By Michael Janusonis
Journal Arts Writer

The Cowsills, a Newport-based family group of singers who inspired “The Partridge Family” TV series, became Billboard chart toppers in the late 1960s thanks to their squeaky clean image and catchy tunes.

“The Rain, The Park, And Other Things;” “We Can Fly,” “Indian Lake” and later in the hippie era, “Hair,” were among their hits, performed at the height of their popularity by five brothers, sister Susan and their mother, Barbara. They were paraded in front of the TV cameras with the likes of Ed Sullivan, Dean Martin, Mike Douglas, Johnny Carson, Johnny Cash, Buddy Ebsen, even Hugh Hefner. They had their own TV special and screaming girl fans. They seemed happy and carefree and intensely talented.

But behind the glare of the spotlights … <Read the rest of the review at The Providence Journal>

By Michael Janusonis
Journal Arts Writer

They were young. They were from Newport. They were at the top of the Billboard charts. They were on “The Ed Sullivan Show” singing with their mother, for Pete’s sake. It was the late 1960s and the whole country was watching them.

They were — and are — The Cowsills, the family band that later served as the inspiration for the hit TV series “The Partridge Family.”

Today the surviving members are spread out across the country — California, Oregon, Louisiana. But they still get together to play as a group, most recently at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut and at B.B. King’s club just down the block from Times Square.

And they are going to be in Providence Wednesday night, Aug. 10, in a homecoming at Veterans Memorial Auditorium for Flickers: The Rhode Island International Film Festival that will mark the first film festival screening of “Family Band: The Cowsills Story.” The documentary will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience and a concert featuring Susan, Paul and Bob Cowsill. Bob, on the phone from Milwaukee where he was performing, says it will be “a Peter, Paul and Mary shot because we didn’t have the budget to bring in the eight-piece band we usually play with.”

“We don’t do a lot of shows,” adds Bob, 61, “because …. <Read the rest of the article at The Providence Journal>

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Published in August 3rd-9th, 2011 edition of Mercury Magazine

The dairy ads milked The Cowsills for all their wholesome family worth.

In the 1960s, before the Osmonds, the Jackson 5 or the fictional Partridges were the reigning family dynasties of pop music, The Cowsills out of Newport, R.I. — kid siblings Bill, Bob, Paul, Barry, John and Susan, plus mom Barbara — ruled airwaves and TV variety shows with hits like “The Rain, the Park and Other Things,” “Indian Lake” and “Hair.”

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And, here are some photos of The Bob Cowsill Band at the Strawberry Festival: