When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Crimson Moon Cafe, 24 N. Park St., Dahlonega
How much: $14 advance, $16 day of show
The fun thing about music by The New Familiars is it doesn’t try to be anything fancy — it’s just rip-roarin’ get-up-and-dance rock-infused folk music.
The five-member band tears into Dahlonega on Saturday for one night at The Crimson Moon Cafe, and we had a chance to speak with Dan Flynn, the band’s drummer. He, along with Justin Fedor (vocals/guitar/mandolin/banjo), Eric-Scott Guthrie (vocals/guitar/harmonica/banjo), Josh Daniel (vocals/resonator/guitar) and Pat Maholland (bass) all come from different musical backgrounds, but that just adds to the musical fun, Flynn said.
Question: The band usually performs on a variety of instruments, some of them only seen in traditional bluegrass or folk. Yet you guys have a rock edge to you, too. How does all this influence your music?
Answer: The main set-up is dobro, mandolin, upright bass and drums; there’s also some acoustic or electric guitar. We come mainly from a rock ‘n’ roll background ... Justin started out as a duet playing acoustic instruments and met Josh; Josh happened to be playing at their house one night. And that’s how the sound formed, so a lot of the licks that are being played are traditional rock licks, just with traditional instruments.
Q: Do you all come from different musical influences?
A: I know Eric comes form a more folksy scene, Justin was in previous bands that were more rock a fusion type, Josh, he comes from all different types and Pat, he plays rock and country. I’ve always played all different types of music through the years. I think that is the best part in how we come up with out tunes; we are coming from so many different backgrounds and it happened to click for this one sound.
Q: When you’re on tour, do you guys do anything to break it up, or are you just into getting to the next town, setting up and practicing?
A: There’s always things we like to do to kill time. Last time we were in Augusta we went and saw Dwayne Allman’s grave, which is kind of morbid but he was a great influence on us. we’re really informal — we like to get off the stage as quick as possible and talk to the people ... we’re human too, and sometimes people forget that when they see you on stage. We want to talk to everyone.
Q: Your new EP has a version of Smokey Robinson’s classic, "My Girl." What was the inspiration for the new, more mature sound for the song?
A: I think Josh, when he does some solo gigs, and he was just messing with it and played it out a few times and it just kind of happened that way, with the arrangement and stuff. That was before I came along, so it’s nice to be able to play the tune and be a part of it and support it. (Flynn added that the song will be part of the playlist for Saturday night.)
Q: Along with a gig at the Living Room in New York City next month, you’re also playing at the 2009 New York City Beard and Moustache Championships. What’s up with that?
A: It’s going to be awesome. We were contacted through MySpace ... to play the festival. I don’t know how they found out about us, but they contacted us and we thought it would be great because we’re all beard-wearing fellas. I think it will be a really good gig.