...bluegrass remains his touchstone no matter what musical road he's walking. It's only recently, however, that he's come to terms with Monroe's imposingly pervasive influence, a paternal role that the bandleader was loathe to let Rowan forget.
"Not long before Bill died in 1996, I was playing at Wintergrass in Washington with Old and in the Way, and he sneaks up on stage, gives me a full body block and knocks me away from the mike," Rowan recalls with a laugh. "He says, 'I taught him everything he knows! I taught him how to play. I taught him how to take a bath!' That's the way Bill was.
"For years I struggled with bluegrass being Bill Monroe's music, and for years I did my own thing based on my song-writing, based on all these influences, like Tex-Mex, reggae and rock. But I think I feel that by fertilizing this idiom, I have a role to play in this music."
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"Not long before Bill died in 1996, I was playing at Wintergrass in Washington with Old and in the Way, and he sneaks up on stage, gives me a full body block and knocks me away from the mike," Rowan recalls with a laugh. "He says, 'I taught him everything he knows! I taught him how to play. I taught him how to take a bath!' That's the way Bill was.
"For years I struggled with bluegrass being Bill Monroe's music, and for years I did my own thing based on my song-writing, based on all these influences, like Tex-Mex, reggae and rock. But I think I feel that by fertilizing this idiom, I have a role to play in this music."
Full article.
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