EAT

April 10-12: Easter and Passover Carryout Meals

Locations, times, and prices vary.

It’s safe to say that this Easter and Passover weekend will look and feel different than any other.
Although more family celebrations will take place via Zoom and Facetime than around the dinner table this year, that’s no reason to forego tradition, which always starts and ends with food. Plan your weekend menu using our guide to local eateries that are offering carryout and delivery specials on everything from “Seder Containers” and matzo ball soup to deviled eggs and “Easter Egg” ice cream in honor of these springtime holidays.

DRINK

April 10-12: Booze To Go

Locations, times, and prices vary.

When Gov. Larry Hogan passed the March executive order to allow alcohol delivery and takeout sales from restaurants, bars, and other hospitality establishments amid the coronavirus pandemic, Marylanders breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Since then, tons of local spots have gotten creative with their to-go booze options, including Mr. Nice Guy Cocktail’s Tiger King-themed menu, Wet City’s signature slushies by Blinky, and Nepenthe Brewing Co.’s at-home brewing supplies. Order “essential supplies” for this weekend using our easy-access guide to Baltimore-based breweries, liquor stores, and eateries, and support your favorite small businesses when they need it the most.

SEE

April 12: Virtual Drag Brunch

12:30 p.m. facebook.com/bookmakerscocktailclub.

If there’s anyone who can transition a popular weekly drag brunch into a Facebook Live performance filled with top-notch performers, raffles, and more than a few breakfast cocktails, it’s Brooklyn Heights. This Sunday, instead of snagging a seat at Bookmaker’s Cocktail Club, pull up the Federal Hill bar’s Facebook page to watch some of Baltimore’s best drag performers sashay for the camera. Make a donation and enter to win raffle prizes to support local queens like Iyana Deschanel, Jasmine Blue, and Bambi Necole Ferrah, and count down the days until we can throw dollar bills at our favorite performers in person.

HEAR

April 10: Mary Prankster

8 p.m. wtmd.org.

Live music doesn’t come to a halt just because we can’t hear our favorite acts play in concert halls or venues right now. Instead, we can listen to up-and-coming musicians play from the comfort of their own living rooms, thanks to WTMD’s new Cabin Fever Concerts video series. This Friday, visit the Towson radio station’s Facebook page to watch a livestream performance by local singer-songwriter Mary Prankster, featuring an hour of intimate solo acoustics. Tune in to hear the reigning WTMD Artist of the Year play fan-favorite songs like “Local Honey” and “Rock n Roll Degenerate,” and mark your calendars for upcoming livestream spots by the likes of Letitia VanSant and Emily Wolfe.

DO

April 10: Fells Point Community Blood Drive

Su Casa Furniture, 901 S. Bond Street. 12:30-6 p.m. Free.

As local and regional hospitals face an emergency blood shortage in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Fells Point businesses and neighbors are coming together to host a community-sponsored blood drive. If you’re able to donate blood, register with the Red Cross and then visit the temporary station at Su Casa Furniture, which is volunteering its closed store to the cause. After making your donation, enter for the chance to win gift certificates to neighborhood staple Kooper’s Tavern.

Boister

Goddess of The Baltimore in Your Mind

In Baltimore music history, there have been many leading ladies, and one of the most inimitable over the past two decades has been Anne Watts. With her seven bandmates, the frontwoman of art-rock collective Boister makes eclectic, transcendent, imaginative music—yes, boisterous music—for the music’s sake, tackling heady themes such as life, death, war, peace, and love along the way. Now, this ninth album is about, for, and, in large part, by women, with Watts writing the timely, poetic lyrics and enlisting backup vocals from the likes of her own daughter and Shawna Potter of Baltimore punk band War On Women. These eight tracks are odes, anthems, eulogies, and rallying cries for girls and women, past and present, fueled by powerful, moody melodies, especially fitting of the current conversations surrounding women’s rights. The singer’s haunt- ing vocals evoke a sort of catharsis, assuring each listener she, or he, contains an inner goddess—one as potent and resilient as Baltimore. All we have to do is find her.

Mary Prankster

Thickly Settled

In the 1990s, Mary Prankster gained a regional cult following for her spunky alt-rock ‘n’ roll, mischievous lyrics, and rebellious spirit that felt, even originally based out of Annapolis, oh-so Baltimore. (“Blue Skies Over Dundalk” forever.) To fans’ dismay, she retired in 2005 and relocated to New England, but now, after more than a decade, the singer-songwriter is back and better than ever, as this comeback record, with its fresh-faced energy, reveals. As in the past, she presents 10 eclectic tracks, through which we see the many faces of her apt moniker—raw, rollicking punk; twangy country; swooning, crooning jazz. The first single, “Local Honey,” combines the golden trappings of girl-group harmonies and the reverberating guitar of surf rock. A bonafide chameleon, she excels at each genre and every creative fusion, her compelling presence and confident vocals commanding every verse. Fearless, playful, with her whole heart in it, she evokes Charm City at its best. For that, we say, welcome back, Mary. Listening to Thickly Settled, it sounds like she never left.

In the latest iteration of The Big Baltimore Playlist, we found five local songs to listen to now, ranging from breakneck bluegrass and comeback indie rock to masterful electronic music. Check back each month for new top tracks of the moment, and follow our Spotify playlist as we continue to build a soundtrack for our city.

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“Crystal Geyser” by Al Rogers Jr.

Leave it to Al Rogers Jr. to drop the most infectious song of autumn so far. This first single off his new album, SwoozyBaby, titled for his trademark mantra for spreading good vibes, is giving us summer energy with its almost tropical, rat-a-tat beat, chiming bells, and smooth, swift vocals. Play it on repeat (trust us), then dig into the rest of the West Baltimore rapper’s record for even more one-of-a-kind inspiration.

“Sat By A Tree” by Dan Deacon

This morning, electronic wizard Dan Deacon announced his upcoming 2020 album, Mystic Familiar, with this first single and its accompanying creepy, crawly music video. Looking into the topics of life and death, this bright, buoyant melody is full circle in its familiar touches and techniques from both his most recent and earliest work. It’s peak Deacon—a beautiful opus—and it leaves us eager to listen to the rest of the record.

“Reverie” by The High & Wides*

This song came to singer Marc Dykeman almost entirely in a dream—hence the name. But it’s a perfect example of the natural talent of this rising bluegrass quartet, whose debut Lifted made the Billboard top-ten charts last year for its genre. With their sophomore Seven True Stories due out this December, this track is a sneak peek of the ways in which their abilities—fast-flying fingers, vocal and instrumental harmonies, creative storytelling—only continue to grow.

“Dogs” by Joyero

Wye Oak’s Andy Stack has struck out on his own under a new debut solo project, Joyero. For the first time, the drummer’s voice moves to the forefront, and it’s a cool, calming sound. Now based in Marfa, Texas, the sparse yet saturated melody captures the transition between his different cities, relationships, and lifetimes—a dreamy, electronic reel-to-reel. Trappings of his old bands are there, but it’s wholly all his own. Plus, it might have the best music video, of all time.

“Local Honey” by Mary Prankster*

If you’re of a certain age, you might not know the name Mary Prankster. But for those Baltimore music scene veterans, and musicians in the know, the genre-jumping singer-songwriter was an alt-rock cult icon here in the 1990s. Now back after taking more than a decade off from recording and touring, her new album, Thickly Settled, drops this weekend, which she calls a “rollicking cross-country road trip.” Consider it a comeback with this first single—’60s and surf-inflected, backed by some of the city’s best musicians, into pure, don’t-make-it-like-this-anymore indie-rock.

*Not yet on Spotify. We’ll add it when it becomes available.