Since 2010 venues from concert halls to basement bars have resonated with the sound of Granite City Rock & Roll. Continental uses their Quincy, MA hometown moniker to describe their unique blend of rock that draws influences from punk, country, folk, and blues.

Known mostly for his time as founding guitarist and songwriter of The Dropkick Murphys, as well as co-founding member alongside his brother of legendary punks The Outlets, Boston based rocker Rick Barton has spent the last eight years fronting his current band and labor of love “Continental.” Continental’s sound is soulful Rock n Roll, plain and simple. While often compared to a variety of different bands, they like to summarize their style as “Paul Westerberg writing songs for The Rolling Stones,” a compliment they received and have remembered for years. “I wear my heart on my sleeve and prefer to sing about what’s inside, rather than fast cars and shaking booty” says Rick.

Together with his son Stephen on bass, Andrew Dickson on drums, and various studio and touring guitar slingers, they have toured the US and Europe extensively as a headlining act, but also supporting bands such as Street Dogs, Reverend Horton Heat, Swingin’ Utters, The Tossers, and The Business. Make no mistake, Continental is not a vanity project for Barton. When the band isn’t on the road, the father and son team paint houses to support their “music addiction.”

With four releases to their credit thus far, the band hunkered down in Franklin TN with Andrew Dickson at the helm to put out their new album “Hello”. You can expect a raw but refined, clean but powerful, diverse and perfected version of the Rock n Roll that’s come to be expected from Continental. “We decided to simply record an album that we would like listening to, and it happened to describe us perfectly.” – Stephen Barton