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NEWPORT - Family and friends are worried about Barry Cowsill, the former Newport musician who moved to New Orleans earlier this summer and has not been heard from in a week.
Cowsill, whose Newport family band The Cowsills rose to fame in the 1960s, called his sister Susan in Nashville, Tenn., last Friday and left a voice-mail message. Susan Cowsill also lives in New Orleans and has been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Robert "Bob" Cowsill said that when his brother called, he was inside a warehouse and was reluctant to leave. "He didn't want to get on the buses," Bob Cowsill said from California. "They had so little information at that point. I don't think he fully realized what was going on. He was apparently able to get to a phone booth that was working."
Since then, Cowsill fans have e-mailed the group's Web site (www.cowsill.com) to say they believe they saw Barry in some CNN footage. "He was standing near the convention with his guitar and he was wearing a hat similar to what he would wear," Bob Cowsill said. "Some people think it was him and other people aren't so sure, but it's getting very frustrating. We haven't heard from him."
The Cowsills were living in Newport in the 1960s when some of their songs, including "The Rain, the Park and Other Things" and "Indian Lake," landed in the Top 40. The band toured the world and appeared on major TV shows like "The Ed Sullivan Show" before disbanding in 1970.
The group, in various forms, has held reunion shows in Newport since 1991. And family members Richard and Barry have lived on Aquidneck Island in recent years. Richard Cowsill left Middletown for New Mexico earlier this year and Barry moved to New Orleans, where had lived previously, about six weeks ago.
Bob Cowsill said Barry, 50, was preparing to move to Southern California from New Orleans before the end of this year.
"Right now we just need to find him," he said. "He could be in San Antonio, Shreveport, New Orleans. We have no idea. We have a plan in place to come and get him. But we haven't heard from him and that is very, very frustrating."
Anyone who knows of Barry Cowsill's whereabouts can e-mail the band Web site or robertcowsill@hotmail.com.
"If you think you see him, shout his name," Bob Cowsill said. "Anything helps."
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