ParkFest to feature Mongrel Dogs, Saturday Shoes, Ryan Young

The penultimate week of ParkFest 2016 will feature Mongrel Dogs, Saturday Shoes and Ryan Young.

The concert takes place from 6:30-8 p.m. Tuesday at the Robe-Ann Park Bob Flanigan Bandshell.

Contrary to what was stated in recent ParkFest stories, this will not be the final show of the season. The 2016 series will conclude on Tuesday, July 19 with Mike VanRensselaer and Lexi Len and the Strangers.

As always, Anthony's New York Style Pizzeria will sell food at the event.

The Mongrel Dogs were formed in 2006 when guitarists Istvan Csicsery-Ronay and Ron Dye teamed up to play innovative covers of songs from an eclectic range of genres, including folk, blues, country and R&B. Within a couple years Ron and Istvan were adding original songs to their repertoire, and they coined the term "soulbilly" to describe the sound they were creating.

By the time Alex Puga added his harmonica and vocals to the group in 2012 the Mongrel Dogs were playing mostly originals written by each of the three members.

The Mongrel Dogs have played in public together only rarely in the last year as Csicsery-Ronay has formed a new band, the Dogmatics, and Puga has reunited with former band-mates to form a new blues group, Gravel Road.

The Parkfest show will be an all acoustic affair featuring songs written by Dye, with Dye on vocals and rhythm guitar, Csicsery-Ronay on lead and rhythm guitar and Puga on harmonica.

ParkFest stalwart Saturday Shoes is an alt-country and indie rock cover band. The band's mission is to eschew popular music for the raw, quintessentially American sound of alt-country and indie rock.

However, they have been known to be suckers for disco and 1970s soft rock.

All labels aside, the band still has a wide array of songs to choose from, so listeners can expect broad choices in the set list. The list of artists they cover is simply too long to print.

No information on Ryan Young was provided for this story.