Dick Bowdenguitar, emcee, lead and baritone harmony
Dick grew up in Downeast Maine in the Penobscot Bay area. His family was so poor when he was born, the neighbors had him. Friendly neighbors! Dick's father and mother and uncle were active in the local country music scene, playing for house parties. Dick's earliest musical memory is from about age 3 or 4, sitting beside his dad with his head resting on the side of the guitar while Dad picked out Wildwood Flower and Walking the Floor Over You on a glorious 1946 Gibson Southern Jumbo. Uncle Robert gave him a little Silvertone guitar to learn on at age 8, and by age 9 Dick had saved up enough money to buy his own little Gibson guitar which he played in school, on local TV talent contests, etc. The music in the Bowden household was Carter Family, Roy Acuff, Flatt & Scruggs, Stanley Brothers, Louvin Brothers and Mac Wiseman. By age 10 Dick was fascinated with the Dobro (tm) and had rigged his little Gibson up to play steel.
1964 was a pivotal year. Dad bought a new Gibson 5 string banjo and also took the family to famous Sunset Park in southeast Pennsylvania to see Flatt & Scruggs in person, as advertsied on WWVA radio which came in quite well in Downeast Maine. Dick got his picture taken with Earl, and THAT was the end of Dick's dobro-playing days. He sneaked out Dad's new banjo and within a year had staked out his position as Maine's first native banjo picker, playing in school and on local TV.
In 1966 Dick with his dad and mother made their first appearance as "The Bowden Family" at a summertime outdoor country show. A bass fiddle was brought into the household, then local hot guitar man John Sanborn joined up. This foursome played all over Maine for the next 7 or 8 years until Dick's sister Bobbi joined in on the bass fiddle By 1975 the group name changed to "The Fort Knox Volunteers", named for a pre-Civil War granite fort near their hometowns on the Penobscot River. The Volunteers performed together into the early 1990's all over Maine on TV, concerts and bluegrass festivals. The highlight of The Volunteers' career came with two huge bluegrass concerts at the University of Maine where they opened for Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley. Dick is most proud of the wonderful progress of young Maine Monroe-style mandolinist Jackie (Buzzell) Greenwood who played for many years with the Volunteers. She later joined the White Mountain Bluegrass band of New Hampshire.
In 1982 Dick also became banjoist for Herb Applin's Berkshire Mt. Boys in the Boston area, with the wonderful Bea Lilly on guitar and lead vocals. Dick performed with Herb for 5 years. During this same period, Dick frequently "subbed" as a member of Joe Val's New England Bluegrass Boys on bass fiddle and banjo. He also performed several times as a member of the southern New York band Horse Country, frequently "subbing" for guitarist Chris Jones.
Due to a career transfer from Maine to southern New York in 1989, Dick joined in with local bluegrass stalwart Bob Mavian as the guitar player with Horse Country. In 1991 Bob and Dick decided to chuck the difficulties of keeping a four piece bluegrass band together, and just do simple old-time duet arrangements. Bob played mandolin and Dick played guitar, and they appeared as The Case Brothers - Martin & Gibson for 10 years, from Mississippi to Nova Scotia, releasing two well-received recordings.
Through the 1990's Dick wrote articles for Bluegrass Unlimited magazine. To date, 4 articles have been published -- on Blue Grass Boys baseball, the First Loar Fest at IBMA, a bio on mandolinist Mike Compton, and a "color" piece on the bluegrass "culture" in the Nashville suburbs.
With another career transfer to northern Connecticut in 2001, The Case Brothers went into retirement. This put Dick back in closer touch with his old boss Herb Applin. Dick played guitar on a few private party gigs with Herb and began to think about doing an old-time duet with Herb. The idea soon grew to include bass fiddle in the person of Lillian Fraker, whose Bear Bridge Band had recently gone somewhat dormant. After a successful private party gig in 2003 including banjoist Joe Deetz, the idea "gelled" to form a bluegrass band in the old spirit of the Joe Val/Herb Applin/Bob French Old Time Bluegrass Singers. The core group of Herb, Dick and Lillian have spent a year developing repertoire and arrangements, and have recruited a "bullpen" of 3 fine banjoists to provide wide geographic coverage and availability for gigs. Old friends Dave Kiphuth and Terry McGill complete the band roster.
Dick had befriended bluegrass fiddler extraordinaire Joe Meadows and become his "jamming buddy" at a number of northeastern festivals. Joe invited Dick to pick banjo and provide the liner notes for his final recording in 2000, "Cotton Eyed Joe".
Dick has also made occasional appearances "subbing" with other groups such as John Hartford's String Band, The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band, and Big Apple'achia.
During the interlude between bands, Dick also wrote liner notes for the Maine band North Star's CD "The Old Railroad" and the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band's CD "Barnyard Frolic".
Dick is very grateful for the musical start his parents provided him. He is also thankful that during his professional career and family life he has been encouraged to keep developing his music. It was a very close thing at high school graduation, when much like Jethro Bodine, Dick couldn't decide whether to pursue the merchant marine, upholstery or animal dentistry. The first native Maine "kid" banjo whiz is now one of the senior members of the northeastern bluegrass scene and a renowned rhythm guitarist, song encylcopedia and "jam-master". His tastes run to the super-traditional in terms of arrangement and performance, but he has a wide-ranging interest in song sources, some VERY non-traditional.
- Favorite banjoists: EARL! Ralph Stanley, Don Stover, JD Crowe, Big Kenny Ingram, Joe Mullins, Ronnie Stewart, Tom Adams, Rob McCoury, Larry Perkins, Charlie Cushman, Richard Underwood, Steve Sparkman, Eddie Adcock, Billy Edwards
- Favorite guitarists: Charlie Monroe, Lester Flatt, Jimmy Martin, Carter Stanley, Charlie Waller, Tony Rice, David Grier, Norman Blake
- Favorite fiddlers: Chubby Wise, Paul Prince, Howdy Forrester, Benny Martin, Benny Sims, Paul Warren, Big Joe Greene, Stuart Duncan, Jason Carter, Ronnie Stewart, Hunter Berry, Bruce Molsky, Rafe Stefanini
- Favorite mandolinists: Bill Monroe, Everett Lilly, Mike Compton, Don Eldreth, Lyle Meador, Ira Louvin
- Favorite bassists: Howard Watts, Bob Moore, Chuck Johnson, Roy Huskey Jr. Sr. and Jr., Jake Tullock, George Shuffler, Joe Zinkan, Jerry McCoury, John Palmer, Terry Eldredge, Mike Bub
- Favorite dobroists: Brother Oswald, Ray Adkins, Buck Graves, Gene Wooten
- Favorite singers: The Monroe Brothers, the Louvin Brothers, the Lilly Brothers, the Stanley Brothers, Johnny & Jack, Roy Acuff and Brother Oswald, Carl & Pearl Butler, Jimmy Martin, Del, Jerry and Ron McCoury, Sara Carter, Molly O'Day, Wilma Lee Cooper, Patti Loveless, Porter and Dolly, George Jones and Melba Montgomery, Lester Flatt, Curly Sechler, Pat Enright, Joe Val