by Stratton Lawrence
Photo by Tim Benco
Backed by his veteran band, Peter Rowan delivers inspired music of all shades
.Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band
Sun. Oct. 17
8 p.m.
$22, $20/advance
Pour House
When Peter Rowan sings, "Amen, holy, hallelujah," telling the tale of burying his father as snow fell down on Easter morning, there's no questioning the honesty in his voice. Just as if he sang the traditional "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" about losing his mother, we'd believe that he was feeling those words in his soul.
But Peter Rowan actually wrote "Father, Mother," on his new album, Legacy, about his dad's passing, and it's all true. In fact, the album's 13 tracks include 10 new songs by Rowan, all of which sound as if they could be traditional tunes passed on by bluegrass bands for half a century.
There's no doubt some will be. Rowan wrote a few of bluegrass music's most widely known and covered songs, including "Midnight Moonlight" and "Panama Red." He began his career as a guitarist and lead singer in Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys, a position that alone gave him permanent status among the genre's elite. From there, however, he buddied up with David "Dawg" Grisman in the cross-over acoustic outfit Earth Opera before helping to found Old and in the Way with Jerry Garcia.
Rowan dabbled in rock and reggae in the years since, but always with his distinctive bluegrass twist. With his Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band debut on Legacy, however, he's returned to pure tradition. Longtime collaborators Keith Little (banjo), Paul Knight (bass), and Jody Stecher (mandolin) round out his quartet on the album, along with guest appearances by such bluegrass greats as Del McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, Gillian Welch, Tim O'Brien, and Dave Rawlings.
"Bluegrass has become kind of generalized, so I'm happy to have a band that believes in my writing and wants to make real bluegrass music, the kind of bluegrass I see as being real," says Rowan. Full story in the Charleston City Paper
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