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Clementine Main StageFriday, August 30th
7:30PM Start
$15 Advance / $20 Day of Show
The Nighthawks
The Nighthawks was an idea in Mark Wenner’s brain long before he was able to implement it. The musical product of pre-1958 radio in Washington, D.C., he did not know there were rules against mixing blues, R&B, honky-tonk country, doo-wop, gospel and rockabilly into one delicious stew.
In 1972, Mark, then 23, returned to his hometown after a New York City band apprenticeship, eager to start a real, work-every-night band based on American roots music. He found a receptive local scene. Washington has long been a musical melting-pot of the kind that made Memphis the source point for the evolution of American music in the second half of the 20 th Century. It just never had a Stax or Sun record label to tell the world. As the city exploded with an influx of people from all the surrounding states
during the Great Depression and World War II, Washington became a hotbed of musical cross-fertilization. When Bill Haley first brought his wacky Pennsylvania mix of hillbilly music and rhythm and blues to D.C. in 1952, people got it. And white kids like Mark found the Howard Theater – now recently restored and part of the historic top tier of the Chitlin’ Circuit that included Baltimore’s Royal, Chicago’s Regal and New York’s Apollo– just a 25-cent bus ride away from the suburbs.
Rev. Billy C. Wirtz
It might seem that blues & boogie-woogie pianist, Billy C. Wirtz (real name William Wirths), was unsure which career path to follow, so he found a way to follow them all. He is a skilled musician, a former special education teacher, a satirist, published writer, former wrestling manager, music historian, music educator, radio show host, and he has even officiated at weddings as the ordained minister of the “First House of Polyester Worship and Throbbing Teenage Desire”.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
153 S Main St, Harrisonburg, VA, United States, Virginia 22801
