|
 |
Joey
Bowers
Born
smack dab in the middle of the 60s under the
Palmetto Flag
in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Bowers refers to his earliest musical influences as "an
interesting balance of
aunts and uncles tuning in to Dylan, the Grateful Dead,
Marshall Tucker and
the Allman Brothers...smashed up against fond memories of
sitting with my Grandpa JC Bowers…listening to Gospel and
Bluegrass on
WESC radio in his blue Ford truck, on the farm
on Sundays afternoons…" He also notes that time
spent with Grayson Dalton, a lively, local bluegrass musician and
distant relative, gave him an early appreciation of
Bluegrass art form."
Growing
up among the natural beauty of the Carolinas with frequent
spare-time destinations like
Joccassee,
Keowee and
Chattooga, Bowers’ recalls, “… slipping out
to catch a ride to the Pickin’ at Pickens…a
local, deep woods bluegrass gathering popular in the
mid-to-late 70s with pickers, music and shenanigans where,
once upon a time,
Doyle Lawson stopped through to play a set
in exchange for gas money to get home…”
As avid Bluegrass enthusiasts, Bowers says his parents and
grandparents were
big supporters of he and his
brother’s musical aspirations, “After outgrowing the
Tupperware drum sets,
we were put in front of a piano…which was great until I
realized it would be difficult to take along to jam
sessions…that was about the time I picked up my first
guitar…and it stuck...while my brother took to the
Mandolin..."
Later,
a chance meeting paired Banjoist Buckethead Jones with
Bowers and the two began exploring the cross-pollination of
their respective music influences…from the Grateful Dead
to traditional Bluegrass to modern Jazz…leading to the
original concept for the DejaBlue Grass Band.
A
second set of chance-meetings with Nelson Nolan and Rut
Walker rounded out the harmonies and from that point
forward, the guys were hooked on pursuing perfectly pitched
and carefully twisted harmonies and creating an environment
for fun music.
Joey
holds down the rhythm guitar, lead vocals and general
business management stuff for the DejaBlue
Grass Band.
|
