Event is 11th annual contest to select
area’s best Voice of Baltimore singer,
to benefit Ed Block Courage Awards
 
By Alan Z. Forman
 
Wearing cutoff Daisy Dukes and gyrating like an ecdysiast, song contestant Holly Walter electrified a large gathering at Padonia Station Monday night as the 2012 installment of the Lutherville nightclub and sports bar’s “Voice of Baltimore” singing contest entered its third consecutive week.

Formerly known as the “Baltimore Idol,” the competition, to benefit the Ed Block Courage Awards, is in its eleventh year, newly designated “Voice of Baltimore” as a result of objections from Fox Television’s “Idol” franchise, which inexplicably expressed concerns with the local event’s popularity.

Eight contestants — amateur performers all, though easily as good as anyone professional — entertained a packed house, vying for a chance to be named this year’s “Voice of Baltimore” and walk off with $500 cash, a 10-hour recording session and a seven-day all-expenses-paid trip to Ocean City.

And… the opportunity to sing the National Anthem at a Baltimore Orioles baseball game this summer at Camden Yards.

Photojournalist Bill Hughes chronicled the event for VoB.

The winner’s recording session will take place courtesy of Sheffield Audio-Video Productions’ Sheffield Institute for the Recording Artists, located in Phoenix, Md., and the week in O.C. is being provided by 1st Class Travel. Both are co-sponsors of the 11th Annual Voice of Baltimore Competition, along with Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles and Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewing Co., distributors of National Bohemian Beer, a/k/a Natty Boh.

Second prize is $300; third prize is $200.

Patrons of the popular Lutherville nightclub/sports bar can enjoy a Natty Boh on draft for just $2 for the duration of the competition.

Voice of Baltimore, the website, is proud to have its name associated with such an exemplary event. The Ed Block Courage Award Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of abused, neglected and at-risk children and ending the cycle of abuse, and to raise awareness and prevention of child abuse.

‘Voice of Baltimore’ Contest judges (left to right): Steve Wozniak, Tripwire guitarist; Damon ‘Bulldog’ Yaffe, radio host; AL Forman, VoB managing editor; Ginna Barilone, Fifth Level Band vocalist; and cabaret singer Martine Casner.

It seemed serendipitous that this year’s event is taking place as a high profile child abuse trial is proceeding in Bellefonte, Pa., near State College, where a former Penn State University football coach is accused of molesting a large number of young boys over a period of many decades and hiding behind a charity he founded for wayward youth.

The defendant’s lawyers finished putting on their defense early Wednesday without calling the former assistant coach to the stand to refute child abuse allegations that, if convicted, could put him in prison for the rest of his life.

Beloved Penn State football coach Joe Paterno had his stellar reputation sullied in the final weeks before his recent death because of his failure to move aggressively against the accused assistant coach when he first learned of the alleged abuse more than a decade ago.

The Ed Block Courage Awards Foundation exists to expose and fight against such behavior.

Founded by a former trainer for the Baltimore Colts who also worked as a physical therapist at the city’s Kernan Hospital (for Crippled Children), the charity also honors National Football League players “who exemplify commitments to the principles of sportsmanship and courage.”

Since its inception more than 30 years ago, the Foundation, through its charter with the Courage House National Support Network for Kids, and an affiliation with the National Football League and Professional Football Athletics Trainers Society has raised millions of dollars in its effort to help provide hope to countless American children.

Beginning in 2002, Padonia Station, which is located in the Padonia Village Shopping Center at York and Padonia Roads in Lutherville, has sponsored the Voice of Baltimore event, a seven-week-long Monday-night contest that began this year on June 4 with four weeks’ preliminaries to be followed by two weeks’ semi-finals July 9 and 16.

Contest judges Martine, left, and Ginna perform duet to kick off the night’s competition at Padonia Station’s ‘Voice of Balti- more’ Singing Contest to raise awareness & fight child abuse.

The final will take place on Monday July 23.

Local DJs, band members, Orioles’ officials and others, regularly participate as judges of the contest, all proceeds of which go to the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation.

This week’s installment was emceed by their communications director, WNST.net/AM Radio-1570’s Paul Mittermeier, who was joined by radio co-host Damon “The Bulldog” Yaffe as chief of five judges for the Monday night competition.

Bulldog (also “B’Dog”) hosts “Catch the Buzz” — a mostly “sports talk and stuff” show, he says — on WNST weekdays 10 a.m.-noon, with co-hosts Mittermeier (a/k/a “Mitt”) and Greg Marsh (“GMarsh”).

He also coaches football at Towson University and other places.

The other judges included Ginna Barilone, female vocalist of the Fifth Level Band and a previous winner of the former Baltimore Idol Contest, and Martine Casner, a Baltimore cabaret singer — who performed an audience-pleasing duet to kick off the night’s event — Steve Wozniak, guitarist with the band Tripwire, which performs regularly at Padonia Station, and AL Forman, managing editor of the competition’s namesake, VoiceOfBaltimore.org.

Judges on previous weeks included Kim Yates, drummer of the almost-all-girl metal band Scarlet Angel and proprietor of Kim’s Krypt, an alternative boutique in Essex; guitarist Eddie DePaola, a/k/a Zack Chainj; Greg Marsh, “Catch the Buzz” co-host and vocalist of the New Romance, a 1980s New Wave band, who kicked off the Week 1 proceedings with a rousing rendition of Elvis Presley’s “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You”; and Meredith Marx, popular DJ of WZBA-FM-100.7-The Bay.

Week 1 emcee was popular DJ Stash (Stephen G. Smith) of 98Rock/WIYY-97.9-FM, a/k/a Steve Ash.

Ed Block official/emcee Paul Mittermeier with one of the con- testants. The final will occur at Padonia Station on July 23rd.

The annual competitions are coordinated by Padonia Station’s Sales Manager Debi Fowler, who told VoB the club also contributes to St. Vincent’s Villa, a Villa Maria Schools’ “courage house” located in Dulaney Valley.

“Every year in August, Padonia Station brings the kids in for lunch,” she said.

“It’s very sad to see how abused they are.”

And yes, Baltimore Block ecdysiast-wannabe Holly was unanimously selected to be one of the semi-finalists.
 
alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org