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Who is NOVEM? - The Cliff Notes version of what we know about them.
In the spring of 1973, a group of nine college students formed a strong friendship on the campus of Harrison State University, sharing a common bond of music. Four of them were music majors, and the other five had various degrees of musical talent. Austin Rowles, thought to be the unofficial group leader, encouraged the group to jam together after classes.
Within weeks, the group was performing in front of fellow college students at frat parties and beer picnics. Very quickly it became apparent the group had a special chemistry and a lot of talent, mainly composing original material.
Apparently in April, Mark Winstead came up with an idea for each member of the group to write a song about something they felt strongly about. His uncle owned a recording studio called Dark Horse in Franklin, Tennessee. He offered the group a chance to record their songs free of charge after the spring semester was complete. The group jumped at the chance, and they spent a week camped out at this remote studio, recording their songs and becoming closer friends.
On May 14, 1973, the group packed their clothes and gear into Tom Lewdowski's van and headed for Dark Horse Studios about three hours away. When they arrived, they met Dan Cook, a 38 year-old recording engineer that worked for Mark's uncle. Dan provided the experience and expertise necessary to record the group's music. Shortly, work began on the first of 11 amazing tracks of music.
During the next week, the group recorded, slept, and partied together. Dennis Clark even proposed to Kris Doyle; she accepted. Toward the end of the week the group was exhausted, but the recording sessions were going better than expected, and everyone was stoked by the amazing music and vocal arrangements the group was producing.
The group never actually named itself. It appears they didn't even think of themselves as a band or group when they arrived at Dark Horse. The name NOVEM didn't even exist until after their recording session when Dan Cook wrote 'NOVEM Songs' (NOVEM is Latin for nine) on the outside of the master music boxes. This is where NOVEM came from and why we refer to the group as NOVEM.
Late on the night of May 19, 1973, the group said goodbye to Dan Cook, packed all their stuff in Tom's old Chevy van and left the rural studio to head back to campus. Tragically they never made it. For some unknown reason, the van failed to stop at a stop sign and entered an intersection at a high rate of speed where it was struck broadside by a large truck. The resulting impact sent the van careening into a wooded area where it flipped several times and burst into flames. Seven of the nine students died that night. Two survived the accident but died days later. Although empty beer cans were found in the van, police suspected that the driver of the van fell asleep at the wheel.
We believe the brakes on Tom's van may have failed.
As it turns out, very few people other than the group members and those involved knew about the recording sessions. The group left with the master session tapes that night, but no evidence of them was found at the accident site. It appears that the group stopped by Mark's parent's home in Brentwood, Tennessee shortly after they left Dark Horse. Our best guess is that Mark put the tapes on a shelf in his parent's basement thinking he'd be back later to finish mixing the music.
Here's where we come in. In March 2004, Jordan was at home in Brentwood visiting his family when he decided to go by this garage sale near his parent's home. Jordan loves old records, and he thought he might find some at this garage sale. As it turns out, he did. The old records were in the top of this box that also contained two large boxes of recording tape and about 20 cans of 16mm film. The whole box was marked $10. Jordan only wanted the records and offered the lady running the sale $5 for the old records only. The woman told him he could pay $5 but he'd have to take the whole box. He agreed and returned to Hairy State with the box. Jordan took the records out and added them to his collection, and the recording tape boxes and the film just stayed in the corner. Several weeks later, Jeff came by and asked about the recording tapes and film. Jordan explained that he knew nothing about them. Jeff asked if he could take it and see what was on them. Jordan said sure, and that's how we stumbled on to the original 24 track recordings of their music and Alan's undeveloped 16mm film that he shot while the group was recording the music.
Once we heard their music and saw the film footage, we were hooked, and a small group of us, Jordan, Jeff, Laura Jo, Liz, Jenna and I started to find out who these people were. Early on, we thought they were still alive, and the idea was to return the music to them. In late April, we discovered two bomb shells. First, that they were dead and second, and maybe even wilder, they were all Hairy State students!!
Ben's student film NOVEM has been doing well on the festival circuit. If you have a chance please come out and support the film. For more information on NOVEM and the what festivals it will be showing at visit novemsongs.com.
-Sean
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