Bryan Bowers

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #128 (February/March 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Bryan Bowers

Friends for Life

by Linda J. Morris

In the arid mountains of the American West, just below the timberline, lives the Methuselah of all living things. Encountering a Bristlecone Pine, which can live an amazing 4,000 years, was a profoundly moving experience for Bryan Bowers. "I was struck by the beauty of the oldest living thing on earth," he said of the trees that make the Acropolis look like modern architecture. For this thoughtful, passionate man, the emotion was beyond description. "These most ancient of all living things on earth distill the feelings of personal insignificance I've had when looking up at the countless stars in the night sky to a new level," Bowers would later write in the liner notes to his latest recording, Bristlecone Pine. The 18 songs exemplify the depth, judgment, and hard-won skill Bowers has achieved over the last four decades.

A dynamic singer, storyteller, songwriter, and arranger, Bowers is best known as master of the autoharp, a member of the Autoharp Hall of Fame credited with being a catalyst for the autoharp renaissance. He has been hailed for his virtuosity and innovation, beloved for his humor and the human values that permeate his repertoire. Bowers' taste runs the gamut from the haunting title track of his new CD, to utterly romantic ballads, to traditional tunes, on to the silly, and even to Beatle songs. But nothing is casually chosen, no trivia, no fillers, no off-the-cuff performances. Life, he said, is just too short. "I'm good at picking material that will work for me; it may not work for anyone else. First of all, I don't pick any fluff. I won't do a song that I don't believe in, that doesn't move me emotionally or make me laugh or cry. I just won't do it. I will not take it onstage. I just will not. Life's too short to bring forth stuff that I'm half committed to. I want to bring stuff that I'm totally committed to."

[cover #128]