The Pulsators keep up with pulse of Petaluma

It’s been nearly three decades since The Pulsators formed in Petaluma, but the homegrown band is still making a splash in the Sonoma County music scene.|

It’s been nearly three decades since The Pulsators formed in Petaluma, but the homegrown band is still making a splash in the Sonoma County music scene.

After 27 years, a stint that guitarist and founding member Douglas Ian McKenzie called “pretty amazing for a local band,” The Pulsators have produced four records and continue to churn out music that’s “good-time rock ‘n’ roll, upbeat and danceable,” playing a solid lineup of shows in Petaluma venues and beyond.

The story of the Petaluma act mirrors that of many small-town bands in America.

The group formed in 1989 as a trio that included current members, guitarist Douglas Ian McKenzie and Johnny Campbell, the band’s singer, songwriter and drummer. Both had an extensive prior history as members of other local bands, and had been part of a music community playing at local bars and The Phoenix Theatre.

McKenzie, who was born in Berkeley, brought a resume of diverse experience to the band, both from his travels and from his professional music career.

He said moved a lot during his youth, picking up musical skills along the way. From ages 8 to 11, he lived in Mexico City, where, with no prior musical experience, he began playing clarinet in the school band. He learned guitar at 13, and while living in Salinas, he played clarinet in his high school’s marching band.

“I was one of the nerds in the band,” he said.

In 1979, he moved to Sonoma County to study physics at Sonoma State University and after college, he lived in Penngrove, then Petaluma’s west side from 1984 to 1999. McKenzie describes the Petaluma of that time as “a very small town.”

“People knew each other and took care of each other,” he said.

He comes from a musical family, and his brother, a deceased musician known as Fast Floyd, who McKenzie called “an encyclopedic genius,” taught him the blues from old Chicago records, a style McKenzie would later incorporate into his own music.

“Blues is the foundation,” McKenzie said. “I became a blues addict and wouldn’t play anything if it wasn’t blues.”

He reminisced about driving in his 1955 VW bug, listening to Jimmy Reed cassettes.

“I liked the blues because it wasn’t polished and perfect and shined up. It had loose edges,” he said.

In Petaluma, McKenzie joined his sister, Teresa, in a mid-80s band called Teresa & the Brewers, which he describes as “a fun band that self-destructed.” A teenage Doyle Bramhall Jr., who later worked with Eric Clapton and Roger Waters, was also a member.

McKenzie later performed with the Below Zero Blues band, who opened for nationally-renowned bluesmen like Sonny Rhodes and Mississippi Johnny Waters.

It was during his stint with Teresa & the Brewers that McKenzie met Johnny Campbell, the Brewers’ drummer, who later became “the main guy” in The Pulsators.

In 1989, he got a call from Campbell and “The Pulsators were born,” McKenzie said.

The band first performed at The Cotati Cabaret and after The Mystic Theatre became a music venue in 1992, the trio played there regularly, opening for more well-known bands passing through town.

A fortuitous meeting with Art Neville led to The Pulsators opening for the soul/funk group The Neville Brothers at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, and at the historic venue Tipitina’s in New Orleans, which is “where the magic happens,” according to McKenzie. This connection also created the opportunity to open for The Neville Brothers at the Fillmore and the Funky Meters at the Fillmore and Warfield. Neville also played keyboards on three songs on the second Pulsators’ albums in 1999.

Over time, as members have come and gone, bringing with them an interest in different styles, The Pulsators have added reggae, ska, Americana, and New Orleans influences. Now, the band’s horn section, Glenn Sullivan on trumpet, and saxist Rick Clifford is highly effective. Bassist Mick Whittington has been aboard since 1990, and keyboardist John Farey is a recent addition.

Since its formation, the band has won several reader’s choice awards from the Press Democrat, and in 2009, won a Bohemian music poll as the best rock band in the county.

Though all members lived in Petaluma in the early days, only equipment/sound engineer Scott Gilroy, who went to junior high school with Campbell, still resides in the city. But, the band still lists Petaluma as its home base and it rehearses at its original studio on Skillman Lane.

“Time has forced us to find homes in different places around the county, but Petaluma is our ‘birthplace,’” McKenzie said.

A participant in the Sonoma County music scene for years, McKenzie has seen many changes, but a lot of the same fans still come to The Pulsators’ shows, he said.

“We really, really appreciate the people still coming out and supporting real music that people actually play,” he said. (Contact Robert Feuer at argus@arguscourier.com)

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