BOWDEN MEETS THE ORIGINAL OTBGSINGERS

In 1970 The Old Time Bluegrass Singers had a smash appearance at Carlton Haney's Berryville VA bluegrass festival. Dick Bowden and his family were all the way down from coastal Maine attending this festival, their very first! The Bowdens got to meet the Boston boys and struck up a fast friendship. Herb and his family summer in coastal Maine, and Herb subsequently made it a point to drop in to visit the Bowdens each year. For better or worse, he got Dick started on bluegrass fiddle.

In October 1970, Maine's first bluegrass entrepreneur, Allan "Mac" MacHale, booked a four-band show to celebrate the anniversary of Al Worcester's car dealership in E. Corinth Maine. The performers included: Maine's own radio/tv personality Yodeling Slim Clark, Charlie (Gillam) & Jimmy (Cox) and the Blue Mt. Boys from Portland ME -- the first regularly scheduled bluegrass tv performers in Maine, The Bowden Family bluegrass band, and as headliners, The Old Time Bluegrass Singers from Boston. For some reason, The OTBGSingers' bass player Bob Tidwell, couldn't make this gig, so MacHale recruited teenage banjoist Dick Bowden to play bass fiddle with the guys from Boston. With just a few minutes of rehearsal, Dick took the stage as an Old Time Bluegrass Singer, struggling gamely to find the right notes on unfamiliar songs, and make himself heard over the aerobic blasts of Joe Val's and Herb Applin's singing.

BOWDEN JOINS WITH APPLIN

From 1982 to 1987 Dick Bowden played banjo for Herb's bluegrass band, the Berkshire Mt. Boys, all over New England, traveling from his home in Maine. During this time Dick also was a "substitute" picker for Joe Val's band. Dick played bass fiddle and banjo on quite a number of gigs between Boston and the Canadian Maritimes with Joe.