voc ep 65: Tom McHugh

Tom “Banjo Man” McHugh, Sultana, 2017
(Photo Michael Buckley)

Back in 2020 we lost a great Shore activist and musical champion, Tom McHugh. Known affectionately as “Banjo Man,” Tom worked as an educator at Vassar College and Washington College teaching American studies and other history classes before settling on the Eastern Shore and founding the Mainstay, an eclectic music club in the watermen’s village called Rock Hall. In this Voices of the Chesapeake episode from 2000, Tom talks about his travels as a music instructor teaching in Hungary, Russia, and with a Native American tribe in Washington State. Tom’s love of the water also found him in a Hudson River partnership with the legendary Pete Seeger and the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater singers, before returning to his beloved Rock Hall home with his wife and two daughters. Special thanks to Dr. Robin Jung (Brown) and Claudia Donegan for making the introductions. His group, Chesapeake Scenes, headlined at both of our Voices concerts.