Anybody who thinks of the Cowsills solely because the eternally sunny harmonists behind ’60s hits comparable to “The Rain, The Park & Different Issues” and “Indian Lake” (their 1969 model of “Hair” is a fried psychedelic masterpiece) or the brother/sister/mom band whose exploits impressed tv’s The Partridge Household isn’t paying consideration. Although Bob, Paul and Susan Cowsill are an annual a part of the Completely happy Collectively Tour of fellow ’60s/’70s pop sensations, the trio has continued recording its personal new materials with albums comparable to 2022’s Rhythm Of The World and the newly launched, 1998-recorded World.
Susan Cowsill, too, has been as an avatar of Americana, overlaying a Sixto Rodriguez music for her first solo single in 1976, enjoying as a part of the famed Continental Drifters within the ’80s and ’90s and releasing two country-rocking solo albums (Simply Imagine It and Lighthouse), to date, within the 2000s.
MAGNET caught up with Cowsill whereas she was getting ready for dinner in her New Orleans residence shared with husband/drummer Russ Broussard.
I’ve witnessed the marvel of the Cowsills many occasions on the Completely happy Collectively tour. Which of your two brothers is a cooler tourmate?
That’s hilarious. You both come from a small household or a big one and wish to stir the pot. You by no means disclose a favourite. Each of my brothers are equally superior—we’re a three-headed monster, or not less than a three-headed creature of some kind … And Completely happy Collectively is the perfect day job a lady can ever have, so we at all times have enjoyable doing that.
Regardless of your first fame as a Cowsill, I initially found you as a part of the Continental Drifters, the countrified power-pop outfit you shared with (ex-hubsand) Peter Holsapple (dB’s), (sister-in-law) Vicki Peterson (Bangles) and Mark Walton (Dream Syndicate). Poke into your credit earlier than that, and also you sang with Dwight Twilley and Carlene Carter. All this makes you partially liable for Americana. How did you come to nation pop within the first place?
That’s fairly an summary. The music rang true to me. My preliminary work with the Cowsills and the pop music of our technology was what I used to be listening to whereas rising up in Ohio. However I at all times listened to nation. My mother liked it: Porter Waggoner, Glen Campbell. I truly didn’t begin writing any of my very own music till I joined the Continental Drifters after I was 34 years previous, so I had time to soak up all of it. I’m considering that the mix of all the musical meals that I ate and drank contributed to the sound I created then and now. So be it. Humorous trivia truth: The Cowsills—and me, specifically—gave Glen Campbell his Grammy for “By The Time I Get To Phoenix.” The entire household was on the podium, and my brother Paul was holding me up whereas I learn, “And the winner is … Glen Campbell.” Plus, the Continental Drifters have reunions on a regular basis, and there’s a new compilation album of ours with new songs, White Noise & Lightning, which can also be the title of a e book popping out on us. And there’s a tribute album (We’re All Drifters: A Tribute To The Continental Drifters options Marshall Crenshaw, Caitlin Cary, Steve Wynn, Kim Richey, the Minus 5, Rosie Flores, Don Dixon, Garrison Starr and extra) to us from a few of our associates
Let’s return even additional: You signal your first solo take care of Warners within the mid-’70s, and your debut single is you overlaying Sixto Rodriguez’s “I Suppose Of You.” That is 40 years earlier than his revival due to the Ready For Sugarman documentary, and it locations you much more squarely, and presciently, on the tip of nation pop.
[Laughs] You give me extra credit score than I’m due. Right here’s how that occurred: I had made a take care of my mother that I might change into an emancipated minor if I might get a job. So, I did. And Warner Bros. was bringing me materials, like Carole King’s “It May As Properly Rain Till September.” Apart from that, the bounty of the music they have been bringing me was fairly horrible. However one music caught out from the gang, and it was “I Suppose Of You.” I didn’t know who Sixto was. I didn’t notice that I used to be a part of that Sugarman historical past till I noticed the documentary. In order that was a contented accident. Years later when he performed the Barclays Middle in New York, he requested my husband and I to open for him as a duo. I felt like Cinderella.
The historical past of World is fascinating, as Doug Morris and his then-executive at Atlantic who tried to signal you (Marc Nathan) liked the album, however they wound up not signing the band once they realized it was “The Cowsills”—that healthful household band from the ’60s. Which is a disgrace, because the music—very Los Angeles energy pop with a Fleetwood Mac-ish rock really feel—was excellent for that point.
After I hear World now, I’m amazed. I imply, we have been all so younger. Bob Cowsill is aware of all the main points, as he shopped it again then. All I keep in mind is that everybody mentioned no. So most of the execs who tried to buy our information again then acquired doorways slammed of their face. We have been in Los Angeles, simply being a rock band, which is how we rolled. Bob Cowsill is a superb pop songwriter, however we needed to play underneath nameless names so that individuals wouldn’t know who we really have been. I keep in mind that the Secrets and techniques was considered one of our made-up names for present, the key being we have been the Cowsills. We have been absorbing the whole lot round us then, as a result of we have been modern folks, a part of a technology that saved shifting. So, Bob and his spouse, Mary Jo, wrote the bounty of the songs on World, as did our brother Paul. Bob writes tales about different issues and different folks—that’s not me. I at all times write from my expertise, and these songs have been observational as to what was happening then. Each time I hearken to “She Mentioned To Me,” I take into consideration the blessing that’s L.A. and driving the trip, from the ’60s to the ’70s on the Whisky A Go Go to the ‘80s with the Go-Go’s, the Bangles and X—new wave, punk rock and holy smokes, ? We frolicked. We have been an L.A. band. I’ll have simply been Susan Cowsill, however I used to be paying consideration. After I sang “She Mentioned To Me,” I used to be being as cool as Blondie. “Falling For You”? That’s me being my Susan Cowsill new-wave self. It tickles me to listen to it now, as a result of I’m 65 years previous.
World was recorded in 1998, however simply launched. Cocaine Drain was recorded in 1978, however your label, Omnivore, is releasing that soon-ish. How and why is it that you simply guys hold recording these albums, and so they get misplaced till they’re discovered once more?
With out attempting, nothing with the Cowsills is ever intentional. I’ll use that phrase “joyful accident” once more for the whole lot that’s ever occurred with us. Via Paul Revere and Invoice Medley to Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, the Cowsills’ profession acquired resurrected as a result of latest curiosity within the baby-boomer motion. We by no means say die, so we’re again working—touring and recording—and it’s all so surprising and actually pretty. So, we acquired a possibility to launch new music we have been doing (Rhythm Of The World), and Omnivore was occupied with previous product as nicely. I imply, Cocaine Drain was one thing we did with Chuck Plotkin, Bruce Springsteen’s producer and engineer. World is its personal journey, what with mendacity dormant for therefore lengthy, getting it out of hock and nonetheless sounding modern. So, now’s the time of the Cowsills. That’s wonderful, and we’re eternally grateful.
—A.D. Amorosi