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Who is NOVEM?
NOVEM was a group of nine college students that got together at Dark Horse Studios in May of 1973 to record rock music they had written. Apparently, they had what could loosely be called a “song writing club” on the Harrison State campus. They collaborated on each others songs during the six days at the studio.
What's the big deal about NOVEM?
The story of NOVEM and their music is fascinating to lot of people, especially on college campuses. They died, their music is fantastic, it was lost and remained silent for 31 years and a group of college students today stumbled onto to it. Intrigue? What else could you ask for?
Why did they call themselves NOVEM?
Apparently, they didn’t have a name and didn’t even think of themselves as a group. NOVEM is Latin for nine and the studio engineer, Dan Cook, wrote it on the master recording boxes because he didn’t know what else to call them.
What happened to NOVEM?
At the end of the recording sessions, the group piled into Tom Lewdowski’s van and headed back to campus. They never made it. At 2am the van was struck by a truck at an intersection near Bowling Green, Kentucky. The violent impact sent the van careening into a near by wooded area where it burst into flames. Seven of the group died at the accident scene. Two survived the accident, but died within three weeks.
What happened to the music?
The group left that night with the master recordings in a box, but the music was not found at the accident scene. Apparently the group stopped by Mark Winstead’s mom’s house in Brentwood, TN on the way out back to campus. Mark probably put the box in his mom’s walkout basement. And there it sat, unknown to Mark’s mom, until her death in early 2004. At that time, Mark’s sister cleaned out her mother’s home. She sold much of her mother’s stuff in a garage sale. Unknowingly, she took NOVEM’s music and added some old record albums to the top of the box and put it out for sale. Jordan Simon, a modern day Harrison State student was home on a break from school and ended up buying the box of NOVEM’s music because he wanted the old albums in the top. The rest as they say is history.
Where did the film footage of NOVEM come from?
Luckily for us 31 years later, Alan, one of the NOVEM group members was also a film student. He was apparently filming the group at Dark Horse for one of his class projects. His undeveloped 16mm film was also in the box with the master music recordings that Jordan bought at the garage sale.
Can I buy a CD of their music?
Technically no: because of the legal battle Jordan is involved in about the ownership of the master recordings, we can’t sell the music at this time. But we hope that changes shortly. I know, that’s a lame excuse but it’s a fact of life. It’s the same reason we can’t put the entire songs on the internet either. Stay tuned.
I hear somebody did a movie about NOVEM?
Well it’s not exactly a Hollywood blockbuster yet, but Ben Harris, a film student here at Harrison State is working on a documentary for is class project about NOVEM and their music. Ben’s student film is almost complete, and I’m sure if you want to get a copy in the future it will be available.
Where did the video clips of NOVEM come from?
We have edited together the music and the film footage that we found. So when you watch the clips it’s almost like being at Dark Horse with NOVEM in 1973! There is also some of Ben’s footage mixed in.
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