie works as a duo with her life partner Dutch-born Rob van Sante who lends his knack for melodies and flair for vocal harmony to Janie’s compositions. Their music rambles from the raucous ruminations of a ne’er-do-well charter captain in “Nasty Nell” to more thoughtful ballads like the somber “Claud W. Somers, 1977” about the tragic loss of a Chesapeake Bay skipjack. Her song about the Pride of Baltimore was written months before the ship sank and rewritten prior to the launch of Pride II.

Photo courtesy of Scott Wicking

Janie hopes her work helps to kindle an appreciation of the Bay and its traditions. “I use my art to preserve the resource,” Meneely says, “the same way a painter might capture a lighthouse on canvas.” To this end, along with several CDs, she has compiled her Chesapeake Bay material in a songbook Sing the Bay Fantastic! Janie and Rob are delighted to share a few hours of music, merriment and (sometimes) mayhem —be ready to sing along.

Legacy & Horizons
2026-05-14 11:00 - 12:00
