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| Gary Eaton, Vicki Peterson, Mark Walton |
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There has been a whole lot going on in the Continental
Drifters world lately, what with the release of the compilation, the two-disc tribute
album and the biography. I love the band’s music, but I am one of those poor,
unfortunate bastards who did not see those guys in concert. But last night I
got a little taste of it, and it was a treat indeed. Book Soup hosted a special
discussion of Sean Kelly’s book
White
Noise & Lightning: The Continental Drifters Story, which meant a
discussion of the band itself, and not only by author Sean Kelly (who had flown
in from Georgia for the event), but by three members of the band – Gary Eaton,
Vicki Peterson and Mark Walton. It was a delight. David Jenkins moderated the
discussion (Jenkins co-produced
We Are
All Drifters: A Tribute To The Continental Drifters, which was released in
late September). As you might expect from these folks, there was a playfulness
to the evening, right from the start.
At 7:05 p.m., an employee at Book Soup began the
introductions, while the band was joking around until Vicki Peterson playfully
shushed the others. Then John Cowsill gave his impression of white noise before
introducing David Jenkins, who then introduced Sean Kelly, who then introduced
Gary Eaton, Mark Walton and Vicki Peterson. Gary then joked that they were out
of time, after all the introductions and conversation regarding the seating arrangements.
That set the tone for the evening. The discussion began with Mark talking a bit
about the beginnings of the band. Vicki said that after she and Susan Cowsill
first saw the band they were thinking, “
These
guys are cute and they’re good – we should get them to be our band.”
Instead, as it turned out, they joined the band, first as auxiliary members. By
the way, some of the other auxiliary members were among the audience last
night.
The band’s story is long, strange, and uncertain, as each
member remembers things a bit differently, which I imagine must have been a bit
frustrating for Sean Kelly as he was writing the book and trying to get at the
truth of the matter. But what emerges is a greater truth, even if parts might
be less than completely accurate. It also led to quite a bit of humor last
night as they gave their own conflicting stories regarding key moments in the
group’s chronology, many of the anecdotes dealing one way or another with Carlo
Nuccio, who sadly passed a couple of years ago. At one point, Gary got up to
get a bottle of water. Vicki started to tell him that several bottles had been
set aside for them on the shelf behind them, but Gary said, “
Mine’s a special one.” “
I’m sure it is,” Vicki joked. “
This is the Drifters, after all.” An
allusion to the group’s special and storied relationship with alcohol.
The best part of the evening for me was when the
musicians got out their guitars and played a couple of songs. Gary and Vicki
were on acoustic guitar, and Mark was on bass guitar. The first song,
interestingly, was a cover. “You Don’t Miss Your Water” is a song that was
written and originally performed by William Bell. A live version of it was
included on the Continental Drifters’
Drifted:
In The Beginning And Beyond, which was released in 2015.
Gary and Vicki provided the vocal work, and Gary delivered a nice lead on
guitar. Then Annette Zilinskas, who was a singer in The Ringling Sisters, a
band that also included Gary Eaton, joined them on backing vocals for “Dallas.”
This is a song that she performed on
We
Are All Drifters: A Tribute To The Continental Drifters. And
getting to hear this song last night was such a treat. And that was that, at
least as far as the performance was concerned. They joked that it was not a
typical four-hour Drifters show. No, but it was wonderful. A Q&A followed,
and then they signed copies of the book. It was a special night celebrating a
special band, something that was not lost on the musicians themselves.
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| author Sean Kelly |
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