The Peter Rowan Songbooks
The Peter Rowan Songbook
Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Teach: Songs, Guitar, and Musicianship
Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Teach: Songs, Guitar, and Musicianship
The fifteen original songs in this book form a thread through Peter Rowan’s musical life. They range from love songs to social commentary, dreamlike inspirational tunes to his signature bluegrass-tinged showstoppers. All the songs are gems. You’ll enjoy playing and singing them for years to come.
The book includes tablature (when appropria
The fifteen original songs in this book form a thread through Peter Rowan’s musical life. They range from love songs to social commentary, dreamlike inspirational tunes to his signature bluegrass-tinged showstoppers. All the songs are gems. You’ll enjoy playing and singing them for years to come.
The book includes tablature (when appropriate), chord shapes and complete lead sheets so you can play the song the way Peter does. You’ll also find separate lyric sheets, a complete discography and poetic tributes to this wonderful American artist.
As a bonus, Peter has recorded audio on which he demonstrates each song and, in his distinctive and inspiring manner, provides musical pointers and insights into its background.
Panama Red; Bluegrass Boy; High Lonesome Sound; Midnight Moonlight; Pulling the Devil by the Tail; Wild Geese Cry Again; Ruby Ridge; Before the Streets Were Paved; Electric Blanket; On the Wings of Horses; I Dreamed of a Home; Faith, Love and Devotion; Let the Harvest Go to Seed; Fetch Wood, Carry Water; Dust Bowl Children.
Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Teach: Songs, Guitar, and Musicianship
Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Teach: Songs, Guitar, and Musicianship
Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Teach: Songs, Guitar, and Musicianship
Play Along and Learn with Two Legendary Artists!
This captivating session brings together two undisputed giants in the field of bluegrass guitar. Peter Rowan and Tony Rice teach great songs and pass on the techniques, musical insights and wisdom they have gained through decades of experience.
This lesson will help players at a variety of le
Play Along and Learn with Two Legendary Artists!
This captivating session brings together two undisputed giants in the field of bluegrass guitar. Peter Rowan and Tony Rice teach great songs and pass on the techniques, musical insights and wisdom they have gained through decades of experience.
This lesson will help players at a variety of levels: If you are an intermediate guitarist, Peter’s rich chord ideas and solid picking will guide you to successful song accompaniment and rhythm playing. If you’re ready to venture into more advanced territory, Tony’s unique back-up ideas, chord inversions, licks and mind-bending solos will provide months of exciting study. Everyone, regardless of skill level, will enjoy and learn from the instrumental and verbal interplay between these amazing musicians.
As you learn to play six of Peter’s classic songs, your skill and musicianship will develop to a whole new level and you’ll gain an understanding of how to bring your own songs to life.
Includes: You Were There For Me, Dustbowl Children, Let the Harvest Go to Seed, Angel Island, Come Back to Old Santa Fe, Panama Red and a special performance of Midnight Moonlight.
Lead Singing & Rhythm Guitar: Finding Your Bluegrass Voice
Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Teach: Songs, Guitar, and Musicianship
Lead Singing & Rhythm Guitar: Finding Your Bluegrass Voice
One of America’s greatest bluegrass musicians has made a lesson that will help you improve your singing and strengthen your rhythm guitar playing. Peter Rowan imparts wisdom and advice based on decades of experience playing with bands from Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys to Old and In the Way.
You’ll gain unique insights into Peter Row
One of America’s greatest bluegrass musicians has made a lesson that will help you improve your singing and strengthen your rhythm guitar playing. Peter Rowan imparts wisdom and advice based on decades of experience playing with bands from Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys to Old and In the Way.
You’ll gain unique insights into Peter Rowan’s instrumental and singing style, which will, in turn, help you in your own musical development. Through his thoughtful instruction you’ll improve your lead singing and learn invaluable tips on breathing, phrasing, vocal improvisation, and how to achieve the “high lonesome” bluegrass sound. Peter gives you exercises for increasing your power and range, and builds your awareness of what you need to do to develop a strong vocal sound.
A top-notch guitarist as well as a great singer, Peter teaches the basics of guitar accompaniment for bluegrass songs. He shows you how to back up your singing with a strong sense of time, strumming full chords with the pick and adding bluegrass style bass runs (including variations on the famous “G run”). You’ll also learn to pick simple but effective solos to a variety of songs, and establish an authentic bluegrass guitar sound.
Peter illustrates his lesson with a set of classic songs from the bluegrass repertoire. He takes apart “Blue Moon of Kentucky” phrase by phrase, the way Bill Monroe taught it to him, and teaches the bluesy “Walls of Time” (which Peter wrote with Monroe), with its sliding notes and punchy bass runs. Other songs include the traditional gospel number “Wayfaring Stranger,” which Peter uses to teach his haunting guitar arrangements along with the vocal improvisations that make his trademark sound. “In the Pines,” a waltz-time song with powerful blues runs in E, illustrates how to establish rock-solid time to add power and dignity to this and other songs.
