MIGHTY FLYERS WING IT WITH U.S. RECORDING LABELS

One irony about the new boom in “American music” spearheaded by such roots-conscious bands as Lone Justice, R.E.M., the Replacements and others is how little impact that explosion has had on more traditional blues acts.

Such a group is the Mighty Flyers, one of Southern California’s most exciting blues-based bands. But like the James Harman Band, Jimmie Wood & the Immortals and other Southland groups whose music is steeped in the blues, the Flyers continue to struggle to get a little respect from American record companies.

“The way I look at it, we’re not alone,” said lead singer and harmonica player Rod Piazza during an interview this week in a Santa Ana restaurant. Sitting at a tiny table with pianist and songwriter Honey Alexander, guitarist Junior Watson, bassist Ed Stuve and drummer Ed Mann, Piazza said: “We’re in good company. The Fabulous Thunderbirds don’t have a deal, Bonnie Raitt doesn’t have a deal. . . . Record stores have half the store selling videos instead of records.”

The quintet, which plays Marcel’s in Costa Mesa today and Saturday, came up with the scintillating “File Under Rock” album in 1984 but still can’t find an American record label willing to release its rollicking and bluesy new “From the Start to the Finnish” LP. (The pun in the title is a reference to Finland, one country that the Flyers visited last summer and that is also the home of BRB Records, which is releasing the album in several European countries.)

The musicians, however, have been touring and performing so frequently that they don’t have time to moan over the struggle to nail down a U.S. record deal.

“It doesn’t bother us if no one puts out the record here,” Alexander said. “We’ll just put it out ourselves and continue on our way.”

One reason the group maintains its unflagging optimism and good humor is the enthusiastic responses it received from two European concert tours during the past year.

“I saw the strangest thing I’ve ever seen after we played a rock festival in Oulu, Finland,” Alexander said with a laugh. “Outside, there were about six 9-year-old girls crowded around Rod with their autograph books.”

Said Piazza: “The European kids are brought up different culturally. We played one pop festival and there were all these kids in the audience with purple hair and black-eye makeup. We were on a bill with an offshoot of (glam rock band) Hanoi Rocks called the Cherry Bombs and I thought: ‘Oh, boy, let’s just do our set and get out of this place.’ But when we played they all clapped and went nuts. That wouldn’t happen here in the states.”

In playing various rock, blues and jazz festivals before as many as 30,000 people, Piazza said they have no difficulty shifting gears when they return to small clubs here. “You lose the intimacy in the big places,” Piazza said without a trace of boastfulness. “It’s tough to relate to (that many) people.”

Like other innocents abroad before them, the Flyers also discovered that a couple of trips overseas sparked a new appreciation for things they had taken for granted in their homeland.

“When you leave, you really begin to miss the finer things in life,” Alexander said.

Said Stuve: “Like cheeseburgers.”

“And good Mexican food,” Alexander added with a smile. “And television with more than one channel.”

Since forming in 1978, the Flyers have performed regularly in Orange County clubs. Last year, the band altered its lineup for the first time in seven years when drummer Ed Mann joined the group.

Formerly an engineer at Hughes Aircraft, Mann quipped: “People ask how I could leave a $40,000-a-year job for one that pays four--dollars. But that’s after taxes. Before taxes it’s $6. But this is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, next to being born, that is.”

After this weekend’s shows at Marcel’s--a club the band likes “because it has a dance floor,” Alexander said--the Mighty Flyers will be back in Orange County for a New Year’s Eve concert at Margarita’s Village in San Clemente.

The group’s hectic schedule will continue in 1986 with performances throughout Southern California. In March, the Flyers are scheduled to headline the annual “Battle of the Blues Harmonica Players” festival in San Francisco and then tour England for the first time in conjunction with the British release of the new album on Red Lightning Records.

But regardless of what happens to this record in America--or the next one--Mann said the music, not the money, is what will keep the Mighty Flyers going.

“Buddy Rich is my idol,” Mann explained. “All those old guys--the ones that are still alive anyway--are still playing. But they’re still at it not just because they’ve spent their whole lives playing music, but because music is their whole life. That’s the kind of band this is.”

LIVE ACTION: Wall of Voodoo will be at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach on Dec. 27. . . . Rick Nelson returns to the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana on Jan. 18. . . . Pianist Liz Story will perform at Saddleback College on Jan. 18.