White Noise & Lightning - The Continental Drifters Story by Sean Kelly [Cool Dog Sound]

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What happens when a group of music business refugees decide to take a different route and play music for the love of it?

They form a band called the Continental Drifters, establish a dive-bar residency in Hollywood, and eventually are joined by more biz survivors who adapt their laissez faire approach to the art form that initially drew them into their professions… rock and roll.From Los Angeles to New Orleans, White Noise & Lightning covers the trials, tribulations, joy, love, heartbreak, and surprising revival of an unlikely “super group” comprised of members of The Cowsills, The Bangles, R.E.M., The Dream Syndicate, Hootie & the Blowfish, The dB’s, and more as they navigate the difficult world of band life while juggling ambition, ambivalence, romance, addiction, and family.

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Sean Kelly’s authorized biography of the Drifters tells the band’s story through extensive interviews with all ten of the musicians who were full-time members at various times, as well as a myriad of their colorful friends and cohorts, leaving no stone unturned in researching this rather extraordinary group of people and their quest for musical family during a journey one member likened to a “locomotive going down a hill.”

"Their insistence on playing three hours every night, whether there were 400 people or 40, was trying sometimes. I say that laughing because we loved every minute of it. But it was like, ‘Wow, they are here to play. They’re not here to play a short little tight set. They’re here to make as much music as they possibly can.’ Even if they’re going to be exhausted the next day, it doesn’t matter.”

Steve Wynn, The Dream Syndicate

We Are All Drifters participants include The Bangles’ Debbi Peterson (whose sister Vicki was long part of the Continental Drifters), R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills, Marshall Crenshaw, John Cowsill (whose sister Susan has been a Continental Drifter of long standing) Don Dixon, Hootie & The Blowfish founder/lead guitarist Mark Bryan, Kim Richey, George Porter Jr. of the Meters, Annie Clements and Garrison Starr. A single from the tribute album—Debbi Peterson and The Minus 5’s version of “Who We Are, Where We Live”—is available exclusively on Bandcamp now.

Listen to “Who We Are, Where We Live” performed by Debbi Peterson and The Minus 5 (feat. Peter Buck of R.E.M.)

https://continentaldrifterstribute.bandcamp.com/track/who-we-are-where-we-live

“I saw them play one Tuesday night in a little bar in Woodstock, NY in front of maybe 11 people. They got up there and poured their hearts out, and I’ve been a fan ever since. All in all, I’m glad that I was asked to be on this album, and glad to be a part of it.”

Marshall Crenshaw

In related Continental Drifters news, author Sean Kelly shares the title of his book with Omnivore Recordings’ White Noise & Lightning: The Best Of Continental Drifters album (release date: September 13), that includes voluminous liner notes by Kelly on both an 11-track LP and 15-track CD.

“The Continental Drifters reminded me in a lot of ways of The Band, so that really piqued my interest. I found Carlo Nuccio’s voice to be hauntingly fabulous. I was always looking for inspiration, and when I first heard them, I thought, ‘This is cool. Thank goodness there’s something cool.’”

Carlene Carter

The Continental Drifters were perhaps the very definition of an underground band with virtually no major label or professional management intercession. While the music they created would now be thought of as “Americana,” neither the genre nor the term for it existed at the band’s inception. In a sense, they “invented” something for which there was no name, but which they were compelled to pursue just the same. The Continental Drifters were a passion project for all concerned and Kelly captures that fervor in his book, which too is something of a passion project, having taken the better part of five years to meticulously research and write.

Almost from its early ‘90s inception, the band, with a continually evolving personnel line up, held down a weekly residency in Los Angeles, performing before an ever-expanding fan base who religiously gathered to see them each Tuesday at Raji’s, a bare bones showcase room that was not typically haunted by major label functionaries. As the band was getting its footing and to some extent solidifying its lineup, things changed. Several of the members pulled up stakes and relocated to New Orleans, where they built a reputation for breaking barriers and innovation – all over again. In essence, history repeated itself in the Crescent City.

It can be argued that the Continental Drifters were not so much a band as an arts collective that attracted an ever-changing line-up of inspired musicians who explored new vistas without much regard to commercial constraints. The Continental Drifters, unburdened by major label and management handlers tended to explore what felt right to the respective members/participants almost from a purely musical point of view. While they were for the most part, hitless, they broke new ground and played original music that was totally original and unencumbered by constraints of format or genre.

Continental Drifters personnel

Russ Broussard# (ex-member of The Bluerunners)

Susan Cowsill# (also of The Cowsills, Psycho Sisters)

Gary Eaton (ex-member of Giant Sand, The Ringling Sisters, collaborator with Steve Wynn of The Dream Syndicate)

Ray Ganucheau (has released albums under his own name)

Peter Holsapple# (ex-member of The dB’s, former touring guitarist with R.E.M. and Hootie & The Blowfish)

Robert Maché (ex-member of Lulu and the Broadsides, Swinging Madisons, Steve Wynn Quintet)

Danny McGough (ex-member of Social Distortion, Liquor Giants, 7 Deadly 5)

Carlo Nuccio (1961 – 2022 / played drums on albums by Tori Amos, Emmylou Harris, Marianne Faithfull, Dr. John)

Vicki Peterson# (also of The Bangles)

Mark Walton# (ex-member of The Dream Syndicate)

#part of the most recent lineup of the Continental Drifters

Continental Drifters: Before and Beyond Spotify playlist illustrates the members’ connections to their many other musical endeavors

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/528YeC19d78InPfSOCnkib?si=7bd2686a854d4fc6