Vermilion

Their roster reads like a one-shot all-star combo: ex-dB Peter Holsapple, Susan Cowsill (of those Cowsills), and Vicki Peterson, the former Bangle. But the Continental Drifters are for real, an all-embracing, seemingly effortless marriage of rock, pop, and country unveiled in an awesome songwriting spectrum. Recorded near an isolated bayou in the band's Louisiana homeland, Vermilion has no MVP among the three heavy hitters. Each writes alone and paired with another: Peterson and Cowsill's stunning harmonies carry "The Rain Song"; Holsapple offers a Neil Young-styled romp in "Don't Do What I Did"; Peterson contributes the highway-blues rocker "Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway"; and "Drifters," by Holsapple and Cowsill, boasts this chorus: "We are all drifters / Singers and sisters / Brothers and lovers and mothers and confidantes." All those, yes, and a damn fine band, too. --Scott Holter