Why Join? Join
Join
The Guide
Bluegrass Roulette
Tuner Metronome Chord Finder
Contact About

Peter Rowan

Recording Artist · Active 1978–2019 · Wayland, Massachusetts · peter-rowan.com · Also a musician

Peter Rowan's recording catalog moves fluidly between traditional bluegrass, rock-inflected “newgrass,” Tex-Mex, and folk — an omnivorous body of work filed across his solo releases, band configurations, and collaborations. The albums under his own name trace six decades of songwriting from “Panama Red” and “Midnight Moonlight” onward.

  • Self-titled Peter Rowan (1978) on Flying Fish, his first solo album after Seatrain and Muleskinner, introduced his voice as a songwriter-frontman.
  • 1980s Sugar Hill records — Medicine Trail (1980), Texican Badman (1981), The Walls of Time (1982) with Bill Keith and Richard Greene, and Revelry (1984) — established his genre-crossing sensibility.
  • Has led several named bands whose albums appear under his name: the Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band (with Keith Little, Jody Stecher, and others) recorded Crucial Country and later Legacy (2010, nominated for a Grammy).
  • Landmark collaborative records include two with Tony Rice — You Were There for Me (2004) and Quartet (2007) with Bryn Davies and Sharon Gilchrist.
  • Old School (2013), featuring Del McCoury, Jesse McReynolds, and the Travelin' McCourys, won IBMA Recorded Event of the Year.
  • Recorded with his older brothers as the Rowan Brothers on several 1970s albums; the Rowans reunited periodically into the 2000s.
  • Songwriting is the through-line: “Panama Red” (recorded by the New Riders of the Purple Sage), “Midnight Moonlight,” “Land of the Navajo,” “Free Mexican Airforce,” and “The Walls of Time” (co-written with Bill Monroe) have become standards.
  • Inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Honor in 2011 with his brothers as the Rowan Brothers; later inducted as a solo artist.
No instrumentals to show.
All Instrument Tuner
Metronome
Chord Finder
My Playlists ×

Please log in to view your playlists.

Print Setlist

Print Lyrics/Chords

Spotify Playlist

The Spotify links for your selected songs have been copied to your clipboard.

Open Spotify, create a new playlist, and paste the links directly into it.

Loading song...
Practice Session
Woodshed Mode
Lyrics & Chords Hide

Share Playlist