Robert Bowlin

 

Bowlin was born and raised in Pocahontas, the same area of Northeastern Arkansas that produced country music giants Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell. He started playing piano and ukulele as a three-year old and turned to guitar when he was five. He won a statewide piano competition in Arkansas when he was 13. He was proficient on several instruments as a teenager and received widespread acclaim for his guitar ability.

In 1978, Bowling was runner-up in the National Guitar Flat Pick Competition, held annually at the Walnut Valley Festival in Kansas. The following year, he took home first place in the festival’s Finger Style Guitar Championship.

Bowling said he played music professionally all through high school and while attending the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. After migrating to Texas and playing in his own band for several years, he joined the band of Irish folk singer Maura O’Connell. Starting in 1988, he had a long run as lead guitarist in the road band of country music star Kathy Mattea.

In 1993, took a job playing fiddle for Bill Monroe, the father of Bluegrass music, and was the last fiddler to join the Blue Grass Boys.. He was a member of  Monroe’s Blue Grassgrass Boys until Monroe died in 1996. Robert plays on the recording of “Boston Boy” that closes the boxed set “Music of Bill Monroe, 1936-1994”  Recording Sessions: 11/14/1993, 1/9/1994, 5/22/1994

With a stellar reputation in the inter-circle of the Nashville music community, Bowling was able to work recording sessions with true legends like Hank Thompson, the Osborne Brothers and Tom T. Hall. He played on the road with Country Music Hall of Fame members Faron Young, Bobby Bare and Ray Price.  Bowlin is a founding member of The Time Jumpers, a band that still plays in downtown Nashville every Monday night.

Bowlin also has a thriving luthier business and repairs violins.   He is an accomplished instructor, teaching at ETSU, and he has taught at workshops and camps across the US.