A major cult figure among progressive bluegrass aficionados, Grammy-winning roots artist
Peter Rowan participated in a number of adventurous projects in the late '60s and '70s before embarking on a highly productive solo career in the '80s. Primarily a guitarist,
Rowan also sings, yodels, and plays various members of the mandolin family. His long list of bands and collaborators includes
Earth Opera,
Seatrain,
Muleskinner,
Old & in the Way,
the Rowan Brothers, Rowan & Greene & the Red Hot Pickers,
Tony Rice,
Jerry Douglas,
Don Edwards, and
Flaco Jiménez, among many others.
Rowan was born in 1942 and grew up in Wayland, Massachusetts, near Boston; his parents and several relatives were musicians, and he and his brothers
Chris and
Lorin grew up playing both rock and bluegrass together.
Rowan also formed a Tex-Mex band called
the Cupids in high school, and after college he sang and played mandolin in the folk group the Mother Bay State Entertainers, whom he joined in 1963. He also played with
Jim Rooney and
Bill Keith, and in 1964 he joined
Bill Monroe's legendary Blue Grass Boys as a vocalist and guitarist. He departed in 1967 to team up with mandolin virtuoso
David Grisman in the eclectic, progressive-minded folk-rock band
Earth Opera, who released two albums and often opened for
the Doors.
Rowan next moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and joined
Seatrain, a bluegrass/rock hybrid outfit. He appeared on two albums in 1970 and 1971, then left to play with
Jerry Garcia and
Grisman in the bluegrass group
Old & in the Way, also joining
Grisman in
Muleskinner.
In 1975,
Rowan teamed with up his brothers
Chris and
Lorin in the progressive bluegrass unit
the Rowans, who released several acclaimed albums over the next few years.
Rowan also performed with
Flaco Jimenez in Mexican Airforce and issued his first two solo albums -- 1978's
Peter Rowan and 1980's
Medicine Trail -- on Flying Fish. He issued the Tex-Mex project
Texican Badman on Appaloosa in 1981 as well as an album with his Nashville-based group, the Wild Stallions. The year 1982 brought
The Walls of Time, the first in a long string of albums for the Sugar Hill label that lasted well into the '90s.
Among the more notable, 1985's
The First Whippoorwill was an affectionate tribute to
Monroe, while 1988's
New Moon Rising became the signature album of
Rowan's solo career, featuring some of his most popular material. Released in 1990,
Dust Bowl Children was a completely solo performance, while 1991's
All on a Rising Day continued his creative hot streak. Several more albums followed through 1996, including one, 1994's
Tree on a Hill, that reunited him with
Chris and
Lorin; another, 1996's
Yonder, paired him with Dobro king
Jerry Douglas for a set of duets.
Rowan took a break from his solo career for a few years but continued to guest on albums by other artists, including the Czech folk group
Druha Trava. He returned in 2002 with
High Lonesome Cowboy, a collaborative effort with
Don Edwards for Shanachie that also featured
Tony Rice and
Norman Blake. In 2004
Rowan released
You Were There for Me, a long overdue collaboration with
Tony Rice that resulted in another album in 2007 called
Quartet.
The Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band issued the
Alison Brown-produced Legacy in 2010 with a quartet comprising Jody Stetcher, Paul Knight, and
Keith Little. Its guests included
Ricky Skaggs,
Del McCoury,
Gillian Welch, and
David Rawlings. Old School, issued in 2013, brought together surviving members of
Monroe's Blue Grass Boys with a new generation of players who followed in the footsteps of that tradition. It was followed later in the year by a raw compilation of
Rowan's Trang & Groove, a reggae, R&B, and bluegrass fusion project.
Back in 2006, producer
John Chelew happened by
Rowan's painting studio and heard him play some spiritually themed songs he'd performed live but had never recorded. The producer booked time at the Record Plant in Sausalito and
Rowan and his band began laying down some of the songs. Further recording was done in Los Angeles and New Orleans, with a slew of guests including bassist
Jack Casady and
Welch. The album was issued as
Dharma Blues by Elk Run through Omnivore Recordings in the summer of 2014. In 2017, Omnivore released
My Aloha!, a collection of tunes in the Hawaiian style, with
Rowan on guitar and baritone ukulele.
Rowan signed with Rebel Records ahead of the release of 2018's
Stanley Brothers-inspired
Carter Stanley's Eyes. In 2022 he issued
Calling You from My Mountain, a set of original and traditional songs featuring guest spots from
Shawn Camp,
Billy Strings,
Molly Tuttle, and Lindsay Lou. ~ Steve Huey