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Zipdawg: Someone said, "Hey Zipdawg, pull this car over. There's a guy with his thumb out and he looks like he's been on the road for quite a bit." Hey, hey buddy, come on, come on hop on in.
Barry: Thanks man
Zipdawg: How you doin'? What's happening?
Barry: Fine. Well about two miles down the road I crashed a milk truck I was drivin'. Man it was a horrible mess. Cottage cheese stuck to the windshield. There was some other car and they crashed into me and it was all over the road.
Zipdawg: That's a drag. I'm Zipdawg, by the way. What's your name?
Barry: Barry Cowsill Can you drop me off at the next gas station in about 20 minutes?
Zipdawg: Yeah OK I can do that. I see you got an axe, do you play?
Barry: Yeah, I got an axe to grind, especially when I crash a milk truck. (strums the guitar) See it's all out of tune man. Sour cream got on the neck.
Zipdawg: That's it. It's all soured up. Curds and chords comin' up. So, uh, where you headed?
Barry: I'm headed for Bridgton, Maine. I got this delivery to make, but since the truck is all crashed, I'm going to just take my guitar and go play at this place in Bridgton called Big Kahuna's for the fourth of July weekend. It's on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'll be playing three nights from 9 till whenever and, you know, I'll be visiting the ice cream parlor, trying to tell them why I couldn't deliver their Blue Bell.
Zipdawg: ???? milk in them.
Barry: Yo, baby.
Zipdawg: What do you got, what do you want to play?
Barry: Well since this, oh you're a blues guy, ain't you?
Zipdawg: Yeah, supposedly
Barry: What's that picture of Muddy Waters on the windshield?
Zipdawg: (laughs)
Barry: Oh God, you even got a possum tail haning from the d*** rear view mirror. What's that about?
Zipdawg: Well, yes I do
Barry: Do you ever chew it when you get nervous or something, huh? It's a blues habit, you know. Well in honor of this being a blues show I do other stuff as well. Rock 'n' roll. I'll do a song I wrote back then when Three Mile Island was burning to pieces. I thought about it and I came up with this.
Zipdawg: Barry Cowsill - live in the studio. You got a long and lustrious career. You've been on stage since what 13 or so.
Barry: 13 Well actually it took years to get there. They made me play bass since I was two years old with electrical shock treatments. And finally I ended up ... No actually The Cowsills was a family band, uh, of light pop and we did make The Ed Sullivan show. Indian Lake (sings "Indian Lake is a scene you should make") and then "Dumb and Dumber," the song from that (singing "I love the flower girl, oh I don't know why, she simply caught my eye")
And of course, (singing "Gimme a head with hair long beautiful hair, shiney gleaming streaming flaxen waxen Won't you gimme down to there hair") zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz And of the famous milk commercials, we were the first victums of the Got Milk ads.
Zipdawg: And so now you're crashing into milk trucks and stuff
Barry: That's right man. You know that's all they could give me then. They couldn't pay me anything, so they gave me a job. I tried to go down to Merrimac to the bug factory to clean Clydesdale s***, but ...
Zipdawg: Now you got a brand new CD out.
Barry: Yes I do. Well this one is an old one. I'm working on the new one with the band I have called US 1. These are one of my songs from that band, US 1. It's going on that, we haven't recorded it yet, but I have a full recording of it. It's a kick-ass. I got some rockers on this US 1 CD. What you're going to be hearing is Barry Cowsill's As Is and it's also going on the US 1 album. Yeah it's called "Train"
Zipdawg: Oh let's check it out now.
Song: Train
Barry: Yeah, wait for me !!!
Zipdawg: All aboard
Barry: All aboard
Zipdawg: Oh that was very nice, very nice
Barry: Ah thank you very much
Zipdawg: Now that came out a couple years ago?
Barry: Uh, Zippy, only in private on websites but, you know, the conveyor belt line of the industry right now doesn't have the time to back up this situation. So, what I'm doin' is I'm getting US 1 together and I'm going to make the band. And I'm going to make the record companies listen to the band if I have to camp out on the front door of the studios.
Zipdawg: Now who's in US 1? Who's playin'?
Barry: Cast of thousands - all times. I'm US 1 but I have several drummers, several bass players, several guitars.
Zipdawg: An all star cast
Barry: Well, who's in there? John, Paul, George and Ringo right now
Zipdawg: Well you want to play one more before we sign off?
Barry: Yeah alright I guess so
Zipdawg: Well before you do that I just want to remind the listeners, we're talking to Barry Cowsill. Barry's playin' Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights up at The Big Kahuna's in Bridgton, so check it out. Right up Route 302.
Barry: Ya'll come out now Ya'll hear
Zipdawg: Tell 'em you heard him here.
Barry: It's only a half an hour away.
Zipdawg: What are you going to play for us? What are you going to end with?
Barry: Uh, this one is dedicated to the roofers of America
Zipdawg: Well as my buddy Ted would say, "Smokin' a ba" "Smokin' a ba" Well look Barry, it's been a pleasure. Next time we got to get you to leave and get through Boston a little earlier so we can spend a little more time playing your music and talking to you and ...
Barry: If those drivers wouldn't be rubber necking all the time like they do. It'd be a h*** of a lot easier.
Zipdawg: Well you know holiday weekend. Those are the people geekin' and gawkin', trying to get an early start to the 4th of July weekend.
Barry: Those aren't the holiday people. Those are the Frazier and Niles computer chip guys that go out of Boston to live in their glorious houses.
Zipdawg: Well and some of those might be in your audience tomorrow so
Barry: So I better shut up
Zipdawg: Um, anything we left out? Anything you want to mention in the last minutes? Any special going on?
Barry: There's nothing going on except I've been invited to be in the parade up in Bridgton and if anybody wants to come in, you know, I'm I've got this got this really long giant worm suit and it takes about 10 people to fill it up and so ...
Zipdawg: A milk worm
Barry: A milk worm, that's right baby.
Zipdawg: So you must smoke milk weed.
Barry: Well yes I do. How did you .. man That's what got me messed up with the truck getting crashed. It's the darn milk weed.
Zipdawg: They don't call me the dawg for nothing
Barry: Ahhhh Zipdawg you're OK
Zipdawg: Well look Barry, it's been a pleasure
Barry: Let me out of this car. Your driving is getting bad.
Zipdawg: You come up often?
Barry: Oh yeah
Zipdawg: OK well next time you're up here, give me a call and we'll get you in for a little more than 15 minutes. Do it to it
Barry: You're on the milk train route, man. See you later, Zipdawg
Zipdawg: Take care brother
Barry: Bye my man
Zipdawg: Well thanks everyone tuning in. Thank Barry Cowsill for playing a couple tunes, turning us on to his new CD, and coming to Maine to play for the audiences. I'll be back next week and we'll continue the road trip, but I think we're going to be down about Mississippi by then, but uh, till then. It's 7 o'clock and you're tuned into WMPG and W281AC Gorham, Portland. It's time for Free Speech News.
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