Peter Rowan: global troubadour transcends musical boundaries

By Chris Samson

During a career spanning more than 30 years, Peter Rowan has been both a keeper of tradition and a pioneer exploring new musical territory.

With his roots in the "high lonesome" sound of bluegrass patriarch Bill Monroe (with whom he began his career in 1964), Rowan has blended elements of rock 'n' roll, Tex-Mex, folk, country, reggae and other styles into his albums and performances.

The 56-year-old musician is a global troubadour who recently recorded with the Czech group Druha Trava and has made musical pilgrimages to Jamaica, Japan, Nepal and South America. Traces of Celtic, African, Cuban and Spanish music can be heard in his repertoire. Yet his music evokes the mythology and landscape of the American West as vividly as any other singer-songwriter.

Rowan doesn't put categories or boundaries on his music. He is a musical explorer, constantly pushing beyond the borders, finding new challenges and assimilating new sounds.

"He always follows his muse," says Bev Paul of Sugar Hill Records. "He does world music projects, old-timey music and then comes back to bluegrass, where his roots are."

His latest album, "Bluegrass Boy" (Sugar Hill), was a return to those roots and a homage to his mentor, Monroe, who died two years ago. "It's a way of me saying I was a bluegrass boy, and still am a bluegrass boy, and that I inherited from Bill Monroe certain things that have allowed me to continue his style of bluegrass," Rowan said. "One thing I liked about the Monroe style was that there was a lot more blues in it than the other styles of bluegrass. It was darker. It had more of an edge to it. And yet it still had that ballad tradition in it, and I loved that," he said.

Rowan left Monroe's band in 1967, joining mandolinist David Grisman to form the folk-rock band Earth Opera and later hooked up with fiddler Richard Greene in the rock-fusion band Sea Train. Over the years, he has recorded with his two siblings as the Rowan Brothers, put together the psychedelic folk band the Free Mexican Air Force and was a member of the legendary bluegrass band Old and in the Way (whose members included Jerry Garcia and Vassar Clements).

A few years before Monroe's death, Rowan had the chance to spend some time with the aging bluegrass pioneer and reconcile with him. "He didn't look at me like I had abandoned him anymore. He looked at me as if he realized I had to go out on my own and that I still had tremendous respect for the music."

"He said he could never stop playing bluegrass because it would let his bands down and disappoint his fans. He felt you had to stay with a style of music and follow it, so it could develop and people can hear the continuity in it. But he told me he heard this other kind of music he could have played, and the way he described it to me made it sound like what I was doing with [accordionist] Flaco Jimenez and [dobro player] Jerry Douglas," Rowan said.

Rowan wrote the songs for "Bluegrass Boy" using the mandolin, Monroe's instrument, to achieve the same vocal phrasing. "He'd attack on his mandolin. And that's what I want, to keep that fire and friction. The music on 'Bluegrass Boy' is not safe bluegrass."

Rowan isn't afraid to take on controversial subjects in his songwriting. "Ruby Ridge," one of the songs on "Bluegrass Boy," is based on the shootout between white supremacist Randy Weaver and federal agents in 1992. One of his most powerful songs, "Land of the Navajo," bemoans the genocide and suffering of Native Americans at the hands of the white man.

A follower of Tibetan Buddhism, his songs often have a mystical quality that reflect his spiritual side. But whether he's coaxing a reggae rhythm out of his guitar, singing a soft romantic ballad or strumming an uptempo bluegrass tune, Rowan's music knows no bounds.

Peter Rowan and Tony Rice will appear in concert Sunday, Feb. 21 at 9 p.m. at the Mystic Theater, 21 Petaluma Blvd. North. Phone 765-2121.

(Published Feb. 17, 1999)

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