Keeping a rock-steady beat

The Pulsators are still going strong after nearly a decade, thanks to a love of the music and the brotherly relationship of the band members

By Chris Samson

After nearly 10 years together, the Pulsators are one of the longest-running rock 'n' roll bands in the North Bay.

Johnny Campbell, drummer and leader of the Petaluma-based quintet, doesn't miss a beat when asked the reason for the group's endurance.

“The love of the music,” he says. “We're kind of like brothers. We fight sometimes but we really like each other. The main reason is we really like playing music together.”

The Pulsators have honed their blend of rock, blues and reggae over years of playing local clubs, touring western states and recording two CDs..

Their self-titled first album prompted BAM magazine to call them “one killer band with irresistible hooks.” Their second CD, “Here's to You,” was released this year and captures the easy groove and good-time feeling that the band projects in its concerts.

“I'm really happy with the way the band sounds right now,” says Campbell, who is also the Pulsators' lead singer and songwriter. Guitarist Doug McKenzie, bassist Mick Whittington, saxophonist Rick Clifford and trumpet player Steve Long round out the band. “Everyone in the band is playing better,” says Campbell.

Campbell and McKenzie are the original members of the Pulsators, which started out as a trio. Whittington replaced the original bassist and the horn players were added later.

Each band member brings his own influences and style to the Pulsators' mix of blues, rockabilly, R&B and good-time rock 'n' roll. But the band's trademark sound draws heavily from the rock-steady music that came out of Jamaica in the early '60s – a precursor to the reggae sound popularized by Bob Marley and the Wailers.

Campbell, a native of Los Angeles who started playing drums when he was 8, joined his first band as a teen-ager after moving to Petaluma. Influenced by the Rolling Stones, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Howlin' Wolf, he started playing in Bay Area blues bands. By the 1980s, he discovered reggae music as the San Francisco punk scene was taking off and he became the drummer for the Impostors, a Petaluma-based trio that recorded two albums. Along the way, Campbell learned to play guitar to help his songwriting, although he doesn't play guitar in the band.

Although he does “virtually all of the songwriting,” he credits the band members with helping him to “flesh out” the tunes.

McKenzie, who picked up the guitar at 13, is a blues purist who soaked up the Chicago blues sound of B.B. King, Otis Rush and Sonny Boy Williamson while growing up. He played in the Below Zero Blues Band and the Rock House Blues Band before being tapped by Campbell for the Pulsators.

Whittington's musical career was sparked the night his mom invited him to watch the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. He soon picked up the guitar and later the bass, learning songs by the Fab Four, Led Zeppelin, the Who and Yes. He played in a band called Exxe before joining the Pulsators.

Technology has made it a lot easier to listen to different kinds of music, Campbell says. “You used to have to be a musicologist to find out about some music,” he says. “I used to have to really scout for old reggae records. Now with the new media and technology, you can hear all kinds of music.”

When they're not playing the Mystic or other Sonoma County venues, the Pulsators tour regularly. “We've done a lot of traveling and struggling together,” says Campbell. “We've toured the West Coast ten or fifteen times and played all the western states.” Along the way, they've won over music fans and fellow musicians alike.

This fall, the band opened for the Radiators on a tour of Utah and Colorado. “At first they were reluctant to have us on the show, because they usually don't have an opening act,” said Campbell. “But afterward they were gushing over us. They said we were the best band that ever opened for them and they invited us to play with them again.”

Another Pulsators believer is Art Neville, New Orleans-based rock 'n'roll pioneer of the famed Neville Brothers and the Meters. They met Neville during a trip to Louisiana's Crescent City, he took a liking to them and wound up playing keyboard on three songs on their new CD.

“He's a very nice man and very supportive,” Campbell says. “It's amazing he would help a little ol' band like us.”

While in Lousiana, the Pulsators played a concert for about 5,000 people at a baseball field in Lake Charles. “We sang 'Back to Louisiana' [an original song on their new CD] and got a standing ovation. They were lighting their lighters for us. That was the highlight of my musical career,” says Campbell.

After years of traveling around the country playing and listening to music, Campbell has observed that “the weather has a lot to do with the kind of music you play. Down in New Orleans it's hot and humid and it rains a lot. The music is laid-back, funky and looser. In California there's more sunshine and clear skies. It's different, and the music reflects it. Texas has a whole different feel altogether.”

Campbell acknowledges that some of these regional sounds have been assimilated into the Pulsators' musical brew. But the band has no intention of moving: “We like living and playing here in Northern California,” he says.

Campbell credits sound technician Scott Gilroy, a friend since their junior high days, for “doing everything for the band that we don't do.” He also gives kudos to co-producer Harry Gale for the successful completion of the band's “Here's to You” CD. “Sometimes recording is tedious – like pulling teeth. But Harry has a good spirit and was very pleasant to work with.”

What lies ahead for the Pulsators in 2000? Another tour of Utah and Colorado in late January and early February and another trip to New Orleans in the spring. There are also plans for another CD, possibly later in the year.

For more information and updates on the band, visit their web site at www.pulsators.com.

(Published Dec. 15, 1999)

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