The Blue Shadows "Riding Only Down"

Billy Cowsill teaming up with Jeff Hatcher, Barry Muir and J. B. Johnson to create "the Band that Scared Nashville".

The Blue Shadows put out two records in Canada during the New Country frenzy of the early 90's. They were neither "New" nor truly "Country" and subsequently fell between the cracks.

While "Riding Only Down" is listed as a Cowsill/Hatcher composition, I believe this to be Jeff's song (the two worked as Lennon and McCartney did with one contributing a song and the other assisting in its completion).

Jeff loved to see what Bill would do with his lyric and melody ideas; they were an excellent pairing of intuition and intellect.

Billy was the founder of the group working with drummer J. B. Johnson and bassist Elmar Spanier for years before Jeff Hatcher (The Big Beat) joined up. Hatcher was well known as an exceptional songwriter and guitarist from Winnipeg (home of the Guess Who and Neil Young) while the Vancouver based rhythm section of Spanier and Johnson had honed their skills together in other dynamic West Coast bands (the Bonus Boys, Maurice and the Cliches). Barry Muir replaced Spanier for touring and ultimately became a Blue Shadow.

Billy's struggles with substance abuse hampered the bands ability to break out of the Great White North. He passed away February 17th 2006.

Direction: Capilano College MV Class: Under Ted Herman

Important note: I understand that the copyright of this material belongs with Bumstead Records and the authors of the song; it is my intention to inform viewers of the fine work this band produced not to infringe on anyone's rights.

The Blue Shadows record "Lucky to Me" is OOP (out of production)