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Continental Drifters are a group, super or not, that should be heard by any music lover who cut their teeth on '80s pop. The line-up includes keyboardist Peter Holsapple (The dBs, REM); his wife, singer Susan Cowsill (of the '60s family band the Cowsills); guitarist Vicki Peterson (Bangles); and bassist Mark Walton (the Dream Syndicate, Steve Wynn, John Wesley Harding, Giant Sand).
Formed in Los Angeles in 1992 and recently relocated to New Orleans, Continental Drifters started out much the way Jack Logan's Liquor Cabinet did: an excuse for a bunch of friends to get together, swap songs and indulge in the pure intuitive pleasures that only a full-fledged hootenanny can produce. That loose-knit approach is reflected on all 11 songs here, from Holsapple's piercing "Invisible Boyfriend" and his mournful reading of Gram Parson's "A Song for You" to Peterson's dark pop gem "Mixed Messages."
They describe themselves as an antiband, and for good reason: These pop-war veterans obviously formed out of a love for music, not career aspirations. This is simply real music played by real people; there are no marketing campaigns or videos, just shimmering countrified tunes remindful of the Band or Buffalo Springfield, and that recall a lyric from Dobie Gray: "Gimme the beat boys, and free my soul / I wanna get lost in your rock and roll / And drift away." Continental drift, that is. - Jim Walsh
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