Local 4th of July Celebrations Provide Great Musical Fireworks

Photo by Flickr/RandySonofRobert A Patriotic Pampered Pocket Pooch Posing Proudly at last year's 4th of July celebration. A little dog is in the spirit of the day all dressed up in a red white and blue outfit. Sporting sunglasses to protect his little doggy eyes from those harmful UV rays.

Thanks to some of the area’s finest party bands, brass outfits and classical concert ensembles, many local communities and locales are cranking up the volume as well as the fireworks with a slew of July 4th weekend attractions that musically have everyone in mind - the happy dilemma is choosing which one to go to.

Photo by Flickr/EDDWday_dae A 4th of July biker parades in 2007 in Fairfax.

Things start off on Friday July 3rd with Gaylord National’s July 4th Celebration at National Harbor, complete with live music from We The Band, playing American pop, rock and country, plus the Carribean sounds of Eawbo.

In Virginia on the 4th, Lee District Park offers up two great musical options: The M & R Project covers great old soul standards and the Annandale Brass Ensemble provides a breathtaking orchestral sonics.
 
At Vienna’s Independence Day Celebration, Jimmy Buffett tribute band B2B is sure to get you dancin’. The Mike Aiken Band, now with a song on the Twitter country charts, rocks Herndon’s celebration at 7:30pm.
 
In Manassas, local high school bands join with cover bands to provide some great musical fun. Other Virginia celebrations take place in many communities including Fairfax, Falls Church, Reston, Gunston Hall in Mason Neck, and many others.

File photo The 4th of July last year at the Masonic Temple in Old Town.

All around Maryland, great music is also part of nearly every July 4th celebration. At the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg, it’s Free Spirit, one of the most sought after party bands in the country.
 
In Frederick, Springsteen fans will love well-known cover band Bruce in the USA, and for country followers, it’s the sounds of seasoned country star Steve Azar.

Rockville kicks it out on the 4th on the Rockville campus of Montgomery College with the brass sounds of the Fugitive Brass Quintet, who are nearing their tenth anniversary entertaining local audiences, as well as Redline, who cover everything from M otown and Top 40 to country, blues and rock. Redheads, unite!
 
There’ll also be music-tinged celebrations at Buddy Attick Park in Greenbelt with the sounds of the Greenbelt Concert Band; the Daryl Davis Band is back by popular demand at the University of Maryland at College Park with their mix of blues, rockabilly, boogie-woogie and doo-wop; and of course the Naval Academy Band will do it up like no other in Annapolis.

Other Maryland celebrations abound including Kensington with Superflydisco; plus events in Laurel, Columbia, Bowie, Takoma Park and more.

In DC, the 43rd annual Palisades Parade and Picnic has live music and a parade amidst it's gamut of fun activities. And one of the best musical events of the weekend is the annual Capitol 4th Celebration in front of the Capitol Dome on July 4th.
 
In addition to the best in patriotic tunes from the National Symphony Orchestra, there will be performances by Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow and the cast of the hit Broadway show "Jersey Boys" which plays in Washington soon.
Even though most of these events offer fireworks at dark, check before going just to be sure.
 

Photo by Flickr/ginnerobot Independence Day cupcakes.

It’s easy to get details about any of the events mentioned here by just ‘Googling’ the town or locale you want and adding "July 4th 2009." Info you need should be available that way.
So if you’re adventurous and have a good map, you can catch a slew of great music all over our area this July 4th.
 
Enjoy the 4th!
 
Contact the writer at shouk151@aol.com.