Published on July 05, 2009.

Spending the evening in a park while listening to free music with friends is a way to experience new things.

When I hear “blues music concert,” I imagine harmonicas and a band wearing suits and sunglasses, channeling The Blues Brothers.

The Old Town Blues Band didn’t wear suits, and they didn’t wear sunglasses when they performed Thursday night in the 2009 Neighborhood Concert in the Park series.

Instead, the performers were four regularly dressed people who played songs I didn’t consider blues music.

Some of the songs I didn’t expect to hear were Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine” and Carrie Underwood’s “Last Name.”

The band started the night off by playing Clapton’s song, which was surprising since the concert is considered a family venue.

One of the most challenging things was just to listen to the songs without comparing it to the version by the original artist.

I was slightly disappointed with the band’s rendition of “Something to Talk About” by Bonnie Raitt.

Both the instruments and vocals sounded wonderful, but the songs were still lacking in areas.

“Soak Up the Sun” by Sheryl Crow was fun and upbeat, but the parallels of the gloomy weather made me laugh. It was cloudy and consistently threatened to rain. But despite the weather, concertgoers seemed to enjoy the song all the same.

The enjoyment didn’t last long though — as the concert progressed, the band slowly started to lose their quality.

One of the songs they were on the verge of ruining for me was “My Girl” by The Temptations. Even if I had heard this band play this song for the first time, I wouldn’t have liked it.

Overall, the concert was a roller coaster of enjoyment. Like many other bands, The Old Town Blues Band has some songs they rock and other songs they should lose from their repertoire.