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.
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."
