Kevin Cowan, 60; LI guitarist K.c. Lovedrops

The name Kevin Cowan might not ring a bell with Long Islanders who follow the local music scene. But his stage names -- K.c. Lovedrops, and sometimes P'fesser Rubadub and the Lovedrops -- were a different matter.

"He had a stage presence. He had charisma. When he was on stage, it was magic," his longtime friend and fellow musician Dennis O'Doherty said Wednesday after a funeral Mass for Cowan, 60, of Eastport, who died last week.

Fellow musician Chris Cauley told Newsday earlier this year that he had worked gigs with Cowan for more than a decade and "I didn't even know his real name."

Cowan, who played the guitar, was born in Brooklyn, moved with his family to East Islip in 1954 and then moved to Eastport in 1994, according to his sister, Geri Twigg of Manor Park. He attended Suffolk County Community College and worked construction and did Sheetrock work when not playing.

"He had a business card that said, 'Rocker' -- Sheetrocker and rocker," his sister said.

He was married to Heather Petrie, but they separated. The couple had a daughter, Hailey Angel Cowan, 14, who lives with the Twigg family, Geri Twigg said.

Cowan was part of a music-bar-concert scene that included the annual Bradstock music festival that began in the Bayport back yard of Brad Ringhouse in 1994 and expanded to larger venues.

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"Good music confirms God's existence . . . and the beer ain't bad either . . . Salute!" Cowan wrote on his Facebook page.

For the past few years, WUSB 90.1 FM, the radio station of the University Of Stony Brook, has broadcast from the Bradstock site, and the station devoted its Tuesday morning broadcast to Cowan's music.

"Everybody wanted to be his friend," said O'Doherty, a Sayville lawyer. "He never let people bring him down. He brought people up to his level. He lived for music and he lived for people. He was a spiritual guy who didn't live for money."

There was a private cremation following Wednesday's funeral Mass at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Center Moriches. There will be a tribute Sunday at the Blue Point Brewery, 161 River Ave. in Patchogue, that will also be a fundraiser for his daughter's education.