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TULSA – There was cause for celebration in the Dwight Twilley household after his successful two-night stand at The Venue on Aug. 26-27, benefitting the longtime pop star’s favorite cause, the Children’s Rights Council.
It was a rare local live appearance for Twilley, whose biggest power-pop hits were 1976’s “I’m On Fire,” and 1984’s “Girls,” the later featuring his old friend Susan Cowsill on backing vocals.
Cowsill flew to Tulsa from her New Orleans home for a musical reunion with Twilley and harmonized with him to a wildly appreciative audience. Cowsill’s first solo album, “Just Believe It,” was just weeks away from national release, after she had done time as a child pop-star in the ‘60s family band The Cowsills and later as a member of the roots-rocking Continental Drifters.
Shortly after Twilley, his wife, Jan, and Cowsill returned to the Twilleys’ home from the last concert news of Hurricane Katrina’s impending landfall on New Orleans dominated the TV news.
“Yeah, we were all so happy before the hurricane,” Twilley said this week. “We were celebrating how cool we were after the shows, came back here, and then CNN starting coming on. So we went from, like, big celebration and how much fun we had … and then I’ve got two sobbing women in front of CNN.”
Cowsill and her husband, ex-Continental Drifters drummer Russ Broussard, lost their house and all their material goods, including copies of Cowsill’s new album.
Now, they are touring without a home to return to, while their children and pets are boarding in various places across the country. They are also waiting on word of Cowsill’s brother Barry, who has been missing since just after Hurricane Katrina hit.
Meanwhile, Twilley and his band are heading back to The Venue, 112 E. 18th St. in Tulsa, on Sunday for another benefit, this time for Cowsill and her family and all the other victims of the coastal hurricanes.
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