Biography
Country musician Robert Bowlin started on the ukulele when he was one-and-a-half years old and advanced to guitar by age five. Late in the 1970s he began winning national flatpicking contests while also adding the fiddle to his instrumental skills. Over a long and prosperous stretch as a sideman he maintained regular stage roles alongside Bobby Bare, Tom T. Hall, Kathy Mattea, Bill Monroe, Maura O'Connell, the Osborne Brothers, Ray Price, Ricky Van Shelton, and Faron Young. Once established in Nashville he worked frequently as a session player, contributing to recordings by Hall, Monroe, the Osborne Brothers, Boxcar Willie, and Hank Thompson, among numerous others. He also performed as a member of the ad-hoc Western Swing ensemble the Time Jumpers. Two of his compositions, “Pokeberry Jam” and “The Rain Came Down”—the second written with Wil Maring—were included on Shady Mix’s 2005 live album Live, on which Bowlin likewise appeared as an instrumentalist. Maring later recorded her own rendition of “The Rain Came Down” for the 2006 release The Calling, where Bowlin supplied guitar and fiddle while serving as producer. FGM Records issued his first solo project, Six String Soliloquy, in 2007.
Albums
