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.

Read the rest of the story at novemsongs.com