The Rockport Legion Band announces the dates for their annual holiday programs. There will be two performances, the first on Friday, December 3 at the Rockport Methodist Church; the second on Thursday, December 9 at the Rockport Congregational Church.. Both programs will begin at 7:00 P.M. Please join us either night for an evening of holiday music and good cheer.

The Rockport Legion Band, an established community concert band founded in 1932, will begin its seventy-sixth year of music-making by holding a series of reading rehearsals at the Legion Hall on Beach Street, Rockport.* These rehearsals will begin on Thursday, January 8, 2009 at 7:30, and continue every Thursday evening until April 30.

Material will consist of music from the band's library, new music under consideration for programming, and a series of pieces from the turn of the Twentieth Century. The latter group includes rags, marches, galops, and popular songs from the period.

Where have all of the old-fashioned town bands gone? Today, most of them seem to be dead. Years ago, almost every town had its own volunteer band; there were also fantastic professional bands touring the country (Gilmore, Sousa, Pryor, Clarke, etc.), and therefore, all kinds of music were made available to the public for free -- by town bands. Now, a player has to travel to join one, because there aren't any in his/her home town any more.