Check the hat; I’ll wait.
Peter Rowan’s Tom Mix-scale topper fits well; Rowan’s talent and accomplishments range so wide, stack so high. The veteran singer and picker, now 81, totes decades-deep experience onto the stage at Caffe Lena on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 12.
He’ll lead a sub-set of his bluegrass band. That fits, too. Rowan began in bluegrass and has wound up there after numerous detours. A Zelig of string-band players, he’s played with more bands than Neil Young.
Rowan started in bluegrass at the very top.
So how would a 22-year-old Massachusetts Yankee join pioneer Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys?
“I had immersed myself in his music,” Rowan told me recently, “listening to live taped shows and studying his lead singers like Jimmy Martin, Ed Mayfield, Carter Stanley, Mack Wiseman, and Del (McCoury), who proceeded me as a Bluegrass Boy.” Rowan said, “I learned all the vocal duets,” and he often wrote and sang alongside the key inventor of Appalachian up-hollow. home-made music.
As Rowan noted in his website bio, “One thing I started to like about the Monroe style was that there was a lot more blues in it than other styles of bluegrass.” Rowan said, “It was darker. It had more of an edge to it. And yet it still had the ballad tradition in it, and I loved that.”
Bill Monroe, left, and Peter Rowan
Bluegrass proved perfect for Rowan with its compelling blend of power and poignance: punch and precision in the instruments and elemental emotion in the voices.
Rowan also learned about band leading with and from Monroe.
Rowan told me Monroe was “the Boss Man.” He said that, in the Bluegrass Boys, Monroe exerted “very little correction.” He added, “But you felt it if you went too far.”
As bluegrass mutated from the traditionalist 60s into the experimental 70s, the old guard might have felt the younger players were going too far.
Not Rowan.
“There is no music police,” he asserted. “You have to really believe in the process; overcome doubt and fear.” Asked how he does this, Rowan answered, “A deep breath and let it flow.”Rowan rode a formidable flow after leaving Monroe, first forming the aggressively eclectic Earth Opera (1967-69) with David Grisman. Arguably the first Americana group with its mix of acoustic instruments and high-flying improvisation. Rowan said it was the most loose and organic of his many bands.
Earth Opera – Peter Rowan, top left; David Grisman, bottom left
When Seatrain (1969-1973) formed from the broken shards of the Blues Project, Rowan veered fast in the opposite direction; he said it was the most structured and organized of his bands. This got messy: released as a Blues Project album, “Planned Obsolescence” (1968) was actually an Earth Opera effort, although Rowan didn’t play on it.
Muleskinner (1973) with fellow Bluegrass Boy Richard Greene marked a traditional turn, and Rowan continued in this direction with Old & In the Way (1973) with Grisman (mandolin), Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia (banjo), Rowan (guitar), John Kahn (bass) and first John Hartford, then Vassar Clements (fiddle). Rowan said this bluegrass supergroup was the fastest of his bands to learn new songs, and this confident fluent efficiency helped make the band’s self-titled album (1975) one of the top-selling bluegrass releases of all time.
Old & In the Way – From left, Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Peter Rowan, Vassar Clements. Not shown: John Kahn
Minus Garcia and Kahn, Old & In the Way reunited on “Old & In the Gray” (2002), then Rowan and Grisman (last two surviving members) played Old & In the Way songs with the String Cheese Incident at Gathering of the Vibes in 2015.
Peter Rowan, left, and David Grisman
Meanwhile, all along these musical transformations, Rowan played with brothers Lorin and Chris as the Rowans, releasing seven albums from 1972 to 1982.
Rowan also performed and recorded with bands that bear his name. He said working in bands led by Monroe, accordionist Flaco Jimenez and guitarist Tony Rice inspired him to form his own groups, which he does with gusto. He currently leads Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, Peter Rowan’s Big Twang Theory, Peter Rowan and Crucial Reggae, Peter Rowan’s Walls of Time and Peter Rowan’s Free Mexican Airforce. Rowan explained, “Walls of Time is my main group, who are also my bluegrass band. Walls of Time is a more vast complex sound. Bluegrass for me is always straight ahead. I love to sing!”
Of working with multiple bands, Rowan observed, “It’s good to have players all over the country. It keeps things interesting with fresh ideas.”
He said his current group (double-dubbed Peter Rowan’s Bluegrass Band and Walls of Time) learn new material quickly and provide great fun in the studio and onstage.
His latest release, “Calling You From My Mountain” adds top-level guests including his brother Lorin Rowan, Tony Trischka, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush and Ricky Skaggs.
Americana Highways hailed the album this way: “Despite the genre’s antique oeuvre, it’s loaded with modern charm. The bluegrass is fresh sounding, energetic and fueled with a tradition that obviously survives to shine yet again. No blowing dust off this artist.” The album reaches back in its track, which Rowan composed and originally sang with Bill Monroe. This resonant, full-circle, decades-deep move encapsulates his career – from bluegrass, to bluegrass, with lively stops along the way.
On this tour, Rowan may bring accompanists to Caffe Lena. “I’ll Have Max Wareham on guitar and banjo from my bluegrass band and Chris (Sartori) from Twisted Pines on acoustic bass!”
Rowan said he’ll miss his old musician friend Frank Wakefield, who played Caffe Lena often and died in Saratoga Springs on April 26 at 89.
Frank Wakefield, left, two other guys, and Peter Rowan
On previous Saratoga visits, “I loved spending time with Frank Wakefield, the late great mandolin genius,” mourned Rowan, who didn’t stay sad for long. Amiable and friendly, he even answered my every-interview question which I warned him would be dumb.
“What do you drive?” I wanted to know, noting many musicians drive Ford F-150 pickups, though jazz pianist Keith Jarrett impatiently brushed the question aside before laughing to reply, “A herd of goats! Tell everybody I’m driving a herd of goats!”
Rowan took this in, then said, “When I’m not driving myself up a tree, I like riding a horse. They are all characters who teach me a lot!”
Peter Rowan plays Sunday, May 12 at Caffe Lena (47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs). 7 p.m. $62.91, members $59.66, students and children $31.46. 518-583-0022 http://www.caffelena.org. Streaming at caffelena.tv.
About the Photos: I found these photos on Rowan’s website and Facebook posts and on Wikipedia, including the Earth Opera Elektra Records publicity shot. I contribute regularly to Wikipedia; if you use it, so should you.
Hoke's Jukebox 