|
Billy Cowsill, a giant of the Calgary music scene, is grieving after learning this week that his brother and former bandmate died in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.
The body of Barry Cowsill, 51, was found Dec. 28 on a New Orleans wharf, four months after he disappeared following the August hurricane. His remains were confirmed by dental records this week.
Barry was a form member of The Cowsills, a family pop band from Rhode Island that achieved international fame in the late ‘60s with such hits as The Rain, The Park & Other Things as well as the title song from the rock musical Hair.
“He as just a sweetheart and I loved him dearly,” a somber softspoken Billy, 57, said Friday when contacted at his Calgary home.
A teen heartthrob in his day, Barry Cowsill was the band’s bass player, while Billy was the guitarist and frontman. Brothers Bob and John played organ and drums, respectively. Their mother Barbara and younger sister Susan also joined the band eventually, under the direction of father Bud Cowsill.
The Cowsills, who provided the inspiration for TV’s The Partridge Family, eventually broke up in the early ‘70s amid acrimony that left some members estranged from each other for several years.
Both Billy and Barry lived through tumultuous times after the breakup of The Cowsills, hitting landmines typical of the rock world, including struggles with substance abuse.
By the 1980s, Billy wound up in Vancouver, fronting the acclaimed Blue Shadows, who were often compared to the Everly Brothers.
Billy once described the band as “three vegetarians and a junkie.” Eventually, Billy beat his addictions and he settled in Calgary in the late ‘90s. Here he formed The Co-Dependents, a band much loved on the city’s thriving roots music scene. In recent years The Co-Dependents disbanded in the wake of Billy’s health problems, which include emphysema and osteoporosis.
Nevertheless, in Calgary Billy found a balance that his brother Barry never quite achieved.
“No, he never did (get grounded),” says Billy. “He drank himself silly.”
Indeed, Barry led a self-destructive existence after The Cowsills’ breakup, bouncing across the country working odd jobs and periodically trying to reignite his music career. Along the way he was married, divorced and had three children. He struggled with alcoholism.
The day hurricane Katrina struck, Barry was preparing for a trip to a Los Angeles rehab center and had a one-way ticket to fly out of New Orleans the next day, says Billy.
For months after Katrina, the Cowsill family held out hope that their wayward brother would turn up alive. Three days after the hurricane struck, Barry left messages on his sister Susan’s answering machine.
“Things were bad when he called, in terms of the lawlessness (following the hurricane),” said Bob Cowsill from his California Home. “He was trying to survive day by day like everyone else and he was very distressed. He said there was a lot of ‘lootin’ and shootin’ going on down there and it was real scary. He was lonely and crying. He was in a band way … He said he was going to try and call us back. But he never did.”
At press time, Bob said the coroner had not determined the cause of Barry’s death. But because his phone call made it clear that he survived the hurricane, the Cowsill family are left wondering if there was foul play involved.
“If he was trying to survive, looking for food, and he came up against someone who wanted the same food, and somebody had a gun … Who knows?” says Bob.
Bob says plans are underway for Barry’s funeral, which will be held in the Cowsill family’s home in Newport, R.I. A date has not been set.
|
