Harry Manx

Harry Manx was born on the Isle of Man and raised in Canada.  He returned to Europe as a young man in the late seventies and honed his musical craft as a blues lap-slide guitarist on street corners, coffee shops and festivals.  Manx moved to Japan to live and perform for nearly a decade before moving to India to become a student of Indian slide guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.  His evolution as a blues artist combined with mystic Indian influence has created a truly distinctive and pleasant sound Manx refers to as “Mysticssippi” blues.

Playing a lap-steel, Mohan Veena, harmonica and a banjo, Manx is able to blend traditional, weathered Americana blues songs with intricate slide, trance-inducing raja melodies that are hard to resist, and anything but conventional.  Manx effectively makes use of the music and stories of his songs, along with selected instruments, to combine the qualities of two vastly different forms of music to create one unique sound.

Nathan Brown

Brown recently published—and will be reading from—two new books of poems. Mongrel Empire Press brought out Nôt Exăctly Jōb in 2007, which was a finalist for the 2008 Oklahoma Book Award. Then, just this summer, Village Books Press published Two Tables Over.

Of Two Tables Over, Robert Con Davis-Undiano, Dean of the Honors College at OU and Director of World Literature Today says: “The shrewd observer who sits two tables over at a coffeeshop is the guy we always fear in a crowd—the one who sees right into us. The shrewd observer of Two Tables Over, as it turns out, is also a poet of the first rank, and with this new book of poetry Nathan Brown has again moved to the fore of what is happening in contemporary poetry.” Rilla Askew (winner of the American Book Award) says: “Nathan Brown’s poems tell stories, paint characters, delve into what it means to be human. Open-hearted and available, warm, just a wee bit ironic—like the American character—Two Tables Over is a pure delight.”

John Arnold

A complimentary light lunch for 100 will be provided by the Norman Convention and Visitors Bureau, with dessert provided by Hiland Dairy.

John Arnold is a name well known in the Norman music scene.  In 1980, John was named “Male Vocalist of the Year” at the Oklahoma Opry.  He and the band quickly became very popular with Oklahoma audiences, playing many of the state’s biggest venues.  In 1983 they won the Wrangler Country Music Showdown national finals in Nashville, beating out 50 other artists for the $50,000 prize and a nationally televised performance.  They were signed to a recording contract with Complete/Polygram records and charted with their first single “How We Gonna Know if it’s Love?”

The band toured nationally with both Ricky Scaggs and Exile and played such famous gigs as the National Finals Rodeo and in the Cotton Bowl Parade.

Tired of extensive nationwide touring (they once covered 25,000 miles in four months) they signed with a Texas agent, playing the largest dance halls in Texas for a number of years. 

Now, back home in Norman, they are still in great demand, focusing on private parties, corporate events and public festivals, playing their unique blend of bluegrass, country swing, jazz and rock. 

The John Arnold Bluegrass Band is a smaller group, comprised of members of the full band, but they are guaranteed to play full sized music.  Everyone is invited to come and enjoy!

Lunchtime Concerts are presented by the Norman Downtowners Association as a gift to our community.  Concerts are produced by The Performing Arts Studio.  Almost Outlaws (comprised of Judge Bill Hetherington and Attorney Lindsay Bailey) will close out the season on Friday, October 3.

The Norman Downtowners Association invites everyone to visit the many unique and interesting shops, galleries and restaurants located in the Downtown Arts District.  Downtown is growing and changing.  Come check it out!

For additional information on Lunchtime Concerts or other PAS programs, phone 405-307-9320.

Byron Berline Band

"It is always a pleasure to have Mr. Berline and his band back in Norman.  He is truly a living legend in the world of music and we are very fortunate to have him as our final performer of the Summer Breeze season."  says Steven White, Summer Breeze Chair.

Three time national fiddle champion, Byron Berline has played with the best.  In 1965, while still a student at O.U.,  he played the Newport Folk Festival, where he met the legendary Bill Monroe.  Monroe invited him to join The Blue Grass Boys.  Berline did so immediately after graduating from O.U. in 1967.  His first appearance with The Blue Grass Boys was at the Grand Ole Opry, but after just six months with the group, Berline was drafted.  

After serving in the army, he was invited to join the Dillard and Clark Expedition. While with that group, Berline moved to Los Angeles, where he soon became one of the most popular fiddlers in the music business.  His long list of recording credits includes The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, The Byrds, Alabama, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Rod Stewart, John Denver, Earl Scruggs, Emmylou Harris, Tammy Wynette, Mason Williams, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Vince Gill. 

In 1970 he scored the ABC television movie Run Simon Run, the first of many films he would score.  Berline has extensive television and movie sound track credits and appeared in Star Trek. Blaze, Back to the Future III and Basic Instinct.

Berline has recorded seven solo albums, including the highly acclaimed Fiddle & a Song, with guest performances by Vince Gill, Mason Williams, Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe.  In 1996, the album was nominated for two Grammy Awards.

Berline returned to Oklahoma in 1995, opening the Double Stop Fiddle Shop in Guthrie with a Music Hall above the shop.  The current band was soon brought together and has  performed all across the nation.