The Blue Shadows

"On The Floor Of Heaven"

“On The Floor Of Heaven” was the debut album from the band “The Blue Shadows”, a quartet that hailed from Vancouver, Canada. All of the tracks were recorded in Vancouver during March of 1993, except for two that were recorded earlier in July of 1992. The future for the group seemed promising; they had support from their label Bumstead Records and a distribution deal with Sony/Columbia, one of the biggest players in the game. Upon its release, On The Floor Of Heaven received great reviews and was certified gold in Canada for sales in excess of 50,000 copies. The band was also nominated for a Juno in the category of “Best Country Group or Duo” in 1994. The band toured to much critical acclaim, and in 1995 recorded their follow-up disc, “Lucky To Me”, again to great reviews. However, shortly after the release of their second album, they broke up. That has not been the end of the group though. There continues to be great interest in their music, and their debut release is still very highly regarded and much sought after. 

While the music was uniformly excellent, the personal dynamics within the band were challenging for some of the members. The Blue Shadows had a fascinating pedigree. The founding member of The Blue Shadows was Bill Cowsill, a member of the 1960s band, the “Cowsills.” A staple of top 40 radio in the late 1960’s, the Cowsills was a family band, comprised of brothers Bill, Bob, Barry, John, Paul, sister Susan and their mother Barbara, with the children’s father as the group’s manager. Bill was the eldest of the brothers, played guitar and was the lead singer. In 1967 the group signed with MGM, and released their first album, which included the hit single “The Rain, The Park & Other Things”. The single went to number 2 on the Billboard charts and became a certified gold record, selling over a million copies. The band continued to have success, with two more million selling singles; “Indian Lake” in 1968 and the title song from the hit musical “Hair” in 1969. The friendly, family persona exemplified by the group however masked a fractious relationship between Bill and his father, who ran things in a very strict manner. Bill was fired from the band in 1969 after a serious physical altercation with his father at a Las Vegas hotel. 

After leaving the Cowsills, Bill continued to work in the music industry, and was involved in a number of projects. In 1971 he released a solo album “Nervous Breakthrough” that failed to chart. He eventually decided to pull up stakes and in the mid 1970’s relocated to Western Canada. Bill continued his music career, mainly based in Calgary, Alberta. In the early 1990’s, he found himself in Vancouver, British Columbia performing with stand up bass player Elmer Spanier. It was at this time that the genesis of what would become The Blue Shadows began to take shape. 

At the time, Bill was being managed by a gentleman named Larry Wanagas of Bumstead Productions. An old friend of Larry’s, singer, guitarist and song-writer Jeffrey Hatcher arrived in Vancouver. Larry knew that Bill was looking to add another guitarist, and thought that he and Jeffrey might hit it off. It was an inspired choice. Whether it was deserved or not, Bill had developed a reputation as a somewhat irascible character, and allegedly Jeffrey had some initial trepidation about performing with Bill. However, the two musicians seemed to really connect musically and after a few gigs the decision was made that they would continue to work together. Drummer J.B. Johnson was added to the group, making it a quartet. Jeffrey’s partner came up with the band’s name, and they were off and running. Within a few months, the band was ready to enter a recording studio and lay down some tracks. 

The album the group recorded contained twelve songs. There were no covers on the record. Seven of the songs were co-written by Bill and Jeffrey, and the rest were either written by Jeffrey or by Bill in conjunction with another songwriter. The style of music performed by The Blue Shadows undoubtedly had a strong country influence, but other musical genres can also be heard. What is without dispute however is the excellence of the songs, and the excellence of the group's performance. While every song is good, there a couple that are classics that still sound amazing almost 25 years after they were originally laid down. As indicated earlier, there continues to be a significant amount of interest in the group and its first album. The band has maintained a strong following (specifically on-line), with On The Floor Of Heaven having a revered status with fans, and with no shortage of superlatives to describe the music. I don’t intend to repeat what is already out there in my review of the recording. Most of the reviews focus on trying to find comparisons between well known iconic artists and The Blue Shadows in an attempt to define the music the band created. While it is axiomatic that the music The Blue Shadows recorded for On The Floor Of Heaven has precedents, and that the influences of other artists can be recognized, it does a disservice to the group and to the songwriters Bill and Jeffrey to try and define them by who they might sound like. Their music stands on its own, and should be thought of in those terms. Twenty some odd years before the release of On The Floor Of Heaven, another musical innovator named Gram Parsons was creating a form of popular music he referred to as “Cosmic American Music”. If you have to affix a tag on what The Blue Shadows did, that probably works as well as anything (or call it “Cosmic Canadian Music” if you want to be nationalistic).   

    The music on the recording has a beautiful open feel to it. The instrumentation is sparse and nobody overplays. Where it benefits the song, the band introduces some fiddle or some pedal steel, but these extra instruments are used sparingly to add colour and don’t overwhelm the listener. The over-production and cliche “rock music” techniques predominant in the “New Country” musical genre of the early 1990’s are thankfully no where to be found in On The Floor Of Heaven. What the listener gets to hear are excellent harmony vocals, crisp guitar (with some nice 12 string thrown in here and there) and a solid understated rhythm section. The music has a timeless feel, and could have come from any of the five decades between 1960 and 2010. 

As I stated earlier, I don’t think there’s a duff track on the album. If I had to pick one that exemplifies what a treasure this recording is, I’d go with the title track, “On The Floor Of Heaven”. The song is a ballad, and opens with electric and acoustic guitar, followed by Bill and Jeffrey singing the opening lines of the first verse together. The rhythm section subsequently joins in, along with some tasteful peddle steel. The arrangement is superb. We get to listen to the beautiful blend Bill and Jeffrey had with their vocals throughout the song, singing in unison and harmonizing. In addition to the great verse/chorus progression, the song features a gorgeous bridge leading to the last verse and the band taking the song out with three part harmony.  

As I alluded to earlier, while there weren’t any issues with the music, the internal dynamics in the band were a different story. Bill was quite bit older, and more world-weary than the other members. He was wrestling with some demons, and his lifestyle was not one that the other members agreed with. As with many other similar situations in the musical universe, the band broke up after everybody simply had enough. 

On The Floor Of Heaven was only released on compact disk. The cover featured a stylized picture of the centre of a vinyl record with the group’s name and the album’s title featured. A simple graphic design, but very effective, subliminally suggesting the timeless quality of the music the recording contained. It was catalogue number CK 80181. In 2010 Bumstead Records released a deluxe 2 disc remastered reissue of the original recording, plus some bonus tracks and out-takes (catalogue number BSP0931D), in response to the continued demand for the music.

Bill Cowsill succumbed to a variety of illnesses in 2006 in Calgary. After leaving The Blue Shadows, he was able to overcome his addictions through a program of rehabilitation. He always thought very highly of the group and his contributions to it, and felt that the band and its recordings were some of the best work he had ever accomplished in a very lengthy and noteworthy career. Jeffrey Hatcher largely moved on from the music business, although according to sources on-line, he is still occasionally performing. (I tried reaching out to him while preparing this article, but did not receive a reply). I can only repeat what many others have already said, this music deserves to be heard and enjoyed. If you aren’t familiar with the group, do yourself a favour and listen. While the original 1993 recording has been out of print for quite a number of years, you might be able to locate the deluxe reissue. Failing that, the deluxe reissue is available on iTunes (although you will have to go to the American store if you are in Canada).