The Parkville Towne Centre Fair is held annually on Harford Road just north of the city line. On a mobile stage set up on the south end of the festival the tribute band Beatwater performed two sets. the opening act, Creedence Clearwater Revival, was cut short due to an eletrical problem. But the headliners, the Beatles, performed an excellent set which was well received by those in attendance. Their tight playing and flawless vocals were the perfect formula for a warm September afternoon.

Possibly the best of the community street festivals is Hampden Fest, held on 36th Street, or "The Avenue" as it is known locally. There are two stages set up at either end of the festival and the music is non-stop. The only complaint is that the starting times are not staggered, forcing the attendees to either miss some acts completely, or traverse the length of the fest halfway through a performance in order to catch the tail end of the other one. We needed the exercise so we chose the latter.

When we first arrived, we were able to catch the last few tunes by Jones Falls, a local alternative rock band. The songs that we heard were powerful yet melodic. We would like to see them play again.

After polishing off a Pollock Johnny with the works, washed down with a chilled microbrew, we returned to the Chestnut Ave stage in time to catch the Barn Burners perform. They played a red hot set in a style somewhere between "alt country" and "cowpunk". Whatever you want to call it, they did it well.

Hustling down to the Hickory Ave stage, we caught the last five songs performed by Sab Grey & The Royal Americans. We were unfamiliar with this band, but were impressed by their brand of "alt country". More in the Gram Parsons tradition than the Barn Burners, Sab Grey was in fine voice, and the band was excellent. He finished off his set with a cover of "Johnny Too Bad" by Jimmy Cliff, one of his favorite "country singers"!

Next up was June Star, another band with whom we were not familiar. They started out in a country mode, complete with mandolin, sounding pretty good. Halfway through the set, they turned electric with Neil Young's "Out of the Blue Into the Black". Or maybe it was "Out of the Black Into the Blue". We are not sure which, since we get them confused. Rest assured that it was not the acoustic version. They rocked like Crazy Horse for the rest of their performance.

Chicks Rule! The hardest rocking act that we saw at the fest was the local girl band Vestal Vermin. The played hard and fast, with most songs lasting less than two minutes. They drew the largest crowd of the bands that we saw and ended their set with a rousing cover of AC/DCs "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" that was reminiscent of the version done by that other Maryland rocker Joan Jett.

Baltimore's kings of power pop were up next. The Beltways have been rocking the region for years, and are always worth seeing. They didn't disppoint on this day either, playing all your favorites, mixing in a cover tune or two. They had a keyboard player with them for this performance. We are not sure if they will be expanding to a quartet or not, but they sounded pretty good to these ears!

As we were leaving the festival, we stopped to check out a few tunes by the Billroys. We had seen them before at the Night of 100 Elvises, but have never caught an entire performance. Unfortunately we didn't this day either. We have enjoyed what we have heard and will keep an eye out for them in the future.

The 25th annual Essex Day celebration was delayed for a week due to inclement weather on the originally scheduled date. Not a beat was missed a week later when the event finally took place. The weather was perfect; sunny, breezy, temperature hovering around 80 degrees. There was a variety of entertainment available on the three stages set up throughout the festival. We arrived just as local blues rockers Big Kelvin and Blues Deluxe were beginning their performance. They played an extremely effective mixture of their own material and classic tunes including a bluesy version of "Heartbreak Hotel". Kelvin told us they are scheduled to play the Heritage Fair next year, so mark your calendar and check them out.

We have been attending the Essex Day festvities off and on for many years and there is one thing that we can always count on. Gene Vincentt and the Cadillac Cruisers will be playing there. Except it used to be Gene Vincent and the Cadillac Cruisers. The way we heard the story is that Gene received a cease and desist order from the corporate entity that represents the estate of rockabilly legend Gene Vincent. So he added a "t" to the end of his name and kept the act going. Pretty ironic since the rockabilly Gene's real name is actually Vincent Craddock! The Cruisers are a show band, specializing in 50's and 60's hits. They bill themselves as "Maryland's opening act to the stars", based upon their having shared the stage with many rock legends, including Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

After a short break, the Cruisers came back out. True to their reputation, they brought out Bobby Lewis to perform a set of his goodtime R&B. You are probably familiar with his biggest hit "Tossin and Turnin". He performed his classic as well as a bunch of lesser known tunes such as "Peanut Butter". He was in fine form this day and we were impressed that he is still on the road performing nearly a half century after his only hit record.

After the performances described above, we made our required visit to the beer garden. There we found a hard rock cover band called Mad Dog Alley. This was definitely beer garden music. They played a set of classic hard rock including songs by the likes of Grand Funk and Robin Trower. Essex was home to one of the great hard rock clubs, the Seagull Inn. We don't know for sure, but we would wager that at some point, these guys played there. If not, then they most certainly were patrons.

Finally, just before we called it a day, we stopped at the main stage and to catch a glimpse of a band called LeftOver. We knew nothing about this group, but we found out that they rock hard. While their parents were in the beer garden digging their old favorites, the next generation of Essex rockers was getting off on these guys. They played fast and furious, with the lead singer pogoing all over the stage. In Essex hard rock is a family tradition.