Along with lots of great instruction, you’ll also hear some of Peter’s first-hand accounts of his days on tour with Bill Monroe, and concert style performances of six of his best-known bluegrass songs.
Review:
“Rowan is a legend within the bluegrass community. This video shows how, after more than four decades of lead singing, his voice is still as strong as ever. So many bluegrass singer/guitarists can learn valuable lessons from one of the masters by watching this video.” - Bluegrass Journal
Peter Rowan - Music
Carter Stanley's Eyes
The Song That Made Hank Williams Dance (Single)
Calling You From My Mountain
Peter Rowan’s newest release is an honoring of the Stanley Brothers and Rowan’s bluegrass roots. The album pays respects to bluegrass’s most famous brothers with two songs penned by each; others, such as the traditional “Hills of Roane County” and the Carter Family’s “Will You Miss Me,” were Stanley Brothers staples. Even the album’s opener, Rowan’s own “Drumbeats on the Watchtower,” nods to Ralph Stanley, who retitled it (from “Wild Geese Cry Again”) when he recorded it. In addition, Peter visits his former boss Bill Monroe (“Can’t You Hear Me Calling”), the Louvin Brothers (“A Tiny Broken Heart”) and Lead Belly (“Alabama Bound”). Rowan gathers several luminaries to join him here including Jack Lawrence, Don Rigsby, Tim O’Brien and Patrick Sauber. They are backed by Rowan’s Bluegrass Band mates: Blaine Sprouse on fiddle, Chris Henry on mandolin and Paul Knight on bass.
released March 1, 2023
Calling You From My Mountain
The Song That Made Hank Williams Dance (Single)
Calling You From My Mountain
To say Peter Rowan’s second Rebel Records release Calling You From My Mountain contains multitudes is an understatement. It started as a homage to Rowan’s favorite Hank Williams album, Hank Williams Sings Luke the Drifter. Every song on this CD has a story. It starts with a rollicking rendition of Woody Guthrie’s "New York Town." "Light At the End of the World" echoes the sound of bluegrass gospel but takes its spiritual power from Rowan’s memories of visiting Hiroshima, Japan. He also performs "Little Joe" by A.P. Carter, Bill Monroe's "Frog on the Lilly Pad," and "Penitentiary Blues" by bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins. And then there are Rowan’s original songs including "The Song That Made Hank Williams Dance," "A Winning Hand," "Dream of Heaven" and album closer "Freedom Trilogy." This is great music produced by a great musician with a wonderful young band including Chris Henry on mandolin, Max Wareham on banjo, Julian Pinelli on fiddle and Eric Thorin on acoustic bass. He is also joined by special guests Shawn Camp, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Lindsay Lou, and Mark Howard.
released June 24, 2022
The Song That Made Hank Williams Dance (Single)
The Song That Made Hank Williams Dance (Single)
The Song That Made Hank Williams Dance (Single)
Featuring special guest Shawn Camp.
From 'Calling You From My Mountain' (2022).
released April 13, 2022
Peter Rowan's Twang an' Groove Vol. 1
Peter Rowan's Twang an' Groove Vol. 1
The Song That Made Hank Williams Dance (Single)
The debut album - a collection of live concerts. One of music's great polyglots, [GRAMMY-award winner and six-time GRAMMY nominee] Peter Rowan sports a manifest of collaborators and bands, albums and influences that reads like a strange and wonderful map of Americana. Though he's known best either as a progressive bluegrass guy or the anchor of Old and in the Way that wasn't Garcia or Grisman, Rowan has skipped between reggae and rock, roadhouse and instrumental showmanship during the last five decades. He's a link between Bill Monroe and The Grateful Dead, between Bob Marley and Tony Rice. But Rowan is more than a consistent footnote. As a bandleader, he remains incredibly active, a 70-year-old player prowling through his interests with the tenacity of someone who wants to cover as much ground as a lifetime will allow... He arrives with the five-piece Twang an' Groove outfit, an electric unit whose deep backbeat allows Rowan to waltz from the honky-tonk to the dancehall in the space of several meters, belting his blues and yodeling all the way..." — Grayson Currin / Indy Week
released April 15, 2014
Peter Rowan - Lead Vocals, Guitar
Jamie Oldaker - Drums
Mike Morgan - Bass Guitar
Jeff Hogan - Percussion
Carter Arrington - Lead Guitar
D.R. Commander - Keyboards
The Old School
Peter Rowan's Twang an' Groove Vol. 1
The Old School
On THE OLD SCHOOL, bluegrass legend Peter Rowan delves further into his legacy as one of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys with some of the first generation players who really know “the old school” while
welcoming younger players considered to be the torchbearers for the future of
bluegrass music.
