Fiddling Cricket & Canyon Acoustic Society
Concert Series 2025
An Evening with Bryan Bowers
Grandmaster of the Autoharp and story teller
Wednesday May 21th, 7.00pm, $25adv/30
408 499 9441 or crbrundle@gmail.com for reservations or more information.
Bryan Bowers is 84, but has maintained an active performance schedule…. but if you have never seen him maybe you should do so now, before it is too late!
Bryan Bowers is the undisputed grandmaster of the autoharp. He has the same status in that world as Earl Scruggs in the banjo world. In fact, as a self-taught musician, he introduced a style of playing somewhat equivalent to the 3 finger role that Scruggs introduced to banjo. He became very popular with the audience of the comedy radio program The Dr. Demento Show with his 1980 recording of the Mike Cross hilarious song "The Scotsman", and is appreciated in the bluegrass world because of his haunting and exquisite instrumentals, and the fact that musicians such as Tim O'Brien and Sam Bush have recorded with him. He nicely avoids the hackneyed stuff with thematically diverse material and non-cloying meditations on life and death. In 1993, Bowers was inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame whose membership includes Maybelle and Sarah Carter. Frets magazine named him autoharp player of the year 5 times in a row, until they wouldn't let him compete anymore! Instead, they made him a member of their gallery of greats. He does not think he deserves to be on the same page as the others in the gallery, saying "I am a bulldog with a bone, who takes fiddle tunes and plays them until people run out of the room screaming, 'Please don't play that again'".
BryanBowers
Reservations still pay at the door, by cash or check.