Bring the family and join Kitt Cox, with fellow musicians Pat Conlon and Pam Patterson, for Songs of the Sea and Shore. Free and open to the public.
Saturday Showcase programs incorporate history and culture into the performing arts with thematic presentations. Offered on select Saturdays throughout the year. Made possible in part by the Goldhirsh Foundation.
The players are part of a loosely organized group of musicians who frequently perform under the guise of “The Sunny Fishckakes’ Music Revue”, a name Cox came up with while cooking for a breakfast crowd at Sailor Stan’s in Rocky Neck one morning long ago.
The program features a combination of original and traditional music, along with a smattering of other tunes collected from a variety of sources. The target audience is young children and their families, with audience movement and participation frequently encouraged.
The core of the material for “Songs of Sea and Shore” began when Cox, an early education professional, spent two weeks on the whale watch boat Captain Red, using the experience to create songs and activities for preschoolers and kindergartners. Additional content came about when Cox was selected to help develop pre-k through 12 curricula for the Schooner Adventure. As a member of the Children’s Music Network, he has had the opportunity to share many of these songs from California to Cape Cod.
Pam Patterson has worked with Cox since the two met at the Red Sneakers School (an alternative infant through sixth grade program) in the mid-1980s. Forming the group The Hounds, they recorded an album (a cassette, actually) of children’s music a short time later. The next decade saw the pair again teaming up with the Hounds to write, record and perform “Never Try, Never Win – Songs from Dogtown Common”. The Dogtown collection is currently being adapted for a new production by Henry Allen’s North Shore Folk Theatre Company and will premiere in April.
Pat Conlon has been a well-regarded fixture of the Cape Ann Music scene for decades. In addition to his own performances, he recently contributed to a new set of recordings by Daisy Nell and Captain Stan. He’s also contributed to writing the he charts for the musicians and actors appearing in the new Dogtown production.
