Overview: 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: The Continental Drifters Story 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.

Verdict: Here in Sean Kelly’s authorized biography of the Continental Drifters, he 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 - this captivating, wholly engrossing, and dutifully informed new prose is chock full of so much in-depth group/scene/times nuggets of wonderment, that if you were not a fan of them beforehand, you will most assuredly be one come the final page turned.

Coming complete as a delightful, all-encompassing bundle, with a double CD package entitled We’re All Drifters: A Tribute to the Continental Drifters, we not only learn how the Continental Drifters (as a project) came to be, but moreover, follow this ever-expanding ensemble of musical talent deep into their collective advancement; their multiple record deals, multiple romances (and subsequent break up’s), babies, line-up changes, reunions, addictions, hurricanes, deaths, and more!

Born in Los Angeles in the early 1990s via a residency of week after week jam sessions at a dive club called Raji’s — then relocating to New Orleans — the band’s trajectory lasted about a decade and ended when Hurricane Katrina demolished their homes and the band members scattered.

Key members included Vicki Peterson (Bangles), Susan Cowsill (The Cowsills), Peter Holsapple (The dBs, R.E.M.), and many more — including the only member who has been with them from the beginning, Mark Walton (Giant Sand, The Dream Syndicate).

However, there were also several singer/songwriters (Carlo Nuccio, Gary Eaton, Ray Ganucheau) who also came with an impressive pedigree that, shall we politely say, almost shone as brightly as their slightly more famous band mates.

That’s the magic that Kelly has captured here within this book, and moreover what comes across within the songs collected together on their aforementioned new double CD set.

I think that the best possible comparison that can be made is that the Continental Drifters had a similar vibe to the classic roots combo Delaney & Bonnie & Friends — more of a “collective’ than a band — in which there were several distinctly original lead singers, blistering sidemen instrumentalists, which all came together to bring forth an inspiring blend of both original and seminal cover songs with a southern fried blue-eyed soul approach that couldn’t be beat.

The book is rightly dedicated to founding member Carlo Nuccio, who died on August 24th, 2022, and is a compulsive read from start to finish. It should also be noted that there is another CD due out soon (September 13th, 2024 via Omnivore Recordings) entitled White Noise & Lightning: The Best Of Continental Drifters, which features a previously unissued 12-minute live version of “Who We Are, Where We Live.”

The reason I mention this here is that the packaging also contains liner notes from the author of this very same book being reviewed today, Sean Kelly, and has been produced by Peter Holsapple with Cheryl Pawelski.

In closing, I hope both this incredibly detailed book and the accompanying double CD help reintroduce the Continental Drifters back into the mainstream, but if not quite that absorbent, perhaps just allowing for more exploration into their obvious influence and magnitude upon, and therein within, the music scene at that time; and which can be enjoyed again here and now, of course.

About the Author - Sean Kelly is a musician, producer, and writer who spent nearly 20 years as the co-songwriter and singer of the band A Fragile Tomorrow. With his band, Sean toured internationally with the likes of Indigo Girls, Matthew Sweet, The Bangles, K’s Choice, and Toad the Wet Sprocket, and released seven albums.

He currently serves as co-founding editor of The Savannahian, a nonprofit digital news publication in Savannah, Georgia, and composes music for independent films. He lives in Savannah with his wife, Kennedy, and their two children.

www.continentaldrifters.com