Local Waves Episode One: Dean Rosenthal

Henry Pazaryna: All right. As the man of Annapolis, I figured you would be the first guy to go to. First is: how much has Annapolis changed and how much has it remained the same since you started?

Dean Rosenthal: It’s changed a lot as far as acceptance of places to play and the acceptance of having outside music in general. You know, having street festivals and different things like that was unheard of back then. They chased us away with a stick (chuckles). Annapolis just did not want live music back then. It was run by the old sort of regiment that was the downtown residents who considered the State Capital was their back yard. And my big thing was if you live in the city, you got to put up with stuff that happens in the city. The big joke used to be “if you want to hear crickets, then move to Davidsonville!” You can’t live downtown in the state capital…

HP: And not expect some noise to be made.

DR: Yeah. And to think that you’re not going to share that with the rest of the state, you know? “This is my town, so I make all the rules.”

HP: What year was that around?

DR: This is like mid to late 70’s. There were only a few places in town that even allowed live music and [the town] tried their best to shut those down. Charlie’s was a real big popular place, but it was in a neighborhood and all the residents complained that they heard music at night. So, they tried to stop it, and they eventually did. They eventually drove them out. The other one used to be Pier 7, which was down in Edgewater, and you know they sort of had their own thing — they were far enough away from where they could have music inside. But they couldn’t have it outside because the people on the other side of the river complained they heard the music. It’s okay that jet boats are going up and down the river, they got no problem hearing diesel engines blaring, but if they hear music, that will upset their weekend.

HP: Man, that sucks.

DR: Yeah. It was a very strange period. And that’s why a lot of bands had to leave Annapolis to go somewhere else to play and then, at least in my case, I got invited to play in Annapolis once I had left and people saw that I had been in the Washington post, the Baltimore sun, and the city paper, and then these clubs wanted to know “Hey can you play here?” and it’s like “Well, I live here.” That was kind of the irony then, but I have told that story a thousand times.

HP: So after you were not playing around Annapolis in that mid to late 70’s, where did you go? Did you ever leave the DC — Baltimore area to go West or South?

DR: I never really left the area. I mean, I went to Baltimore and started playing at the 8 by 10. That was the real sort of first out of town place I played, and was playing there for a couple years, and got hooked up with another musician. Then he and I started doing a duo thing, which was really good at the time because they weren’t really hiring bands. They didn’t want bands, but a guy with a guitar and a flute, that was okay. But even that — we would play at what’s called Pussers, back then, it was called the After Deck. And same situation. They didn’t mind jet boats going in and out of Ego Alley, but if they heard a guitar and a flute, they would shut that down. (Chuckles) That was ridiculous.

HP: That’s weird to think about Pusser’s like that.

DR: Yeah. And the same thing, they didn’t mind when the yacht club shot off cannons during the sailboat races, but don’t want to hear any music. The Naval Academy band could march up and down everywhere they wanted, but that was it. It was just like I said, a restrictive time, and that’s why there were a couple of organizations that tried, like Larry Freed. He started a local paper in town that was letting people know what was happening as far as music. The newspaper? Nobody around here would give anybody an update. The radio station wouldn’t tell you what was happening in the area. So, he started this paper, and there were a couple of them, and Larry ran it for a while. Becky Cooper, I think took over after him, and tried to let locals know what was happening at least in the area. But it’s changed. There’s just a… you know… you can’t stop rock and roll (chuckles).

HP: Was there a year that everyone said “man, this is awesome”, or was it more gradual?

DR: Well, I noticed it when, I don’t know what year it was, but I noticed it back when I was playing at what was called Mum’s at the time, and up until then, most of the music around town, the band were playing covers. They were covering music. It wasn’t until Ten Times Big, those are the bands I knew, and East is East — they were really kind of coming out and saying “We’re not playing covers. We’re going to play our own music.” That was Jimi Davies and PT Sevin. When they came onto the scene, I really saw things taking a big turn because they were really popular, immediately. I don’t know where they came from, but all of a sudden they had these huge crowds, and it was showing the other players that you could get around by playing original music. Every now and then I will hear Jimi play a cover, but those were the bands that I noticed coming by that were just saying “We are not going to play covers.” That was like in the late 80’s, early 90’s, they came around.

HP: So do you have any recorded stuff, or is your stuff all live?

DR: No, I recorded things, but, I recorded some records and CDs, and I put out about three records of my own and then a bunch of others where I’ve done session work for people over the years. But my thing was, I wasn’t ever back when there were record stores like Tower Records — I would walk into Tower Records, and there is thousands of records, and thought, why does the world need my

CD? But it was one of those things you had to do because people were coming up and wanting to buy stuff from me, but I was never one of those guys who went around and knocked on doors and said “Hey, I need a label”, or something like that. I never tried to do that. I have managed myself, never had any management. Of course, that’s why I’m in the surroundings I am now, I manage myself. It’s like the guy that is his own attorney; he has a terrible counselor. But, I have put stuff out over the years, at least three under my own name, and then just scattered where I sat in and did session work with people.

HP: And for anyone who is trying to come out and see you this summer — where will you be?

DR: Ever since I had a couple heart attacks, I got really sick, and I had to drop out, I used to play every night. Now, I don’t play every night. I just don’t do that anymore. The regular thing is: I play here, 49 West, on Wednesdays from 5 to 7, and then the following week, I’m at the Ram’s Head Patio from 6 until 9 in the garden, and that rotates every week. One week, I’m here, and one week I’m at Rams Head. Eastport A Rocking is coming up, and I’m usually involved in that. I’m doing a show on June 20th with The Jarflies, which is another band that Jimi Davies runs; I’m doing that on June 20th at the Metropolitan.

You know, it’s like I said, I don’t have a real schedule because I just got out of that. I spent most of my life hanging around in a bar and I don’t do that so much anymore. I’m trying to get into an opening act for somebody, so I’m not standing there at 3 O’clock in the morning waiting to get paid from a bar owner. I want to try to get into a presentation thing. I come out and play for 45 minutes, and I do the songs that I want to play, and then I’m gone. That’s where I am these days. The whole thing about hanging out until the early morning — I don’t want to sound jaded, but I’ve done that.

SurfRhythm wants to thank Dean again for his time, and would definitely recommend checking him out if you are in the area. Get ready to catch some more local waves soon, as I take the time to interview more people throughout the summer to paint a picture of their lives within the local music scene of Annapolis, Maryland.