Just days after one of his storied shows at the Station Inn with some of the leading lights of bluegrass music, singer and songwriter Ronnie Bowman was killed in a motorcycle accident, leaving music-lovers and music-makers across Nashville and the national bluegrass community shocked and saddened. He died on Sunday afternoon at 64 years old.
Bowman’s butter-smooth voice graced live performances and recording sessions for forty years. Through the 1990s, when he won all three of his IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year awards, he was a driving force in the Lonesome River Band, possibly the most influential outfit of its time. And he was among the more successful modern-era songwriters to cross between bluegrass and country music, landing hits and accolades in both genres. IBMA named him Songwriter of the Year in 2002, and his three co-write contributions helped elevate Chris Stapleton’s Traveler on its way to sweeping top country album awards at the CMA, the ACM and the Grammys.
The last time I got to hear him sing, about this time last year, Bowman joined voices as a guest with Billy Strings at the Ryman Auditorium to sing the Stanley Brothers classic “Mother’s Not Dead.” Strings held Bowman in the highest regard, writing on Instagram that "Ronnie Bowman was an amazing singer and songwriter. One of the best entertainers in bluegrass and country music. May our dear friend rest in peace."
Dan Tyminski, who matched voices thrillingly with Bowman during the Lonesome River Band days, sent the following statement to WMOT: “Ronnie’s one of the great ones – great singer, great person, great friend. Back in the early days when we were in the Lonesome River Band together, if you listened to everybody, it was Ronnie you noticed because he was just a better singer than everybody else. I think anybody who ever met Ronnie recognized instantly that he broke the mold – not just for his talent, but for who he was. Those early days were our formative years, and we discovered who we were together. We found some opportunities back then and we seized them tighter together. He was my brother and always will be.”
Jeremy Garrett, fiddler in the 20-year band The Infamous Stringdusters, came up in the business with Bowman as a mentor. “I was lucky enough to work with Ronnie quite a bit over the years in his solo band. In fact it’s where Andy Hall and Jesse Cobb and I played a lot of music together and mustered the courage from that building block to make our own band,” he said. “Playing (in) his band was truly a dream come true for me in my younger years and still has an impact on me to this day.”
A son of Mt. Airy, NC, Bowman grew up singing in his family’s gospel band. “My mom and dad would encourage us to sing if we wanted to,” he told Craig Shelburne for a CMT profile in 2003. “They never forced us, but they’d give us the opportunity to stand up with them and sing a song here and there.” Years later, accepting an ACM Award in 2016 for Song of the Year with Chris Stapleton, he gave his mother credit for provoking him to write a song for her when he was 14. "I went back there and did that and I've been doing that ever since, thanks to my mama,” he said.
Gainfully employed by age 19 at a Sara Lee warehouse in Winston-Salem, Bowman decided to leave that security behind to try music full time. After a couple of years and one album with the band Lost & Found, he joined the seven-year-old Lonesome River Band in 1990, replacing founding member Jerry McMillan, and immediately made an impact. Singing alongside future ‘Man of Constant Sorrow’ Dan Tyminski, the LRB defined contemporary bluegrass in the 1990s.
While Bowman stayed on with LRB until 2000, he took time out to make and release his career-defining solo album in 1994. Cold Virginia Night was an all-star affair that showed how much reach and support Bowman had engendered in the community, including Alison Krauss, Tony Rice, the members of the Del McCoury Band, and many more. The album and its title cut were named IBMA Album and Song of the Year respectively, and he won his first Male Vocalist of the Year at the same time.
The decade also saw his first country hit when Dan Seals recorded “The Healing Kind,” but it was in the 2000s that his songwriting career caught fire. His co-written song “The Healing Kind” became the leadoff song on Lee Ann Womack’s monster album I Hope You Dance. His song “It’s Getting Better All The Time” reached #1 for Brooks and Dunn in 2004, and in 2007, his coming-of-age song “Never Wanted Nothing More,” written with Stapleton, topped the charts for Kenny Chesney. Amid this, Bowman released the solo album Starting Over to mark his departure from LRB as well as the end of a marriage.
In the 2010s, Bowman took on various projects. He hooked up for a time with his hometown friend and mandolin player Alan Bibey in the band Grasstowne. He formed a supergroup with fellow alums of the Lonesome River Band called The Band of Ruhks. He had a grass/country hybrid band with his wife Garnet called the Likely Culprits. And he continued to write songs and collaborate with artists as a harmony singer. His most recent solo effort was a self-titled album in 2019 with the Engelhardt Music Group.
Fellow North Carolina bluegrasser Darin Aldridge spoke for many when he wrote on Facebook on Sunday that “I first saw him and Lonesome River Band back in 1994 at the Old Rock School in Valdese, NC. What a talent he was—his stage presence, his voice… it all left a mark on me…Ronnie was one of my heroes growing up, someone I truly looked up to. His recordings, his songwriting, his collaborations—they were what everyone wanted to hear.”
And a similar sentiment came from country star and bluegrass lover Dierks Bentley: “He was the favorite bluegrass and country singer of everyone I know. And he was everyone’s favorite hang.”
