The clock is ticking down the hours and minutes to MerleFest 2009, presented by Lowe's, which will begin its 22nd year of "Music, Moments and Memories" next Thursday, April 23, and wind up on Sunday, April 26, on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

The Starry Plough bar, on the corner of Shattuck and Ashby in Berkeley, stands out on the block as there is not much else around. I arrived a bit early and saw Dead Heads standing outside the bar smoking joints and cigarettes, making me think I was walking down the mythical “Shakedown Street.”