[Postcard2] Billy Cowsill

[Allen B.]

Here in Calgary, we've been bracing ourselves for this
news for a while, but it still hurts. 

Billy was something else -  an extraordinary singer
and performer who channelled Elvis, Roy Orbison, Marty
Robbins, Lennon/McCartney and Merle Haggard; a great
songwriter, a mentor to the whole alt-country
community in Calgary. He had great stories about
bumming around New York and Lubbock with Joe Ely,
about getting kicked out of the Cowsills by his dad,
about getting asked to join the Beach Boys by Carl and
then having Brian Wilson tell him "don't do it
-they'll drive you crazy", about trying to start a
country band in Tulsa in 1970 with Gary Lewis (of  &
the Playboys). His artistic highpoint was that superb
first Blue Shadows album. 

Last year,  Billy cut a Hank Williams tribute album
with a bunch of Calgary musicians. At the time he had
only one functioning lung, but his singing on the
sessions is so smooth and filled with emotion it'll
break your heart. That album is due to be released
this spring.

I'll always cherish the advice and encouragement about
singing he gave me.  Rest in peace, friend.  

Allen Baekeland

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Lead singer of The Cowsills dies as brother is buried
Last Updated Sun, 19 Feb 2006 16:34:49 EST
CBC Arts 
Billy Cowsill, once the frontman for 1960s family band
The Cowsills, has died at his home in Calgary at the
age of 58.

Family members confirmed Sunday that Billy died Friday
night. He had been fighting a lengthy battle with a
variety of ailments which included emphysema,
osteoporosis and Cushing syndrome.  But the family did
not reveal what caused Billy’s death.

Paul Cowsill, brother to Billy, told the Providence
Journal that Billy had a history of problems with
drugs and alcohol which had “caught up with him.”

The family had been gathered in Rhode Island over the
weekend for a memorial service for Barry Cowsill, a
brother who was also a member of the band. Barry
drowned in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in September.

The Cowsills were the inspiration for the 1970s
television sitcom The Partridge Family.  The act
included parents Bud and Barbara, daughter Susan and
brothers William (Billy), Robert, Richard, Barry, Paul
and John. 

The Cowsills also had their own TV special and
performed as a headline act in Las Vegas. They had
several hits including Hair, The Rain and Indian Lake.
They disbanded in the early seventies and went their
own ways.

Billy moved to Canada 35 years ago and continued his
musical career with the bands Blue Northern and The
Blue Shadows, which released two well-received albums.

In an interview with the Calgary Sun in January 2002,
Billy admitted his life spiralled out of control in
Vancouver during the mid-1990s.  His Calgary friends
came to his rescue:  “They dragged me [back to
Calgary], put me up in a facility and allowed me to
get my health, my sanity 
 back.”

Around 2002, Billy was halfway through a psychology
degree from Mount Royal College and had formed a party
band called the Co-Dependents. His family said he was
working towards a degree in musical education when he
died.

Cowsill is survived by two sons, Travis and Del.




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