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B I O G R A P H Y
Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Initially inspired by the possibilities and flexibility inherent in classic bluegrass, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice have helped reinvent American roots music over the course of their respective solo careers. When they joined forces for their first duo release, 2004’s You Were There for Me, these two established masters began a bold new chapter in their continuing artistic journey. Rowan’s aching vocals and poignant, poetic songs were elevated by Rice’s elegantly fleet flat-picking, resulting in an album that bore distinct traces of each man’s prior accomplishments, yet achieved a synthesis all its own. In the time since the release of You Were There for Me, Rowan and Rice’s touring quartet, featuring bassist/vocalist Bryn Davies and mandolinist/vocalist Sharon Gilchrist, has coalesced into a uniquely powerful, cohesive unit. The new album from Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, entitled Quartet, is a moving document of this new ensemble, with all the fire and fluidity of the band’s remarkable live performances preserved. The making of Quartet
was markedly different than that of its predecessor. “The first
album,” Rice explains, “was done piecemeal in a few different
studios. We recorded whenever the opportunity would present itself,
wherever that happened to be. At my suggestion, we went back to the
roots this time. We recorded in my home-base studio with my engineer
friend Billy Wolf, and cut everything live in the studio with just the
quartet – no guests.”
“Tony bases so much on the spark, whether new or old, that songs ignite in the audience,” Rowan observes. “He was strongly in favor of including tunes like ‘Moonlight Midnight’ and ‘Walls of Time’ – you know, bench-mark songs of mine that we perform all the time; deep grooves that let us fly with the music night after night on the road. My tunes are a big part of our stage show, but I wasn’t sure about recording them again. Tony was all for it, though, so I went with him on that – and I think we have taken them to a new place.” The
history of Peter Rowan and Tony Rice is the history of the continuing
evolution of bluegrass and its blossoming into a wider range of
progressive acoustic music. Rowan began his career as guitarist and
lead singer in a particularly potent ’60s
incarnation of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, and then lent his
soulful vocals and rich, spiritually-informed songwriting to a series
of ground-breaking progressive roots-music outfits, including Earth
Opera (with David Grisman), Sea Train, Muleskinner (with Grisman, Bill
Keith, Richard Greene, and Clarence White), and Old and In the Way
(with Vassar Clements and Jerry Garcia). Subsequent solo and group
projects have proven him to be a visionary creative force, unconcerned
with the constraints of boundaries and genres.
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Much more than supporting musicians, Bryn Davies and Sharon Gilchrist are equal participants in the Rowan and Rice Quartet, both instrumentally and vocally. Bassist Davies discovered bluegrass while studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston on a jazz scholarship. She first performed with Peter Rowan in his Texas Trio, and joined him in Old and In the Gray – a modern incarnation of Rowan’s beloved bluegrass project Old and In the Way. In addition to her accomplished bass playing, Rowan says, “We have been singing together for seven years now, and she really delivers on the duets.”
Vocalist and mandolin
player Sharon Gilchrist grew up in Texas, and was performing as a duo with
her brother Troy by the age of nine. The pair teamed up with Martie and
Emily Erwin, playing out as Blue Night Express. Eventually, Martie, Emily,
and Sharon split off and formed the Dixie Chicks. Gilchrist left the band
to pursue a mandolin degree at Belmont University in Nashville. Rowan
first heard her in Colorado, jamming with the all-woman old-time group
Uncle Earl (also on Rounder). “The
first date that Sharon did with us,” Rice recalls, “was a Bahamas
cruise, and that was early January of 2005 – so we’re going on two
years here.”
“Sharon and Bryn sing beautifully together, and when Sharon
signed on, at last Tony and I had three-part vocal harmonies in the
band,” Rowan enthuses, “so all the elements of a fresh sound were
there. Their singing adds a whole other dimension. Larry Keel’s wife
came up to me after a show and said, ‘I get it! It’s like the
I-Threes,’ referring to Bob Marley’s female backing singers. Wow,
what a compliment…it really is a treat to have Bryn and Sharon sing
those heavenly harmonies. I think that each voice is distinct, yet there
is a blend, sometimes like a choir really.”
Those soaring harmonies are heard throughout Quartet, even participating in a gospel call-and-response with Rowan
on his new original “Perfection.” “I wrote ‘Perfection’ when
Dolly Parton appeared in a dream to me after we did a show up at Dollywood,”
says Rowan. “I had wanted to meet Dolly, but I was too shy to walk up to
her…so I went to sleep that night regretting it. Then Dolly came to me
in a dream and she told me that everything was perfection…”
Despite all that this band has achieved, both on Quartet and in their dazzling live performance, there is one thing
the Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet has yet to do: rehearse.
“But,” Rice elaborates, “the more you work together onstage,
the more experience you get as a collective, and everything else starts to
fall into place from there. I certainly like working with an established
quartet like this. Although Peter and I played great dates years before
– sometimes with a percussionist, sometimes with Vassar Clements on
fiddle – there is something about this quartet that has evolved into an
identity of its own. These days, it would be easy to separate what we do
from any other artist working in this genre.”