I am sure most of my fellow 50-somethings on this board will remember The Cowsills. Pre-Osmond family band that inspired the Partridge Family TV show. After a few hits in the mid to late 60's (including a hilarious take on the title song from "Hair" that sold like 2.5 million) they vanished. What was unique about them was they wrote songs and were all talented musicians, even though they were in their teens.

There is fantastic documentary playing on Showtime on the back story...typical overbearing Dad manager got the group on the map, then drove them into the ground leaving a trail of human tragedy in the wake.

One of the tragic stories that stood out is that of Barry Cowsill, who sadly perished at age 51 during Hurricane Katrina. During the segment on him, they showed some clips of some of his songs and live performances made in the months leading up to his death, and every one of them caught my ear.

I tracked down his album called "US 1" on Amazon's mp3 downloads, and it's just @#$%&' great! Very "Stonesy", rockin, funky, a little reggae, and a great "lived-in" singing voice. Apparently it was recorded just weeks before his death. Really great stuff (nothing like their watered down hippie pop from the '60's).

Anybody else familiar with Barry's Music? Or what the others are up to? I know their sister, Susan Cowsill, has some interesting stuff as well.

Here are the samples on Amazon [www.amazon.com]

Ross

interesting..thanks for the info on the US 1 recording..

i have a CD by a Lafayette LA band called the Bluerunners, great band, Susan Cowsill sings on a track called 'Ghost Of A Girl'

Thanks Duke & Edith. Here is another standout track from the album. (not sure why the REM song is included at the end!)

Love Amercian Style! truer than the red, white and blue-oo!

The recent Showtime documentary on The Cowsills is fascinating. Their Dad made Joe Jackson and Murray Wilson seem angelic in comparison

I used to see Susan performing with the Continental Drifters.

from the wikipedia article...

"Some produced albums and performed from time to time, albeit not as The Cowsills, during the remainder of the '70s and up into the '80s. One project in particular was a band called Bridey Murphy,[10] which was formed in the mid-'70s and featured Paul, Bill, Barry, and Waddy Wachtel, and performed to varying degrees of success."

Waddy is actually in the documentary. Apparently he was a musical mentor to the band. I guess that mekes this a little more on topic!

Ross

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Glam Descendant
I used to see Susan performing with the Continental Drifters.

Vicki Peterson of The Bangles used to perform and record with them...and she's married to brother John!

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Jah Paul

Quote
Glam Descendant
I used to see Susan performing with the Continental Drifters.

Vicki Peterson of The Bangles used to perform and record with them...and she's married to brother John!

Yep and Susan's husband Peter Holsapple was in the band but they've since parted ways.

John Cowsill was the drummer with the Beach Boys on their just ended 50th anniversary tour---and he was fantastic