Over the almost 30 years that Blue Rose Records has existed, many artists and bands have ended up on our label, but there are very few who have had as big an impact on us as the CONTINENTAL DRIFTERS.
Together with Pete Wells and Kate Jacobs, the New Orleans quintet’s debut album was the first that we released in this country in the fall of 1995. Not only did four more albums follow on Blue Rose (Vermilion, 1998, Better Day, 2001, Listen Listen, 2001 and Nineteen Ninety-Three, 2003), the “supergroup” around Vicki Peterson, Susan Cowsill, Peter Holsapple, Mark Walton, Robert Maché and Russ Broussard also delighted German fans with several tours (Carlo Nuccio was still on drums on the first in 1996). Another extensive European tour was booked for the release of Better Day, which should have taken the band to the next level, but 9/11 put a sad end to all the planning and hopes. Even worse – hurricane Katrina four years later scattered the band members all over the country, Mark Walton to Las Vegas, Peter Holsapple to Winston-Salem in North Carolina or Vicky Peterson to California. Only Susan Cowsill and Russ Broussard remained in New Orleans. This also marked the end of the Continental Drifters and the five musicians had to make a fresh start.
Of course they stayed in touch and ultimately the band got together every now and then in the following years for a festival or an anniversary show, most recently in May 2023 in New Orleans such as at the “Chickie Wah Wah” club (see photo). The band had lost none of their unique esprit over the years and one can once again raise hope that there could be more to come than “just” another show show here and there.
There are many people for whom the Continental Drifters is not only a very special band, but also made up of special people. Sean Kelly is one such person, a young journalist from Georgia who has taken on the task of creating a very special tribute for the band. Over several years he collected stories and facts about the band (we at Blue Rose Records were also able to contribute our experiences to him) in order to write it all down in a book. That wasn’t enough, he planned and produced a tribute album and brought in many musicians to revive the music of the Continental Drifters. The result was a double CD with 25 songs, interpreted by artists such as Steve Wynn, Debbi Peterson, Don Dixon, Marshall Crenshaw, Rosie Flores, Kim Richey, Caitlin Cary, Dayna Kurtz and Garrison Starr from Blackberry Smoke. And that’s still not enough – the record label Omnivore Records is releasing a best of album with 15 songs on CD and 11 on vinyl that covers the history of the Continental Drifters.
Sean Kelly explains: “I look at this project as a way of saying thank you to a group of people who have enriched my life for nearly 20 years as friends and family, and way longer as musical heroes. The Drifters are a band that didn’t get their commercial due, but impacted the direction of the lives of those who loved them–myself included. I hope that this will be a rock and roll story that is relatable, as music biographies often are not. There was no fame, no private jets, no chart topping. Instead, just hard working, passionate artists who belonged to each other and that’s what it was all about. To say I’m eternally grateful to the Drifters for the opportunity to tell this story would be a serious understatement. I conducted so many interviews over the past few years, and I really put a lot of care into doing this as honestly as possible. We have a great team working on this project and I am so lucky. Unbelievably gratetful to my friends Tim Lee and Susan Bauer Lee for publishing this book and putting out this tribute. I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished and excited for what’s ahead!“
The biography book White Noise & Lightning – The Story of the Continental Drifters and the tribute CD We Are All Drifters will be released on 26.09.2024, the album White Noise & Lightning: The Best Of Continental Drifters on 13.09.