Pea Valley Flyers provide a night of fun at ‘Music of Our Town’ concert
Rockmart exploded with music thanks to the Rockmart Cultural Arts Center’s “The Music of Our Town” concert that treated locals to the sound of classic rock, western swing, and traditional country by headliners The Pea Valley Flyers and a host of local musicians. Those who joined in the night of fun on the stage including Julie Bell, Anna Snider, Isaac Streetman, David Mixon, Brook Swan, Cassy Thaxton, and Drew Collum.
The concert was one portion of RCAC’s 2018 event “Celebrating Our Town Through The Arts” which honors local artists of all types of craft. While photographers took the stage from Jan. 15 through Feb. 24 with a gallery exhibition, the March 3 concert gave musical artists a turn at the spotlight.
“The theme of this concert is ‘Celebrating Our Town Through The Arts,’ so we’re doing songs that are local, about towns and homes, Georgia, and things like that,” Pea Valley Flyers founding member Rex Garner said. “We filled in the gaps with whatever we could, but if you’re a classic country band, you can’t get by without doing a few Merle Haggard songs.”
Founded by Garner, Jon Carleton, David Harper, and Steve Stewart, the band was named after finding out a few of the members were airplane pilots who happened to live on Rockmart’s Pea Ridge Road. The Pea Valley Flyers are known for playing at various local events such as the Robbie Podskoc White benefit concert that raised over $5,000 for Georgia Cancer Support and Cedartown’s Fourth Friday series that invites locals out for a night of fellowship. More information about the group can be found at www.facebook. com/peavalleyflyers/. The theme of local kinship was taken to heart by each of the musicians including Streetman who gave a solo performance after sharing a few words about the event. “The last couple of years, we’ve suffered loss of young and old,” Streetman said. “But through the love of God and our town’s heart we’ve been able to come together and pick up the fragile pieces to move forward. So this next song, I’m going to dedicate in honor of them.”
Through the appropriations from the Georgia General Assembly, the Georgia Council for the Arts sponsors in part RCAC and “Celebrating Our Town Through The Arts.”
GCA is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.