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Before there was The Partridge Family, there were the Cowsills. In fact, the Cowsills were the real-life inspiration for the famous fictional singing family from the TV show. In the 1960s, four brothers, their mom, and seven-year-old lil’ sis’ Susan were the real deal, not Danny Bonaduce, David Cassidy, or Shirley Jones.
The Cowsills recorded albums on Mercury Records, MGM Records, and had their own television show for a bit. Four decades later, while Bonaduce is busy beating the crap out of Greg Brady on Celebrity Boxing and appearing on countless infomercials (not to mention a failed talk show), lil’ sis is still making admirable music with various musical projects, such as the Continental Drifters, The Bonoffs, and most recently, The Susan Cowsill Band.
She, of course, still plays occasionally with her family’s band, The Cowsills. “In a family band, you never really get to quit,” she says, pausing to remove an atomic fireball from her mouth. “It would be like quitting your family.” Although she’s all grown-up now, Cowsill still hasn’t outgrown music, or apparently, eating candy. “I don’t think I remained in the music business, I just remained in the music,” she says, pausing again, this time to yell at her five-month-old dog, Daisy. “That’s why I love playing with the Continental Drifters so much. We make music for music. You can play whatever you want and if someone doesn’t like it, oh well. If they want to come on board, great. I think the business is something that just happens when you make the music.” These days Cowsill is making the music she wants with her semi-solo project The Susan Cowsill Band, which features her husband Russ Broussard on drums, Chris Knotts on guitar, and Charlestonians Mark Bryan of Hootie and the Blowfish on mandolin and Rob Savoy, formerly of Cowboy Mouth, on bass.
“I’m fixing to go all business though," she jokes. “I’m going to be Madonna.” Asked if she’s going to suddenly become all glam and go the route of former folkie jewel, she says,
“Nah, I’m going to be more like Alanis Morissette.”
Speaking from her home in New Orleans, Cowsill is about to pack up and head to Lafayette, La. where she will record a couple tracks before heading on to Charleston where she will finish up at Bryan’s studio.
While in town, the band will perform two shows. The first will be an intimate performance Thursday at Theatre 99, a far cry from the national stage of the Ed Sullivan Show, where she performed as a child. Then, on Friday, the Susan Cowsill Band plays a show at the Charleston Maritime Center along with local reggae band, Da Gullah Rootz. That show is a fundraiser for Carolina Studios, a non-profit project Bryan helped initiate that provides area teens interested in music a chance to learn about the business through making music, videos, graphics, and other technical aspects of the industry.
For those not familiar with the Continental Drifters or any of Cowsill’s previous bands, she has also lent her voice on records by Melissa Ferrick, Hootie & the Blowfish’s Musical Chairs and Scattered, Smothered and Covered, and numerous other projects with other artists. When asked to describe her music, Cowsill sighs. “I don’t f****** know? How about everybody who comes out and hears us play, we’ll give out pieces of paper, ask people what kind of music they think it’s and whatever gets the most votes, we’ll go with that,” she says laughing. “Just come on out and watch me forget verses to songs.”
Juggling several different bands and musical styles, it is understandable if Cowsill misses a verse or two here and there, but it will never be out of stage fright, not after nearly four decades of performing live. “I have real life fright. The stage is good, it’s safe,” she says.
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