Flying time

Country singer/guitarist Hokey Sloan got hooked on music as a youngster in his native Athens. His interests, he recalls, were time-honored, if not unique.

"My older sisters were crazy about Elvis," says Sloan, who performs every Friday and Saturday at The Flying Machine in Lawrenceville. "When I saw Elvis with all those women chasing him, I said, 'That's for me!'''

He moved from Athens to Atlanta, where he played guitar in country bands at venues all over the metro area, including the Buckboard and the now-defunct Hemingway's. Sloan also played solo gigs where he could, including a run at Peppy's on Pleasant Hill Road.

For virtually all of that time, Sloan, 53, has balanced his ambitions as a musician and songwriter with the realities of a full-time job (and then some, usually) at the GM plant in Doraville, where he's worked since 1969, and with the commitments that accompany raising a family.

Since 1998, Sloan also has been a primary owner (with his wife) and an entertainer at The Flying Machine, a restaurant adjacent to the Briscoe Field airport. It's an unassuming setting; typically, a soloist or duo performs with recorded backing music. However, it has allowed Sloan and his trusty Fender Telecaster a steady gig as well as a place to plot life after retirement from GM, which should happen by spring, he says.

It's also enabled him to create a venue for young — and often very young — hopefuls to get a first taste of live performance. Currently, 14-year-old Jenna Lee Rose sings at The Flying Machine as a soloist Mondays and Tuesdays and shares the bill with Sloan Fridays, singing everything from pop-country to Britney Spears. Multi-instrumentalist Buddy Norman performs Wednesdays.

"Jenna's a mature performer," Sloan says. "She really knows how to relate to the audience. She'll take the cordless mic and walk out into the crowd like she's been doing it all her life."

In the not-too-distant past, the restaurant also has played host to singers Star Robert's Blanchard (age 20 when she began performing), 16-year-old Justin Wilson and 12-year-old Ashley Nicole, Sloan says.

"When I get out of GM, I'd really like to get into songwriting and publishing," Sloan says. He has no illusions about hitting it big and touring himself, he says, but he'd enjoy the chance to write songs for one or more of the young singers who appear in his restaurant.

"I'd love to see some people make it from that little stage to the big time," Sloan says. "Get one of them a record deal and then write for them." Sloan wrote nine of the 12 songs on a self-produced 1993 CD, receiving just enough local airplay, he recalls, to garner a couple of BMI songwriter royalty checks. Sloan recorded the album in Nashville in 1992 with Waylon Jennings' band at the studio of Jerry Bridges, Jennings' bassist and road manager. His live show at The Flying Machine, however, leans heavily to cover material from Alan Jackson, George Jones, Dwight Yoakam, Travis Tritt and others.

While GM retirement might free him to be more musical, Sloan acknowledges that operating a restaurant is far more challenging than he'd imagined. Repairs on the road leading to the restaurant, which lasted from last August until March, had a devastating effect on business, he says, and only through his wife's efforts as manager has the business stayed aloft.

On the other hand, Sloan counts his blessings in having a venue that's safe and inviting to adults and kids. He remembers a last-minute call he received some years ago to sing at a bar on Buford Highway. "It was like the gates of hell walking in there. I found out later that the band needed a singer because the other singer had the shit beat out of him the night before. The first song I did, this old girl walks right down front, pulls her shirt up and waves her boobs, and says, 'I like your singing.' I said, 'Lord, if you get me out of here ..."

Elvis, no doubt, said the same thing, more than once.

The Flying Machine, located at 510 Briscoe Blvd. in Lawrenceville, features music Monday through Saturday nights beginning at 7 p.m. For more information, call 770-962-2262.

This column is a weekly feature covering music outside the Perimeter. E-mail or mail "outside" music news to Bryan Powell, 830 Josh Lane, Lawrenceville, Ga. 30045.??