Nathan Bowles

Nathan Bowles is a multi-instrumentalist musician and teacher. His work, both as an accomplished solo artist and as a sought-after ensemble player, explores the rugged country between the poles of Appalachian old-time traditions and ecstatic, minimalist drone. Although his recent solo recordings prominently feature his virtuosic banjo, Bowles is also widely recognized as a masterful and versatile drummer, and he considers himself first and foremost a percussionist, with banjo as a natural extension of his percussive practice. He and his bandmates in the popular and critically acclaimed old-time group the Black Twig Pickers steep themselves in local traditions of Appalachian folk music and dance, very much a vital part of cultural life in their region of Virginia. As a member of the long-running improvisational drone outfit Pelt, Bowles focuses on the various sonic possibilities inherent in struck and bowed percussion—metal, wood, skin, or otherwise. When playing by his lonesome or with his trio of Rex McMurry (percussion) and Casey Toll (upright bass), he prefers either minimal and hyper-nuanced cyclical drone or tranced-out clawhammer banjo. Bowles has also recorded, collaborated, & performed with Steve Gunn, Joan Shelley, Bill MacKay, Jake Xerxes Fussell, and others. Straddling Appalachian string band music and avant-garde composition but beholden to neither idiom, Nathan proves himself heir to de-constructivist tradition-bearers like Henry Flynt and Jack Rose.