As they have for almost three decades, Lanny and Nancy Nye will have seats in the heart of Saturday’s celebration at Indian Spring Park in downtown Waco.

And as they have for most of that time, they’ll only see the evening’s fireworks sporadically, if they happen to glance skyward while counting beats through measures of rest.

The Nyes are among the Waco Community Band’s original players — she plays clarinet, he plays euphonium — and the Fourth of July for them means patriotic music on the Fourth on the Brazos’ central stage.

Fourth on the Brazos

When, where: 6 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday at Indian Spring Park. Live music begins at 6 p.m. with the H-E-B Fireworks Extravaganza at about 10 p.m.

Admission: Free.

Parking: Click here for parking map

6-6:45 p.m. — Sloppy Joe

7-8 p.m. — T Bird and the Breaks

8:20-9:30 p.m. — The Fab 5

9:30-9:45 p.m. — Patriotic ceremony

9:45-10:20 p.m. — Waco Community Band and the H-E-B Fireworks Extravaganza

---

Fourth of July neighborhood parades

 The Mountainview Neighborhood Association will hold its fifth annual Independence Day parade beginning at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Mountainview Elementary School, 5901 Bishop Drive. Parade lineup starts at 9:15.

Lacy-Lakeview will have its annual Fourth of July parade at 11 a.m. Saturday, starting on Rita Street and ending at Veterans Memorial Park. After the parade, the Bellmead Fire Department will sell hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and drinks, and Mack Abernathy will perform a free concert at 1 p.m.

Rodeo Belton

A ranching tradition and the celebration of America’s independence converge at the 85th annual Rodeo Belton, held today through Saturday at the Bell County Expo Center.

The Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association event, held at 7 p.m. daily, features bull riding, calf and team roping, bareback and saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling and barrel racing. Reserved tickets for tonight and Friday are $15 for adults, $12 for children; $12 and $9 for general admission. Saturday’s tickets cost $2 more.

---

“We miss most of the fireworks, but we’re providing a service to the community,” she said. “We often have mixed feelings. It’s a hassle to get down there, and it’s hot. On the other hand, it’s the largest audience we have all year.”

That’s as large as between 10,000 and 15,000 people, the working estimate for city planners of the annual Fourth on the Brazos celebration.

That many revelers are expected Saturday night at Indian Spring Park and its environs, for a program that features music from Waco classic rock/rock ‘n’ roll band Sloppy Joe, Austin funk/soul band T Bird and the Breaks, Houston pop oldies band Fab 5 and the WCB. The annual event also offers food and drink concessions, children’s activities and a 20-minute fireworks finale.

The community band, formed in 1981, has performed a short program of patriotic music at the Fourth on the Brazos and an earlier event at Richland Mall for much of the band’s history.

In recent years, the group has accompanied the fireworks show that brings more people downtown than any other single event.

Performing during the pyrotechnics means most of the 40 or so band members won’t see them, but it also means they escape a broiling July sun.

The heat is only one challenge for the community bandsmen, Lanny Nye said. There’s the occasional breeze that can scatter sheet music that’s not clamped to stands and, once the sun goes down, the bugs that buzz around the lights. “You take a deep breath and you can swallow a moth,” he said.

With more than two dozen Fourths of July under the band’s belt, there’s a lot that seems routine to the performers. Still, some Fourths stand out. The Fourth in which the band was rained out — and was the only rain for the month. The Fourth in which the band was seated closer to the fireworks and Lanny’s euphonium caught pieces of fireworks debris in its bell.

The Nyes praised WCB Director Brian Harris for trying to keep the band’s patriotic programs fresh from year to year, but admit it’s the familiar numbers — the Sousa marches, “America the Beautiful,” “The Star-Spangled Banner” and more — that get the most feedback from their outdoor audiences. “People are watching the fireworks, but they remember the music,” Lanny said.

The community band is the largest group to play Saturday night, but Austin’s T Bird and the Breaks can fill a stage, too: the funk/soul/R&B band boasts 10 players, including three horns and three female singers.

That makes scheduling shows and rehearsals a bit complicated, admitted band leader Tim Crane, the T Bird who fronts the Breaks.

“It’s a lot of logistics, but we’ve got a good group of players. If someone’s not going to show up, they wouldn’t be playing with us in the first place,” he said.

Crane is a Massachusetts native who migrated to Austin by way of Memphis, Tenn., to follow the music that caught his attention. Three years after settling in the Texas capital, Crane started casting the net to find instrumentalists equally infected by classic grooves. “Our roots are old soul and funk. That’s pretty much what we’ve put on the table so far,” he said.

Crane, who plays piano, drums, bass, guitar and harmonica, writes new material in that vein for the band, and the mix of new and old Old School is winning fans here and abroad.

The band’s debut CD, Learn About It, premiered in January and will soon be released in Japan, Crane said. T Bird and the Breaks come to Waco after gigs in Dallas, Houston, Austin and Mississippi, and the rest of the summer is filled with outdoor concerts and festivals.

“We’re all about to shed a few pounds,” he said.

After T Bird and the Breaks, Houston’s Fab 5, an oldies band that pays tribute to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other pop bands from the ‘60s and ‘70s, will take the stage. A patriotic program at 9:30 p.m. will include a presentation of flags by the Young Marines, Mayor Virginia DuPuy leading the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of the National Anthem.

Fireworks will begin at about 10 p.m., launched from north of the Suspension Bridge near University-Parks Drive and Jefferson Drive. Radio station KLRK-FM (92.9) will broadcast the community band’s performance.

Coolers are permitted at Fourth on the Brazos, as are chairs and blankets for seating. Pets, tents, glass bottles, large umbrellas, grills and fireworks are prohibited. Streets bordering the Indian Spring Park and Martin Luther King Jr. Park areas will be closed beginning at 7 p.m., reopening after the fireworks.

Downtown parking for the event includes lots and spaces near Heritage Square, Waco City Hall, the ALICO Building, the McLennan County Courthouse and the grass lot adjoining the Fire Training Station on University-Parks Drive. Handicap parking is available at Ben E. Keith Distribution and the Waco Convention Center. Waco Transit also will provide free shuttle bus service from 7 to 11 p.m. from the Ferrell Center to Heritage Square.

choover@wacotrib.com

757-5749