Peter Conners

Merch Table Blues Peter Conners

Merch Table Blues follows the friendship of grad school dropout Virgil Frey and his childhood buddy, emerging rock star Richard Payne Knight. While on tour with Richard's band, Laverna, Virgil senses that the group's "cult following" may be an actual cult, led by a mysterious crackpot. As the tour evolves, the nature of obsession in its many forms comes into focus, including the ultimate cost of taking those obsessions to a bitter end. Of particular interest is the life of the talented yet damaged guitarist Richard Payne Knight. Throughout the novel, the development of the young men's friendship is revealed as it unfolds from a troubled boyhood in Utica, NY to glaring national headlines. Delving deep into obsession in its many forms, Merch Table Blues is a quick-paced, edgy ride through a dark underworld of questionable choices, nefarious leaders, and their devoted lost-soul followers until it rips to a gripping conclusion with one final concert, FBI arrests, and a mass overdose that resolves the tension that has been building all along.