The Driftwoods -- Then and now and why

John Thompson – he owns Advantage Maytag in Oneonta with his father-in-law, John Elderkin – and I have been best friends for nearly five decades now. We first met as fellow percussionists in the Cooperstown Central high school band when he transferred in from Milford and announced upon arrival that he had been drumming in his dad’s band since he was 11 years old.

Probably not the best way to ingratiate yourself to a bunch of teenaged boys prone to goofing around in the back row of the band room while the rest of the musicians struggled with technical stuff like reading music and tuning instruments while we just waited for our turn to hit something with a stick. The teasing began in earnest when John told us his dad’s band was The Driftwoods and they played country music.

Country music? To my 1979 ears, that meant “Hee Haw” cornball that couldn’t hold a candle to my steady diet of FM-radio rock and Beatles records.