The Athens Music Walk of Fame has embedded 35 plaques with honorees’ names shining in gold into the sidewalks of downtown since it started in 2020. Flagpole Magazine was among this year’s inductees announced at the AthFest Music and Arts Festival last month.
The Walk of Fame is a two-square-block area outlined by Pulaski, West Washington, North Lumpkin and West Clayton streets. Along the walk are iconic music venues in the western half of downtown like the Morton Theatre, 40 Watt Club and Georgia Theatre. Honorees represent different elements that have contributed to the rich music heritage and legacy of Athens.
“The Athens music scene isn’t just the musicians; it’s the venues, the producers, sound engineers, visual artists, writers, historians, composers and supporters of all kinds that really make the scene,” says Tatiana Veneruso, public art coordinator of the ACC Leisure Services Department’s art division.
The initial 2020 inductees included The B-52s, Danger Mouse (Brian Joseph Burton), Drive-By Truckers, The Elephant 6 Recording Company, Hall Johnson, Neal Pattman, Pylon, R.E.M., Vic Chesnutt and Widespread Panic. The 2021 announcement added Bob Cole, Lo Down & Duddy, Nuçi’s Space/Linda Phillips, of Montreal and Art Rosenbaum, with Bloodkin, Tituss Burgess, The Glands, Ishues and Love Tractor following in 2022. Then Monroe Bowers “Pink” Morton, Normaltown Flyers, Jackie Payne, Calvin Orlando Smith and WUOG joined in 2023. In 2024 the 40 Watt Club, Bar-B-Q Killers, George Fontaine Sr., John Keane and James R. Smith/Voices of Truth were added. In addition to Flagpole Magazine this year, the announcement included Walter Allen Sr., Randall Bramblett, Five Eight and Michael Guthrie Band.
“I’ve been on the Athens Music Walk of Fame Committee since it started in 2020,” says Nate Mitchell. “In the preliminary meetings we first had five years ago, there was a public poll that resulted in hundreds of suggestions from all aspects of the Athens community as to who would be worthy of inclusion to become a permanent part of the downtown area, and it should be no surprise that Flagpole Magazine was on that initial list from the beginning.
“Besides honoring local musicians, we also want to acknowledge other entities that prominently contribute to enriching the music scene, and for 30 years Flagpole has been consistently covering local music by writing articles, reviews and other commentary, as well as publishing the local concert calendar, providing vital information regarding venues, show times and performer descriptions as both a free weekly print and online version.”
The first issue of Flagpole was 16 pages and came out on Oct. 28, 1987 with the mission of providing an alternative to the existing publications in town that lacked coverage of the progressive music scene. Within that issue, founder Jared Bailey explained, “Flagpole Magazine is a music magazine which will evolve to the needs of an ever-changing music scene.” Although it was initially short on articles and long on club listings and cartoons, the paper began by only seeking advertisers within the local music scene.
“Even Flagpole’s coverage of local government was motivated by the music scene. Jared, through attending the South by Southwest music convocation in Austin, saw how local government support had helped that city’s music scene to prosper. From its start, Flagpole covered local government and encouraged its support of local music,” says Pete McCommons, currently Flagpole’s “special agent” after decades as publisher and editor.
Beyond coverage in between its pages, Flagpole has actively participated in and celebrated the Athens music scene by hosting the Flagpole Music Awards from 1999 until the pandemic, releasing special Christmas compilation tapes, printing an expansive music directory, sponsoring community events and even participating in Nuçi’s Athens Business Rocks battle of the bands, since there has always been more than a couple of musicians on staff at any given time.
“In the early years of Flagpole, we had to fight against the perception that we were ‘only a music mag,’” says McCommons. “Of course, musicians like Michael Stipe were frequently involved in public issues, such as the highly controversial beginnings of the civic center, so Flagpole was a music mag covering public events in which local musicians were prominent participants. Same with the development of lower downtown and the involvement of Patterson Hood and others. The music scene has always been heavily involved in developing the character of Athens and difficult to separate into just music or just news.”
Naturally the nature of the coverage has changed over the years, but music still features prominently in today’s issues—and you can always rely on the consistent inclusion of the live music calendar and Gordon Lamb’s Threats & Promises column.
“If there’s any specific goal, so to speak, it’s to be a go-to column each week for quick hits on the current scene on a weekly basis,” says Lamb. “The key elements that have always been present are timeliness, relevance and a broad perspective on what constitutes the music scene. The major changes that have happened is the column used to feature national and international music news but changed to a strictly local column a long time ago. Also, as traditional record reviews have fallen off, the column features many more reviews, especially of records and artists who wouldn’t traditionally receive substantial coverage anywhere.”
As a longtime contributor to Flagpole, but also as a longtime supporter of the larger music scene, Lamb really wraps up the contributions of Flagpole to the Athens music legacy best:“Flagpole has been a go-to source for music since its inception. Athens used to have multiple weekly music/events publications and ‘weekend guides,’ etc. Flagpole has outlasted them all, including those which had significantly more funding than Flagpole ever has. The tone of the music coverage has changed a lot from chummy to combative to accepting. It’s fair to say that most, but not all, the Flagpole music editors have encouraged a distinct voice and, indeed, each one’s tenure seems to have had that. Flagpole is an anchor in the community because of its consistency. Week in, week out, Flagpole just keeps showing up.”
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