BOB BOWMAN – SOLO FINGERSTYLE GUITAR

Bob Bowman has long been respected for his banjo, mandolin, and guitar work as a soloist and with various folksingers and groups, including the popular traditional music band, Kitchen Junket.  As a guitar soloist Bowman performs his own arrangements of centuries-old Irish harp and fiddle music along with familiar jazz and pop standards, tunes by friends, and his own compositions.  His audio engineering credits include a four-year stint with the 10-member Afro/Latin funk band, The Herd, and VirgoFest - the annual two-day music festival in Maine.  He has arranged and recorded film scores for PBS, National Geographic, and several independent filmmakers.  Bowman gives more than 200 live performances a year.  Bob and his wife, Cate, a teacher, divide their time year-round between a barely restored 150 year old cabin on Mount Desert Island and a home in New Brunswick, Canada, where he performs regularly.                    

Along with his music, in 1970’s and ‘80’s Bowman was a ferry captain, boatbuilder, and owner/operator of Maine Whalewatch, one of the first whale watching companies on the East Coast.  He went on to lead field research teams in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.  In the 1990’s, as increasing whale entanglement-related injury and mortality in the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy threatened both whales and commercial fisheries, Bowman devised a strategic entanglement assessment and response protocol, a portable kit of custom-built equipment (including a real-time satellite tracking system), and organized and trained an emergency response network of hundreds of fishermen, scientists, and marine professionals.  The Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network quickly became an international effort encompassing 20 professional teams from Florida to Quebec and setting the worldwide standard in this highly technical and dangerous field.  Bowman has since provided advice, training, and specially-designed equipment for the governments of Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the UK.

In 2008, Bob began a new business offering live music services to non-traditional venues.  He discovered that many fine local restaurants didn’t offer live music largely because of a perceived lack of space and difficult acoustics.  Because musicians commonly turn up their volume to be heard over the conversations of diners (causing diners to talk louder to be heard over the music), several establishments had given up on live music because their guests found it too loud.  Understanding that the key to being heard in many types of venues is not more volume but better sound distribution, Bowman put together a discrete, portable, high-quality, multi-speaker system that successfully fills the space with music without driving up the ambient noise of the room.  His innovative use of wireless electronics allows him to transmit to his own speakers and/or to a restaurant’s existing background music system – giving the venue complete control of volume even in multi-room settings.  Excellent for outdoor settings too, Bob’s system produces very little spillover sound to the street or to neighbors.  This approach has created new performance opportunities for Bowman and for other performers.                                                                                                

As he puts it, “I don’t take up much room or make a lot of noise, and I’m pretty well-behaved.  I approach performances as creative partnerships with the venues and both owners and audiences appreciate that.  I’m very fortunate to be performing music that means a lot to me in beautiful rooms, and I’m pleased that people are enjoying it.  I’ve always admired the guitar player sitting in the corner of a restaurant playing great instrumental music night after night.  For now, luckily enough, that’s me.”

Bowman displays his sophisticated guitar artistry night after night in restaurants, galleries, outdoor markets, festivals, and more.

Bob Bowman is available for both public and private engagements.

He can be reached at 207-244-7429 and at music@potterslake.net

Visit:  www.BobBowmanMusic.com for music samples, videos, and performance schedule