Sean Rowe

Sean Rowe possesses an astonishing vocal instrument whose deep, resonant baritone carries faint echoes of John Lee Hooker, Greg Brown, Wilson Pickett, and additional forebears while remaining entirely untouched by affectation. Hailing from Troy, New York, the singer-songwriter first absorbed the blues of Muddy Waters and Hooker as well as the soul of Marvin Gaye and Ray Charles during adolescence. He picked up guitar and mastered material by virtually every artist he admired, extending well beyond those influences. By age 18, when he entered the local bar circuit, his accumulated originals and covers allowed him to sustain four separate hour-long sets each night.

Also in his teens, Rowe read naturalist Tom Brown’s The Tracker, an encounter that reshaped his outlook. Already drawn to the woods and the terrain surrounding his home, his fascination with wild places deepened and began steering both his thought and his songwriting. He enrolled at Brown’s Wilderness Survival School and shifted toward writing more original material. At 25 he exited the bar scene as a seasoned performer and issued his self-released debut, 27, in 2003.

Rowe started touring and eventually secured an opening slot on Noah and the Whale’s British run in 2010. While at home he sustained his rigorous philosophical and physical engagement with the natural world by spending an entire year living at Hawk Circle Wilderness Education. That residency ended with a 24-day solo survival quest conducted entirely outdoors and off the land, an experience that supplied the impetus for the songs on Magic. The album appeared on Anti- in 2011 and received near-universal acclaim. His sophomore release for the label, The Salesman and the Shark, followed in August 2012.

Aiming for a brighter sonic approach, Rowe returned in 2014 with his eclectic fourth album, Madman, which incorporated pop and bluesy rock alongside brooding folk. For his fifth album he assumed complete control, crowdfunding the sessions and issuing the record through his own Three Rivers imprint while negotiating a licensing arrangement with former label Anti-. New Lore reached listeners at the start of 2017.