Hometown bands play at fair

By Catherine Amos

Published: July 31, 2008

To support a few of their own, two Culpeper bands will play the Brandy Station Volunteer Fire Department’s fair tonight and Saturday. Both Crossroadz and Brown Bag Special — of which the Brandy Station fire chief is a member — are regular performers at the annual fair.

Brown Bag Special has been together for about 20 years, forming when some of the guys were only 16, said fire chief and guitarist Chris Brown. They play “a little bit of everything” — what Brown calls “bar music” — including classic and southern rock and country.

“It’s a good hobby,” Brown said, adding that his drummer, David Thomas, is a firefighter for Prince William County. “We’ve all got lives and families and real jobs. We just figure that God gave us a gift to make music and we like to go out and share our talents with other people.”

Brown volunteers for Brandy Station and also works as a firefighter for Fairfax County. The band has played the fair for the past 12 to 15 years, Brown said.

Performing Friday night is Crossroadz, also from Culpeper. The band has been together since 1998 and has played the fair four times in the past six years. The four-piece band also plays southern rock, rock and roll, country and even some Motown.

They play both covers and originals, which lead singer and guitarist Chris Mitchell called “mellow alternative” and compared to Matchbox Twenty.

Mitchell said his band became involved with the fair through friends in Brown Bag Special.

“I’ve always been into that kind of thing to help out as much as we can,” Mitchell said. “I like making the kids come and enjoy themselves; it’s exciting.”

The bands will begin performing around 8 p. m.

Catherine Amos can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .