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Susan Cowsill’s journey to the spotlight was nearly 40 years in the making.
It all began when she was the youngest member of that sunny ’60s family band the Cowsills. A deal with Warner Bros. Records when she was 16 didn’t get her far. Cowsill sang backup for her boyfriend, Dwight Twilley (“Girls”), in the 1980s, a period she calls her “indentured singer” years.
After breaking up with Twilley, Cowsill got calls from the Smithereens, Carlene Carter, Hootie and the Blowfish, Jules Shear, Giant Sand and others to do session work in the ’80s and ’90s.
“People knew I was back and available,” Cowsill said from New Orleans, where she’s lived for 13 years. “They paid me, setting a very good example. I’ve never stopped making music, I just didn’t do it high profile all the time.”
Cowsill’s major musical pursuit through most of the ’90s was the Continental Drifters, a New Orleans-based, roots-pop collective of singers, songwriters and musicians. Featuring Bangles guitarist Vicki Peterson and Cowsill’s then husband, Peter Holsapple (formerly of the jangly ’80s indie-rock band the dB’s), the Continental Drifters earned critics’ respect but didn’t sell lots of records.
Cowsill and Holsapple divorced and she eventually left the Continental Drifters. The singer and her second husband, drummer Russ Broussard, another former Continental Drifter, worked in New Orleans for a few years in the Bonoffs, a cover band.
In 2004, Cowsill, Broussard, multi-instrumentalist Chris Knotts and bassist Rob Savoy gathered at Dockside Studios near Lafayette to record her solo debut, Just Believe It.
“I’ve been avoiding it for years,” Cowsill said of her belated solo debut. “I think I’m a serial band member. I’ve been in bands all my life, since childhood.”
Of course, Cowsill’s career began in the Cowsills with her older brothers Bob, Barry, John, Paul and her mother Barbara. She joined when she was seven. The Cowsills’ big hits included “The Rain, The Park & Other Things,” “Hair” and “Indian Lake.”
“First and foremost, I’m a singer,” Cowsill explained. “I didn’t start writing songs until the late ’80s.”
She had other reasons for avoiding the spotlight.
“I don’t think I was ready to stand up for myself and take the responsibility of being the one and the only. It’s a big chunk to bite off. And as far as writing my first solo record, I had to live my life to write about it.”
Just Believe It, Cowsill added, “is a definite sit-down with myself. ‘OK, where have you been, where were you and where are you going?’ The songs all play that out for me.”
Cowsill’s songwriting bloomed during her nine years with the Continental Drifters. Songs she wrote and sang were highlights of the group’s 1999 CD, Vermilion, and 2001’s Better Day.
“I learned so much being with that group of people,” she said. “There was a lot of musical support and encouragement in that crew.”
Just Believe It, featuring Lucinda Williams, Adam Duritz and Vicki Peterson Cowsill, appeared in Europe in 2004. It became widely available in the United States last October.
Cowsill doesn’t believe she missed anything by not releasing a solo record until her 45th year.
“If I was playing music to make a living, I would have quit a long time ago. Of course, I’d love to have a hit record. That would be good for my children’s security and my own. But when you approach music with that in mind, then you’re probably not gonna make the best music you can. Your motive isn’t true.”
Cowsill and her brothers should be benefiting from their ’60s work.
“In the ’60s,” she said, “especially in our case, because we were kids, we had people taking care of those matters for us — right to their pockets. So we are seeking to turn that around. It’s not right that a bunch of business dudes in New York have all of our publishing.”
The singer-songwriter is ready to do a follow-up to Just Believe It. Turbulent recent events have probably provided her with much to write about. Her post-Just Believe It songs include “Crescent City Snow.” Available at Susancowsill.com, it’s her response to Hurricane Katrina.
“It speaks volumes for me and mine,” she said.
She wrote “Crescent City Snow” in the immediate days after Katrina. Cowsill and her husband evacuated to Nashville, Tenn. But her brother, Barry, also a New Orleans resident, was missing after the storm. His stayed missing until his body was found beneath a wharf in late December. The coroner determined the cause of death to be drowning in the aftermath of Katrina.
“It’s still kind of mysterious,” Cowsill said. “We know he drowned, but we don’t know how. It’s closure but it’s got a tiny peephole that drives me a little nuts.”
During Mardi Gras season this year, on the Sunday of the Bacchus parade, a memorial service for Barry Cowsill was held at Waldenberg Park.
“It was nice, an official second-line jazz funeral,” his sister said. “We ended up at the Kerry Irish Pub, where Barry played for years and years. Good old Irish wake. Lots of music and food and drinks, laughs and tears.”
Another Cowsill brother, Bill, died days before Barry’s New Orleans service. He’d endured multiple ailments for years. Survivor Susan found comfort that the two deaths came so close together.
“One of us wasn’t out there alone,” she said.
After spending four months between Nashville, Birmingham, Lafayette and elsewhere following Katrina, Cowsill and Broussard returned to New Orleans in January.
She’s making several appearances close to home this month, including a midday performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival May 6.
She’s also performing another of her Covered In Vinyl shows at Carrollton Station that evening.
Cowsill and her band perform a classic album in its entirety most months at Carrollton Station. Past albums include Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, Cat Stevens’ Tea For The Tillerman and Neil Young’s Harvest. This month it’s the Beatles’ Rubber Soul.
Cowsill is especially pleased that she’s been invited to play the first post-Katrina Jazz Fest.
“It’s special for all the obvious reasons. This is one I really want to play, just to be counted as a representative of the rising of New Orleans.”
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