More about Us!

Clam Chowder started out as two friends playing together at the Maryland Renaissance Festival back in 1977.  We liked it.  It got bigger,    By the spring of 1978, we were up to five people, had chosen (for reasons best known to ourselves) our name, and had, more or less, decided on the types of music we wanted to do.   We gradually nailed down those music types to almost anything that lent itself to four or five part harmony (close, opulent, LUSCIOUS harmony!) [Quote  from an admired fellow musician;  "harmony tighter than a crab's ass."  This resulted in Clam Chowder's ruling dictum; "The price of crabass harmony is eternal vigilance."]

Early on, we were discovered by science fiction fandom.  Why?  Ask them!   We don't have a clue!  Possibly it had something to do with the fact that we could often be discovered at East Coast science fiction conventions playing in the hallways surrounded by instruments and empty beer cans.  They loved us. We loved them. What's not to like?  This resulted in invitations to sci-fi conventions large and small for many years. We also began crashing local folk festivals until they finally got so tired of us recognized our talent (or the fact that we weren't going away) and invited us in.  We also went through a short span of insanity playing at local Irish bars (Yes, we played Matt Kane's and lived!!!) until a combination of good taste, real life, and exhaustion set in.

Through it all, we were spared the necessity of having to make a real living with our music (thank God for small favors), so we could play (or not play) what we wanted.   We did our thing our way, and were fortunate enough that a lot of people liked it.

After a multiyear hiatus (i.e. kids, whippets, moves to other states, etc) we got back together at Darkover (a small but wonderful [okay, Judy?] science fiction convention) in 1996, and realized that it was still fun after all these years.  We've played a couple of conventions since then, including WorldCon in Baltimore in 1998 and Consonance (another small but wonderful convention [okay, Dr. Jane?] on the West Coast) in 1999.   We have since played at Counterpoint III and Darkover, both in 2000, and Balticon in 2001, and are scheduled for Darkover in 2002. Btw, Darkover is usually scheduled on Thanksgiving day weekend north of Baltimore, MD.

And yes, a third CD of material we've added  is now out! It premiered to a great response at Balticon (special thanks to Balticon, the sound crew, and our Balticon contact Jeff Olhoeft)   Songs on the new CD include Blacksmith of Brandywine (Pat and Victoria Garvey), Confession, Dance, Hunley, Suite Johnny, Queen of Air and Darkness, Not as Young, Parting Glass, Dance, Cows with Guns ( Dana Lyons), and Carrotjuice is Murder (Arrogant Worms) . For more information, click here.

To be put on an email mailing list for news about Clam Chowder, contact Bob Esty at sirharper@aol.com

For a description of us written by Crystal Paul for Conterpoint III, click here.

For a longer description of us by Ed Sobansky, also written for Conterpoint III, click here.

For a brief sketch of us at Darkover 2001, click here.

For a description of us written by Gary McGath for Boskone 2003, click here.

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