The Cowsills

Monday evening I was wondering how I had wound up at B.B. Kings Blues club waiting for the Cowsills to come on stage. They were never on my radar growing up. I considered myself too sophisticated for Top 40 radio by the time they became popular and I never owned any of their records, heck, I never even knew anybody who did. But over the years the youngest sibling, Susan, stayed in the music business after her first career ended at the age of twelve. She would pop up from time to time on albums I owned singing backup vocals and associating with artists I truly enjoyed, Dwight Twilley, Peter Holsapple, Smithereens, Carlene Carter, and formed the Continental Drifters with members of several bands that I followed. More recently she has had a couple of solo albums that I have truly enjoyed. She has been touring to support her latest release but I was unprepared to see a tour as the Cowsills in the middle of her own tour. I tossed it out there as a suggestion to Toni fully expecting it to be rejected but she jumped on it. Of course, after I bought the tickets she asked me, “Now why are we going to this?”

We met up with our new friend, Liz, at the show. She asked me if I was excited about the show. I didn’t really know how to answer except that I simply didn’t know what to expect. I mean the group only had four hits. How would they possibly fill up their time slot? Well, we would have to wait just a bit longer for the answer as there was an opening act. The Funky Knights are a five piece band that originally played clubs around New York in the eighties and early nineties. Unfortunately they have recently reformed and we were subjected to something that I won’t even try to describe. For the morbidly curious feel free to check youtube for these guys. We alternated between jaw drops and laughing out loud through their thankfully short set.

Finally the Cowsills, Susan, Paul, and Bob, came out with a full band and jumped right in with a perfect version of Monday, Monday, the Mamas and Papas hit and a song I never tire of. I was hooked from the get go. They alternated their hits with covers which included Be My Baby (Ronettes), The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel), Helplessly Hoping (Crosby Stills and Nash). They also did an acoustic mini set of folk songs made famous by Peter, Paul, & Mary, If I Had A Hammer, Puff The Magic Dragon, and another one that escapes me at the moment. None of these are songs to tackle for someone who is not seriously at the top of their game. I can honestly say they were spot on, never missing a note or straining. Plus they have that magic gift of harmonies that only siblings can achieve, like the Everly Brothers, The Beach Boys, The Jackson Five and others.

Only a third into their set they played one of their biggest hits, The Rain, The Park And Other Things best known for the refrain, “I love the flower girl”. They sounded as if they hadn’t aged a day since it was recorded. Later when they performed Indian Lake it struck me how much those two songs sounded like the Beach Boys. It should be no surprise that one of the absent brothers, John, is the drummer for the latest incarnation of the Beach Boys.

Also, they were quite entertaining with their between songs banter and jokes, teasing each other as siblings do and telling the stories of their careers including the unexpected back to back losses of two brothers, Barry and Bill, one in Hurricane Katrina and the other to health issues only weeks later. They even managed to convey these tragedies with a lighthearted levity that did not bring the room down. They also told how the family was approached to be in a sitcom and when it was turned down by the group the TV producers turned right around and created the Partridge Family instead even using some of the same team that worked with the Cowsills. And as turnabout is fair play they sang “I Think I Love You”, the hit for David Cassidy.

The funny man of the group was brother, Paul, who cracked the most jokes with just a touch of Paul Lynde silliness that kept the audience laughing. Susan sang a few tracks from her solo album and brought out her daughter, Miranda, to sing a moving duet. In fact, the family aspect has continued with Susan’s husband on drums, one of the nephews plays keyboards, and for the finale of “Hair” they brought Miranda back out along with yet another nephew.

After the show the Cowsills stayed in the lobby and signed whatever anyone brought along and stayed and chatted until everyone got their turn. I think the group had as much fun as anyone in the audience. There were no more questions about why we went.