Todd Burge is one of West Virginia's musical treasures. I first came to Morgantown in 1988 and saw him perform with 63 Eyes at Squeak's Farm festival. He played bass and sang grungy tunes with the trio, Mark Poole on Guitar & Vocals, and Perry Kirk on Drums. The crowd slammed into each other like some wild nuclear chain reaction, and I became hooked on their phonics, as did a great number of fans.
The members of 63 Eyes switch musical hats, sometimes performing country style tunes (with an edge) such as Hank Williams Sr. tunes, under the name Triple Shot. He is from Parkersburg WV and some of his earlier bands were, Bunge and the Beats, and The Larrys.
Todd has another more mellow side when he performs solo and acoustically, and has become known for that mostly. He has written more songs than you can shake a stick at, and every new album brings something new to his sound. He's performed many times on my radio show, "The Morgantown Sound", and has played on Public Radio's "Mountain Stage" at least six times.
Listening to his songs is a lot like being read a story, many of them with humorous surprises in them, but also they tell of real life episodes.....a slice from the life of an interesting character. He certainly has a way with words which are combined with just the right tune to give the whole song a very meaningful and enjoyable character.
"We would all like to see a 63 Eyes reunion again!", many of us old-timers say. But that was 22 years ago and many of us are now in our forties and fifties. I'd end up in traction if I ever got into a 63 Eyes "pit" again and they started playing "Deer Head".