By: Julia Kazar Thursday night kicked off the Brackish Water Band’s summer tour.  The first stop for the country/ bluegrass band was Annabell’s in Akron.  They played a two hour set upstairs in the lounge that was full of foot-tapping and good times.  It was a show filled to the brim with southern voices as well as sounds, and it was perfect for a summer night. If you’ve ever been to Annabell’s you know just how small the stage is upstairs, now imagine trying to squeeze four musicians and their instruments on the stage.  It’s not exactly very roomy but if the Brackish Water Band was cramped up there, they never showed it.  Only a few times during the night did they have to take a moment and reconfigure their set up, and that was only because they were switching instruments, not because of any space issues.  The four piece band made the most of the small space. “Now I Feel Like I’m Dying” was the biggest hit of the night, the band dedicated it to some of their friends who were in the audience and to married people in general.  The crowd sang along and just had a great time throughout the whole song.  It was a slow, somewhat somber song that talks about love and its benefits and drawbacks.  Something that really makes this band great is that even though they are a country band, they don’t overemphasize it when singing songs.  Often time’s country singers seem to put too much twang into their voices, but with the Brackish Water Band, they sing with a nice mix of country twang and heart and soul.  This unique combination is one of the things that will set this band apart from all the others out there. Another popular song that night was “Country Music Fight Club.”  As the song ended one of the band members joked, “people generally break out in fights when we play this song, we’re not sure why.”  That is just the kind of guys they are; they like to make sure that their audience enjoys their show and they will do what ever it takes to make sure that happens.  They also joked later, “If you want us to play better songs, buy us more to drink!”  But with or without the help of alcohol the show that the Brackish Water Band put on was fantastic and fun. If you haven’t heard of the Brackish Water Band yet, check out their music on MySpace right away.  Or, even better, go see them at one of their many shows on their tour that is continuing through the end of August.  If you like country and bluegrass music you won’t be disappointed by this band.