The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: Out & About

Media Credit: Courtesy Normaltown Flyers The Normaltown Flyers has been playing "pickup truck rock and roll" for long enough to submit photos from each ten year period since forming. This photo is band members in 2008. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Courtesy Normaltown Flyers This is the original band in 1981. [Click to enlarge]

It's been 30 years since the band's conception and Athens' own Normaltown Flyers has developed a musical history as rich as its songs.

The group's past is punctuated by three significant lineup changes, one major record deal, several tours and countless live performances, all factors that have contributed to its reputation as local music mainstays.

Formed in 1979, the Normaltown Flyers was initially a casual pickup band consisting of three musically inclined friends with a passion for country music.

"We played at parties, played late night jams," said Brian Burke, guitarist, vocalist and the group's founding member. "It was very popular because it was unique. We had no drummer, two acoustic guitars and a bass."

The group - then composed of Burke, Greg Veale, and Mike Cronic - continued to play throughout Athens, garnering local respectability and honing its trademark brand of "pickup truck rock 'n' roll."

"Our first really big gig was at Georgia Theatre. I think we opened for Doc Watson and that was just a packed house. And from then on out, the phone kept ringing," Burke said.

The original members continued to play throughout the '80s, and by the early '90s the lineup had faced a noticeable shift. Cronic left the group as Cal Hale and David Blackmon took their places in the band's lineup. From there, Burke said, the madness began.

The band signed a record deal with Mercury Nashville and recorded two full-length albums under the label. The following years were filled with tours, television performances and hours of studio sessions.

"We were all over the country for awhile," Burke said. "We had no idea we were going to get popular."



After the Mercury days, the band's lineup shifted again into the Normaltown Flyers of today. The current lineup, which consists of Burke, Tom Ryan, Deane Quinter, and Davis Causey, is still active and still maintains a solid local fan base.

"We play a couple times a month," said Ryan, the group's bassist. "We've just made a lot of friends over the years and when we play, they come."

The band will reunite Friday to celebrate its 30th birthday with a show that will trace the group's evolution. The concert will feature three separate sets, one from each major incarnation of the band's lineup.

"The original three members are going to play a set, the next set will be the group that was signed to Mercury, and the final set will be the Normaltown Flyers of today," Burke said.

And for the original members, Friday's show will serve as a sort of musical reunion.

"It's the first time the original three have played together in a long time," Ryan said.

But Friday's show won't be a farewell concert by any stretch. According to Burke and Ryan, the Normaltown Flyers plans on sticking around for many years to come.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools