Peter Rowan

All Music Guide:

A major cult figure among progressive bluegrass aficionados, Peter Rowan participated in a number of adventurous projects in the late '60s and '70s before embarking on a highly productive solo career. Primarily a guitarist, Rowan also sang, yodeled, and played various members of the mandolin family. He was born in 1942 and grew up in Wayland, MA, 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 over 1970-1971, 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 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. 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. 1990's 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 successful recording session in 2006 called Quartet. The Best of the Sugar Hill Years compilation followed in 2007.

Wikipedia:

Peter Rowan (b. July 4, 1942, Boston, Massachusetts) is an American bluegrass musician and composer. Rowan plays guitar and mandolin, yodels and sings.

Biography

From an early age, Rowan had an interest in music and eventually learned to play the guitar. At the age of twelve he heard Elvis Presley for the first time and later, in junior high school, he formed a rockabilly band, the Cupids. Influenced by the blues musician Eric Von Schmidt, Rowan traded his electric guitar for an acoustic and began to play the blues. He was also influenced by the folk sound of Joan Baez. In college he discovered bluegrass after hearing The Country Gentlemen and The Stanley Brothers. He soon discovered the music of Bill Monroe and with some help from banjo player Bill Keith, he was to audition for Monroe who invited him to Nashville. Accompanied by Keith, Rowan went to Nashville and was hired in March 1965 as guitarist and lead vocalist of Monroe's Bluegrass Boys. His recording debut as a "bluegrass boy" took place on October 14, 1966 and he recorded a total of fourteen songs with Monroe before his tenure ended in the spring of 1967.

Rowan teamed up with David Grisman in 1967 forming the band Earth Opera which frequently opened for The Doors. In 1969, Rowan joined Seatrain, along with Richard Greene. In 1973, Rowan, together with Greene, Grisman, Bill Keith, and Clarence White formed the bluegrass band Muleskinner. The band released one album. The same year, (1973), Rowan and Grisman formed Old and in the Way with Greene, Jerry Garcia, and John Kahn. Greene was later replaced by Vassar Clements. Old and In the Way disbanded in 1974 and Rowan joined a rock band led by his brothers. Three years later, in 1977, he left his brother's rock band. For a time, he was touring with Richard Greene in Japan and playing clubs with fiddler Tex Logan. He also formed the Green Grass Gringos.

Rowan has been part of Mother Bay State Entertainers and played mandolin on their record of 1963, The String Band Project. He has recorded and performed with his brothers, Lorin and Chris, at various times, starting in 1972. Since then, he has been involved in many group and solo projects, including Peter Rowan and the Free Mexican Airforce, and continues to tour. He composed songs performed by New Riders of the Purple Sage, including "Panama Red," "Midnight Moonlight" and "Lonesome L.A. Cowboy."

Rowan also features on In No Sense? Nonsense! an album by UK band The art of noise. His the voice (yodel) on One Earth the last song of the album. It was recorded 1987 and it was released by China records and Chrysalis records Ltd. that same year.

Rowan's released "Quartet" (2007), the second collaboration with guitarist and bluegrass musician Tony Rice. His most recent disc as the Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band is "Legacy," (2010) on Compass Records.