The album includes 11 Rowan originals and a rework of “Freedom Riders,” the Civil Rights anthem made popular by Odetta. Featured guests include Del McCoury on the high lonesome “That’s All She Wrote,” Bobby Osborne on a stunning duet called “Stealing My Time,” Jesse McReynolds on the soon to be classic “Mountain Man’s Dream” and Bryan Sutton on the ode to Doc Watson “Doc Watson Morning.” Other guests include the Traveling McCourys, JD Crowe, fiddlers Michael Cleveland, Stuart Duncan, Buddy Spicher, Time Jumpers bassist Dennis Crouch, Jeremy Garrett of the Infamous Stringdusters, Don Rigsby and the members of the Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band.
Includes bonus track "Keepin' it Between the Lines (Old School) Reprise"
“Rowan proves himself capable of composing timeless songs and delivering them with conviction and authenticity—complete with that Monroe high lonesome singing tone.” –Rhythms Magazine
“A formidable musician and gifted songwriter” —The Bluegrass Special
“His remarkable voice whirls like a shrill wind.” —Washington Post
released April 30, 2013
Legacy
Peter Rowan's Twang an' Groove Vol. 1
The Old School
Since his apprenticeship some 45 years ago with Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass, roots music icon Peter Rowan has blazed trails across an unsurpassed ange of musical territory. Now, with producer Alison Brown at the helm of his Compass Records debut, LEGACY, he revisits the style that launched his career.
Backed by his veteran touring Bluegrass Band (Jody Stecher, Keith Little, Paul Knight) and a handful of guests that include fellow Monroe graduate Del McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings and Tim O’Brien, Rowan delivers a hefty dose of inspired singing and traditionally-informed but fresh original songs that bear his unmistakable stamp. From the searing “The Family Demon” through the delicious “So Good” and the ominous drive of “Jailer Jailer,” LEGACY is a compelling set that reaffirms Rowan’s stature as an unsurpassed master of the music’s “ancient tones”—and its modern forms.
“His remarkable voice whirls like a shrill wind.” —Washington Post
“Whether it’s his stint as Bill Monroe’s guitarist, or a successful run with Old and in the Way, for Rowan, these moments—all the collaborations and events—add up to a collective legacy, and he’s paying tribute to it with his forthcoming album, appropriately titled, Legacy.” —The Boulder Weekly
released September 7, 2010
Crucial Country - Live at Telluride
Crucial Country - Live at Telluride
Crucial Country - Live at Telluride
Recorded live at the Telluride Festival in 1994, Crucial Country captures live an incredible band of stars in one of their greatest moments. From bluegrass standard “The Walls of Time”, co-written with Bill Monroe, to “Panama Red”, one of Rowan’s signature classics, and an inspirational version of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry”, this record makes country crucial.
released January 1, 2006
Crazy People (The Rowan Brothers)
Crucial Country - Live at Telluride
Crucial Country - Live at Telluride
Old-style acoustic blues, bluegrass, and more from the legendary Rowan Family and many more fine players!
released January 1, 2005
Peter Rowan - vocals, guitars, mandola
Chris Rowan - vocals, guitar
Lorin Rowan - vocals, guitars
Reggaebilly
Crucial Country - Live at Telluride
Medicine Trail
Whether grooving on the smooth sailing instrumental 'Sky Dancer' or the gentle lilt of 'I Don't Want to Live Without Your Love' , Rowan couldn't sound more relaxed and at home in guiding his supporting cast through their sunny supplication. --The Music Box
Consisting of an irresistible reggae beat and melodic sensibilities, Rowan's high lonesome voice fits well with the island genre... Reggaebilly reveals not only Rowan's new passion but some of his finest, newest compositions --Jambands
released January 1, 2005
Medicine Trail
Peter Rowan (Solo Debut)
Medicine Trail
There Records is honored to re-release the third solo album by country rock / bluegrass legend [GRAMMY-award winner and six-time GRAMMY nominee] Peter Rowan. Originally released in 1980, guest musicians on Medicine Trail include fellow greats Jerry Douglas, Ricky Skaggs, David Grisman, and Flaco Jimenez.
"Medicine Trail brings Rowan fans just what they are looking for - dusty yet vibrantly colored country stories plus a few turns into different musical territories like gospel and tropical sounds. More proof that Rowan is one of the greatest artists to ever pick up a guitar". - Homegrown
released March 4, 1980
Peter Rowan (Solo Debut)
Peter Rowan (Solo Debut)
Peter Rowan (Solo Debut)
Peter Rowan, originally released on on Flying Fish in 1978, is the first solo album by the country rock / bluegrass legend Peter Rowan. Guest musicians are Peter's brother Lorin Rowan (piano), Flaco Jimenez (accordion), the late Tex Logan and Richard Greene (fiddle).
"Rowan's writing is clear and crisp, He doesn't sound grizzled or backwoods and nor needs to be as the music is pastoral, beautifully evocative and, not surprisingly, played beautifully... The song writing is strong and the music comes like a cool breeze blowing past you as you sit on a hill watching the world go by." - What Frank Is Listening To
"If you’ve been growing up listening to Texan songwriters and new country, this... is something you shouldn’t miss for any reason whatsoever". - No Depression
released October 3, 1978
Peter Rowan on NUGS
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