Concerts at Carr's Beach

Carr's Beach (and Sparrow's Beach) were on the southern edge of the city limits of Annapolis at the end of Edgewood Dr.
right next to the community of Annapolis Roads, where I grew up.

Carr's Beach was an African American community famous for the concerts that were staged there during the 1950's and 1960's. Many of the biggest names in Pop, R & B, and Jazz played there. From Duke Ellington to Chuck Berry, from Sarah Vaughan to Buddy Holly. I've found references to "5000 people are expected" at the Carr's Beach Pavillion.
That's a pretty big venue, much bigger than I thought.
Are there any pictures of the Pavillion?
If you have some, I'll post them here if you send them to me

Apparently WANN radio regularly broadcast concerts from Carr's Beach on Sunday Afternoons.
Were any of them taped by the station?
Did anyone at home record any of them?

"The Great McGonigle's Seaside Park".
Rock and Roll comes to Carr's Beach.

For two summers, 1973 and 1974, Mike Schreibman promoted rock concerts at Carr's Beach. He christened the venue "The Great McGonigle's Seaside Park". Because that was such a mouthful and no one had EVER called it anything but Carr's Beach, it was only called "The Great McGonigle's Seaside Park" in the advertising. People would say, "where's that?". The inevitable answer was "that's Carr's Beach." "Oh."

(The poster at left says "Wed. Aug. 25". That would be 1971, which conflicts with what Mike Shreibman told me.)

Let me tell you a little about "The Great McGonigle's Seaside Park".
As the poster at left says, it was funky.
It wasn't Great. (though the music sure was)
Who or what the heck was McGonigle?
It was Seaside, or more accurately Bayside.
It surely was no Park. In fact parking was bit of an issue if memory serves.
The artistic rendering of the venue in the poster at left is a slight exaggeration of the elegance one actually found upon arrival.

It was basically a roof over a big concrete slab. There were no walls. The stage was very small and only about 4 feet high. People sat or stood under the roof or outside the roof if the weather was nice or you wanted to walk around. I remember once when I was there it was raining and outside the roof was a huge muddy mess. The Chesapeake Bay was about 100 yards away. On the other side of the venue (about 10 feet from the fence surrounding the place) was Beale's Pond (now called Chase Pond) and the community of Annapolis Roads (where I lived).

Frank Zappa at Carr's Beach
The only extant recording I know of from Carr's Beach is the Frank Zappa Concert from May 19, 1973 that was recorded from the audience.
Sound quality is pretty lousy.
CLICK HERE for an audio taste of the show.

The band at this gig was:
Frank Zappa - guitar
Jean Luc Ponty - violin
Tom Fowler - bass
Ralph Humphrey - drums
Ruth Underwood - vibes and percussion
Ian Underwood - sax and keyboards
George Duke - keyboards
Bruce Fowler - trombone
Sal Marquez (who was with the band from late March - July)

Several hours before this show Secretariat won the Preakness in Baltimore, an hour away.

Realize that it was 50 years ago (wow, I can't believe it's been FIFTY years) and my memory may be a little hazy.
Please feel free to email me with any contributions or corrections.

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Here is my memory of that show:
When I was 14 I went to see Frank Zappa, sort of. It was my first live rock music experience. It was across a small pond in the neighborhood where I lived. I sat on our side of the pond and listened. At a future show I waded through the swamp and crawled under the fence to hear, well, I don't remember who.

A day or two after the show there was an article in the local paper (which I have been unable to locate - though I've searched the archives at the Capitol) headlined something to the effect of, "Carr's Beach engulfed in cloud of marijuana smoke".

There were shows there for two summers. I remember seeing NRBQ, Grin (with Nils Lofgrin), Russ Kirkpatrick and a few others, including one that, as memory serves (and it may not) reminds me of the New York Dolls. Chuck Berry played there a while before Zappa. Edgar winter played there. Gee, I wish I had seen that one. Trapeze too. Do you remember them?

