Kevin Brooks co-founded the Eastport Oyster Boys back in 1995 with Jeff Holland, now the West/Rhode Riverkeeper. The band was scheduled to play at the Annapolis Oyster Roast and Sock Burning on Saturday, helping uphold one of the local maritime traditions both the museum and band celebrate.

Q: How did you get started playing music?

Brooks: I am a child of the ’60s, and I grew up wanting to be Peter, Paul and Mary’s bass player but I was too young and I couldn’t play bass yet, so I got aced out of the job. I got my first guitar in 1967, the Summer of Love. My first albums were “Are You Experienced” (by Jimi Hendrix), “Strange Days” by the Doors and Peter, Paul and Mary’s Greatest Hits. Yes I was conflicted, teen angst and all. But I was a folkie. I am self taught. But like any passion, sports, writing or music, you get better by playing with people who are better than you. And I have had the good fortune to play with some good ones. I started playing the folk scene around Baltimore and Annapolis. Started playing here in 1972 at Marmadukes. (That was a boating bar in Eastport where Ruth Chris is now.) God bless Marmadukes. Then I started playing in the bluegrass and folk scene in Annapolis, College Park and the D.C. area. The Birchmere had some great bluegrass players. That morphed into my Irish period. I was in a raucous band called Shannon Tide with this guy O’Malley, ummm, Martin. Whatever happened to him? He had a job in Annapolis then tried to get one in Washington but it didn’t work out too well. But I spent a great many nights in Washington’s Irish pubs learning the craft of showmanship. I had a chance to come back to Annapolis in the late ’80s and there was one place I wanted to play, the King of France Tavern. I was able to do just that. The King of France was a great room. Charlie Byrd on the weekends. Stef Scaggiari on jazz-jam night. And I played with my good friend Mac Bailey. We played together for the Thursday night folk jam.

Q: And how about the Eastport Oyster Boys?

Brooks: Around 1995, just as the Maritime Republic of Eastport was getting sparked, Jeff Holland and I got together and formed Them Eastport Oyster Boys. We started as a duo. We’d play on the Schooner Woodwind, which I still do. We did a good bit of songwriting together. But then about 10 years ago, Jeff decided to hang up his ukulele. (Holland became and remains the West/Rhode Riverkeeper.) But there is so much talent in the band, so much good spirit — Mike Lange on keyboards, Andy Fegley, trombonist extraordinaire, and Tom Guay on guitars, fiddle and hammered dulcimer — we coalesced and have been playing now for 10 years. (Brooks holds down guitar and banjo duties.) We still do about 50 shows a year. We have been given the opportunity, and the responsibility of being the official goodwill ambassadors of Annapolis. Mayor Ellen Moyer started that and it has continued. [Mayor] Gavin [Buckley] was nice enough to “re-appoint” us last year. Our warranty has not expired yet.

Q: How did the band’s theme — boating and the Chesapeake — get started?

Brooks: All along, the mission has not changed. The mission is to celebrate our home port and our home waters. It’s a national treasure. And it is our responsibility to preserve this extraordinary environment. The Boys have always been about stewardship of the bay. The Oyster Boys is the simplest thing I have ever done in music because we are not making this stuff up. We are not singing about love, we are singing about things we see every day. It’s easy songs like “Good Hat, Good Dog, Good Boat” — they are love songs to the place we call home. And we do it tongue-and-cheek with a bit of education slipped in unbeknownst to the audience. But we do it with pride. We get a chance to brag about our home to people all over the country, all over the world really.

Q: How far afoot have you traveled to play?

Brooks: This is true. We have played as far north as Nova Scotia. As far south as the Florida Keys. As far east as Estonia — true, we represented Annapolis and the U.S. at a folk festival there — 20,000 people. And we have traveled as far west as, well, Woodstock, Va. We were asked to play a Chesapeake weekend there years ago and now it’s turned into a festival. But I would be remiss if I did not mention our partnerships with the Annapolis Symphony and Maryland Hall [for the Creative Arts]. Last year, we performed a concert for The Capital and debuted our song “Rise Up” in honor of what you guys mean to our community. And we have a running relationship with the Annapolis Maritime Museum.

pfurgurson@capgaznews.com