By day, J. Dirk Schwenk, Esq., is one of a small community of Annapolis maritime lawyers, handling cases involving boaters, yacht brokers, marina owners, licensed captains, maritime-related businesses, and waterfront real estate. A trial lawyer, he has written and edited books on his specialty, and he’s a certified marine investigator to boot.
At night and on weekends, a T-shirted Dirk Schwenk is an award-winning singer and songwriter, with dozens of theater and night-club gigs to his credit, multiple CDs, and his own six-piece band, “The Truth,” that includes three guitars, a bass, drums, and a saxophone. Schwenk is the lead singer and main songwriter.
“We’re a vocal-oriented band, so we do some Eagles, CSN, Johnny Cash, and lots of original music,” Schwenk says. “We have a good time, and it shows.”
Schwenk has been into music since his early teens. Growing up in Hingham, MA, a seaside town some 15 miles south of Boston, he took clarinet lessons and played in a symphonic band. He finally found rock-and-roll, after appearing as a late-addition bass player in a school talent show and began mixing it with a country sound.
“I never went back,” he says.
After college in Florida, Schwenk did a stint at Greenpeace, and then spent several years at the Echo Hill Outdoor School on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and at the Summit School, which serves students with dyslexia and other learning differences. Shifting career plans, he enrolled in the University of Maryland law school and graduated with honors in 1997.
Over the past 20 years, Schwenk has built a growing law practice. He worked in civil litigation with a prominent Baltimore law firm and was a partner in Lochner and Schwenk, a well-known maritime law practice based in Annapolis. He opened his own law firm, Baylaw, LLC, in 2010. He’s a board member of the Marine Trades Association of Maryland.
Much of Schwenk’s work involves the water: the purchase and sale of boats, waterfront property exchanges, business startups, charter contracts and operations, and maritime-related tax issues.
Schwenk got serious about racing sailboats in middle school and sailed on teams in high school and college, racing Jet 14s out of the West River Sailing Club and the Severn Sailing Association and crewing on J/22s, J/24s, and J/105s.
Music is his real passion now, Schwenk says. His own songwriting falls somewhere between folk music and rock-and-roll, and he’s due out with a studio EP in the next few months.
Schwenk and his band have played to Annapolis-area audiences at the Ram’s Head Tavern, Middleton Tavern, O’Briens, the Riverbay Roadhouse. He also plays regularly on Thursday night sunset sails onboard the schooner Woodwind, where he and his wife, Stefanie, were married in 1995. “I don’t do sea chanties, but I do some sea-themed songs,” he says.
Schwenk’s family shares in his love of music and boating. Stefanie, who runs a pre-school program during working hours, often joins Dirk as a singer in evening or weekend gigs and was his primary crew member in a decade of campaigning the Jet 14. Their “fleet” is now down to a single crabbing skiff, which they regularly use on the Magothy River.
Now just turning 50, Schwenk expects to continue his dual career as a lawyer and a songwriter. “I really love the process of songwriting,” he says. “To capture something in music—that’s really fantastic.” So far, he’s written more than 100 songs “to completion.” His goal, he says dryly, is “to do something half-decent,” which he describes as “a well-written, properly produced, well-played record.” That’s on its way, he hopes.
Meanwhile, Schwenk considers himself a permanent Annapolitan. “For sailors, I think the benefit of living here is obvious,” he argues, “but I hope people realize there’s a good music scene here as well.”
And on that, he rests his case.
by Captain Art Pine
At night and on weekends, a T-shirted Dirk Schwenk is an award-winning singer and songwriter, with dozens of theater and night-club gigs to his credit, multiple CDs, and his own six-piece band, “The Truth,” that includes three guitars, a bass, drums, and a saxophone. Schwenk is the lead singer and main songwriter.
“We’re a vocal-oriented band, so we do some Eagles, CSN, Johnny Cash, and lots of original music,” Schwenk says. “We have a good time, and it shows.”
Schwenk has been into music since his early teens. Growing up in Hingham, MA, a seaside town some 15 miles south of Boston, he took clarinet lessons and played in a symphonic band. He finally found rock-and-roll, after appearing as a late-addition bass player in a school talent show and began mixing it with a country sound.
“I never went back,” he says.
After college in Florida, Schwenk did a stint at Greenpeace, and then spent several years at the Echo Hill Outdoor School on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and at the Summit School, which serves students with dyslexia and other learning differences. Shifting career plans, he enrolled in the University of Maryland law school and graduated with honors in 1997.
Over the past 20 years, Schwenk has built a growing law practice. He worked in civil litigation with a prominent Baltimore law firm and was a partner in Lochner and Schwenk, a well-known maritime law practice based in Annapolis. He opened his own law firm, Baylaw, LLC, in 2010. He’s a board member of the Marine Trades Association of Maryland.
Much of Schwenk’s work involves the water: the purchase and sale of boats, waterfront property exchanges, business startups, charter contracts and operations, and maritime-related tax issues.
Schwenk got serious about racing sailboats in middle school and sailed on teams in high school and college, racing Jet 14s out of the West River Sailing Club and the Severn Sailing Association and crewing on J/22s, J/24s, and J/105s.
Music is his real passion now, Schwenk says. His own songwriting falls somewhere between folk music and rock-and-roll, and he’s due out with a studio EP in the next few months.
Schwenk and his band have played to Annapolis-area audiences at the Ram’s Head Tavern, Middleton Tavern, O’Briens, the Riverbay Roadhouse. He also plays regularly on Thursday night sunset sails onboard the schooner Woodwind, where he and his wife, Stefanie, were married in 1995. “I don’t do sea chanties, but I do some sea-themed songs,” he says.
Schwenk’s family shares in his love of music and boating. Stefanie, who runs a pre-school program during working hours, often joins Dirk as a singer in evening or weekend gigs and was his primary crew member in a decade of campaigning the Jet 14. Their “fleet” is now down to a single crabbing skiff, which they regularly use on the Magothy River.
Now just turning 50, Schwenk expects to continue his dual career as a lawyer and a songwriter. “I really love the process of songwriting,” he says. “To capture something in music—that’s really fantastic.” So far, he’s written more than 100 songs “to completion.” His goal, he says dryly, is “to do something half-decent,” which he describes as “a well-written, properly produced, well-played record.” That’s on its way, he hopes.
Meanwhile, Schwenk considers himself a permanent Annapolitan. “For sailors, I think the benefit of living here is obvious,” he argues, “but I hope people realize there’s a good music scene here as well.”
And on that, he rests his case.
by Captain Art Pine