Keeping It Tight in the Old Dominion: A History of Virginia Rock Music
by Pete Crigler
ete Crigler has been obsessed with music from the earliest possible age; reading about it, writing about it, listening to it, almost everything except playing it. Some people would say that music is the defining everything for him but that’s what he chooses to do, so lay off! But in all honesty, it’s the heart and compassion that he shows not just for the music but the musicians who created it is where he really shows his stuff. Hearing so many stories about what these musicians have been through has been more than enough to prepare him for the next surprising story that comes around. By asking intelligent questions of the musicians and then getting intelligent responses back, he was able to mold their stories into something that has rarely been read before for a number of artists. By getting their stories out there, he has created a rock and roll book unlike any seen in quite a while.
The following is a message to the reader: Dear sir or ma’am, what you are holding in your hands is a very different book than one you’ve probably read before. The reason it’s so different is because a lot of the bands profiled inside are very obscure and their material is often out of print so if you read about a musician you thought you’d forgotten about or are interested in hearing more about, please feel free to go on Amazon or eMusic or Rhapsody and start searching around to see what you can find. Most times, I assure you will be pleasantly rewarded.
This book has been a complete labor of love for its author; starting in July of 2007 and working until October of 2009, Pete Crigler has been consistently working putting together what he hopes is the definitive tale of rock music in Virginia. The book tells the history of rock music in Virginia from the 1950s and the rockabilly of Gene Vincent to the punk energy of Cloak/Dagger and Conditions in the 21st century and everything in between. The book’s approach is done with interviews with over sixty musicians from the fifties to the current time, complete with over 80 b&w and color photos submitted by many of the same musicians. This story needs to be told because no one has ever tried anything like it before. Being so informative of music, it has been this author’s dream to tell this story because of an easy camaraderie with the musicians.
