DeadRise members left to right: Norm Faulkner, Gregg Shivers, Burke Johnson, David Charlton, Lee Archard and Mark Clark.
It sounds like the set-up for a good joke. What happens when a doctor, an oil company owner, an insurance agent, a counselor, a tech company manager and a church school leader walk into an abandoned convenience store that was once called The Buoy?
A band called DeadRise practices. But it’s what happens next that’s even more fascinating. People pull up outside to sit in their cars and listen. Others walk inside, settling on the sofa or chairs, to better hear the music. A few are even cajoled into singing a song with the band.
The band’s humble beginnings can be traced back five years to Mark Clark’s house where every Tuesday night, he and Norm Faulkner would sit around and practice on their acoustic guitars. Then Burke Johnson got wind of it and began sitting in for the guitar sessions, fueled by the cookies Clark’s wife made for them. But once the guitarists decided to follow Bob Dylan’s path and go electric, the cookies stopped. Given that they’d added Greg Shivers on keyboards, Lee Archard on guitar and David Charlton on drums, they needed to find a new practice space. Faulkner suggested using some of his office space. “There were no neighbors, so we could make all the noise we wanted,” he says.
According to Clark, their intent wasn’t to start a band, but to “noodle around.” They developed a repertoire of songs by their favorite bands—the Grateful Dead, Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles—but not the hits you’d expect. “We’re a cover band playing bands you know and songs you may not,” Clark says. “Deeper cuts from their albums.”
It was some of the musicians’ children who suggested they call themselves the Grateful Dads. “People liked it, but we thought it was cheesy, so we decided to change it,” Faulkner says. “DeadRise reflects the music we like and our love of the water.”
The band’s first time playing out was at a friend’s birthday party and they were a hit. But it was three years ago when MJ Anderson of the band Mary and the Janes asked them to be the opening act for her set at Willaby’s that DeadRise really caught fire. A huge crowd of friends showed up and the place was mobbed.
“We were all like deer in the headlights,” Faulkner laughs. “And the owner said the two bands could never play together again because there were too many people for his staff to service.” These days, the band has a repertoire of nearly 80 songs and plays benefit shows and paying gigs all over the tri-cities area at places like Kilmarnock Brewhaus, Christchurch School and the Rappahannock River Yacht Club. Although everyone in the band sings at some point, DeadRise also will feature guest singers—Claire Keesee, Eva Ginsberg, their own children—which allows the band to play different material.
This fall will be especially busy with a solo gig at Willaby’s on September 27, the Turkey Shoot Regatta for NNK Hospice on October 5, and their biggest event yet on October 12, the Chesapeake Academy Oyster Roast. Any profits they make go directly into sound system improvements.
“DeadRise is six people with equal say,” Clark insists, adding that their next step is writing original songs. “If we have a goal, it’s to keep on playing. We like for people to call and ask us to play because this is great fun.”