I have a very fond memory of a free three-day concert. As a tender youth I experienced a number of "firsts" there, the likes of which I won't expound upon here. Ahhhh, youth...., the joy, the naivete, the raw, surging hormones... ahhhh....

I also remember seeing a guy standing next to a pole inside the place with a big bag and a sign that said "Pot for sale", totally in the open, no cops, no problems, just freedom. Before the season ended, and the much anticipated performance of The New Riders of the Purple Sage occured the place closed down.The story that went around the local community was that two girls got raped. Promoter Mike Schriebman told me that this was not true.

After years of thinking about that Zappa show I decided to try and track down the exact date of it and see if I could find the "clouds of smoke" article. Well, after much research I discovered this article (above right). Unfortunatelty, I found this before the concert recording came to light. If I had the tape it would have provided me with the date and made finding the article MUCH easier. The "clouds of marijuana smoke" article continues to allude me.

Anyway, a year or two later I wrote to Mike Schreibman and he was kind enough to send me this ad (above left).

I recently wrote to Mr. Schriebman again and he responded promptly with this:
"I did shows there during two summers.� In the second year, my backer backed out. There had been some violence, but not enough to cause me to stop.� There wasn't a rape during my time there.
Thanks Mike.

For my 15th birthday I walked over to Carr's Beach and went to the Saturday show of "The Goodtime Music Festival"
It was $5 (the price of an album at the time) for a one day ticket at the gate, $4 in advance.
$10 bought you all three days.

I don't remember much because of my, uh, "choices".
I also made out with some strange girl for about an hour who was three years older then I was.
That was a first, and a great boost for my ego.

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Anyway, I remember 4 bands,
1 - N.R.B.Q., who were great. and

2 - Norman Blake, who I saw 30 years later in Atlanta, and

3 - some group I've never been able to identify who were
a more rockin' group whose lead singer had "his" oxford-style shirt gathered and tied mid-torso. Quite feminine I thought.
Kinda New-York Dolls-y, I thought when I discovered the Dolls a year or so later.
Researching it today, it could have been "Mother Earth". If it WAS Mother Earth, well, since 1973 I thought the lead singer was a man.
The lead singer was actually Tracy Nelson (a woman), so the tied shirt would not have been as radical as I thought. - and

4 - Russ Kirkpatrick, a singer-songwriter. Just him singing accompanied by his acoustic guitar.
I really liked Russ that day. a lot (!) and thought about him for decades, all in an ever-increasing hazy memory.
Finally in the early 2010's, I decided to buy his only album from Discogs.
Listening to it almost 40 years later, it is an OK album, but I don't know what moved me so on the mid-June day when I was 15 years old.

Here are two pieces of ad material I found in the Mike Schreibman papers, which are housed at the Univeristy of Maryland Archive.
Mike was the promoter of this show.

It was quite the gathering. Way to go Mike!

In 1950 Sarah Vaughan and Cannonball Adderley played Carr's Beach.
I found a reference to a poster advertising it, but not the poster itself.
Here she is speaking on WANN radio circa 1956-58 (according to the caption), most likely promoting an upcoming show at Carr's Beach.

Below are some links to sites that reference Carr's Beach. They are all from the 1940's, 50's, and 60's.
The only references to the shows from the early 1970's are from the Frank Zappa show of May 19, 1973
and the two others seen here; the Edgar Winter and Trapeze shows.

Links to sites that mention Carr's Beach

The Carr's Beach web site
The Other Annapolis
Capitol Hill History Project The Carr's Beach reference is near the bottom
Carr's beach into condos

Two sites that mention Zappa's Annapolis show
Frank Zappa - a memory of McGonigle
Frank Zappa - gig list 1973
          Frank and Carr's Beach are noted all over the web. I've only linked to 2 sites.

If you have pictures or anything else (articles, anecdotes, etc.) relating to the pool or swim team that you would like to share

CLICK HERE and send it to me.
Bruce Bubier, February 2015

If you haven't seen the Official Annapolis Roads web site
Check it out here www.annapolisroads.net

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