From his rather unglamorous beginning as a street singer, Bryan Bowers has become a major artist on the traditional music circuit. He has redefined the autoharp and is also well known as a singer-songwriter. Bryan has a dynamic outgoing personality and an uncanny ability to enchant a crowd in practically any situation. His towering six foot four inch frame can be wild and zany on stage while playing a song like `Dixie’ and five minutes later he can have the same audience singing `Will The Circle Be Unbroken’ in quite reverence and delight.
In 2006 Bryan’s landmark recording, Bristlecone Pine, was released on Seattle Sounds with distribution assistance by Plectrafone Records. Autoharp partner and close friend, Ron Wall, directed and created the recording. Several of Bryan’s friends from through-out the years offered musical assistance, including: Tim O’Brien, Sam Bush, Mark Howard, Alan O’Bryant, Pat Enright, Dennis Crouch, Stuart Duncan and Ron Wall. A feature story on Bryan in the Feb/March 2007 issue of Dirty Linen stated, “Like the venerable pine of the title track, autoharp virtuoso Bryan Bowers’ vocal style and instrumental prowess have grown in depth and genius over the decades…to listen to this recording is to experience all the colors and emotions of a lifetime. Truly Bowers’ finest work to date…”
Crabby Old Man was released in 2011. This anti-produced and unvarnished recording offers 12 charming selections from Bryan’s vast repertoire. This CD sans editing, overdubs or compression sounds as if Bryan is playing in your living room for just you and your friends. Bryan Bowers’ Live at Winterfolk 2015 is Bryan’s first live album and features 12 selections that he loves. This CD was recorded at Portland’s premier folk event and 28th annual fundraiser for Sisters of the Road. These recordings give the listener a wonderful musical experience from the man who re-defined the autoharp.
Woodland Dream was released in 2019 and features the Bryan Bowers Band, consisting of Bryan Bowers and two multi-talented musicians, Danny Knicely (world class Virginian mandolinist, guitarist, and mandocellist) and Geoff Goodhue (New England-based singer and multi-instrumentalist), creating American folk and mountain music at its finest. Sunset Scribblins, Bryan’s newest CD from 2020 contains 24 of Bryan’s poems, read by the master writer himself.
For over six decades, Bryan Bowers has been to the autoharp what Earl Scruggs was to the five- string banjo. He presents instrumental virtuosity combined with warmth, eloquence, expression and professionalism.