More than fifty years after the sixties ended, the music from that decade is still popular - and not just by those of us who loved it the first time around. Eventually I will put info about songs, artists and bands here but want to start this page with a local band called The Continentals that performed at dances all around eastern Kansas in the sixties and seventies.
The Continentals played a combination of R&B and rock. I was fortunate enough to attend several dances where they played and at one dance I got their 45 with the songs "Night Train" and "I'll Walk a Mile". In 2009 Mark sent me an article about the Continentals that he got from the Lawrence newspaper around 1995. (There is a scan below of the 45 and links to the songs.)
The next step was to find out more about the band from the sixties, since the news article focused on the band as it was in the seventies. I was fortunate to stumble on to a site where Bob Marriott's son and Chuck Vallant's grandson had posted info about the band when Chuck was the vocalist.
The photo on the left is the Continentals in the 1970s. From top to bottom - Larry Hensiek, Larry Fike, Kelso Ashby, Tim Ballard, George Washington Moten, and Bob Marriott.
Larry Hensiek and Bob Mariott were the only ones that had been with the band in the sixties. Other members back then were Cliff Manning (bass guitar player), Ricky Lee, Butch Kelly, and vocalist Chuck Vallant (whose real name was Aubrey Washington).
The Continentals debuted at Oak Lodge near Lawrence (in 1961), and played at The Sugar Shack near Ottawa, all around the Kansas City area, in many towns throughout eastern Kansas, and eventually at bigger venues and in other states. They played in Garnett several times - at the tennis courts, Quonset hut, and at a high school dance, among others.
Chuck Vallant later made at least one solo 45. Bob Marriott was a member of several bands over the years and released a few 45s and a couple of albums. Bob died from cancer around 2008. George Washington Moten was eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and died at the age of 37.
In 2018 a friend of Kay Wittman mentioned that her cousin had married Cliff Manning after his first wife died. When Cliff found out that Merle had lived in Garnett and remembered the Continentals he wanted to meet him. That led to Merle and Kay having a very enjoyable lunch with Cliff. Cliff was in the band from 1961 to 1969 when he graduated from KU with a Master's Degree in music. He taught music at several schools before retiring and now lives in Topeka.
Click the records to hear the songs.
There is a lot of info about fifties and sixties musicians on the Musician Birthdays section of my website.
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