Get your Rowans in a row...and let that sweet 70s music flow...

Sometimes a well-meant compliment can be more poisonous than a barely disguised insult. Jerry Garcia meant well when he compared Chris and Lorin, two of the three Rowan Brothers, to The Beatles, but well...comparing these two young guys to the most popular and in many ways most inventive group in pop music history...thanks, Jerr. So, the Rowans' debut started with probably too high expectations, with debut The Rowan Brothers' amiable country/folk rock not being up to the standards of the Beatles, or even the best of the genre. It has its moments, including the sprightly "Hickory Day" and the chugging, heavy "Thunder On The Mountain", though having a minute long intro of Tibetan horns was, while certainly an artistic choice, also an acquired taste. So was the idea of having the track run seven minute long, that's why I created a single edit, despite the song never having been released as a single. 

When big brother Peter joined The Rowan Brothers and they became The Rowans, he was easily the most established entity, having worked in Earth Opera, with Seatrain and Muleskinner and then of course bluegrass supergroup Old & In The Way, which - while shortlived - was highly influential in turning young college crowds on to bluegrass music. Peter was always more country than his brothers, so he brought that influence to the band. But he was always more Jimmie Rodgers than Gram Parsons, so his idea of country was really old school, often story songs with historical figures. And, like Jimmie, he wasn't above the occasional yodel. He also brought two of his best known Old & In The Way numbers with him, doing a lovely update of "Midnight - Moonlight" for The Rowans and playing "Land Of The Navajo" in concert.

The first album as a trio, simply entitled The Rowans (1975) is probably their most balanced and coherent effort. Sibling Rivalry (1976) has a number of their best songs like "Soldiers Of The Cross". But it also shows the Rowans going into a number of directions at once, not always succcessfully or coherently. And Jubilation from a year later sees them fully in the thrall of the production trends of the time, seeing disco orchestration and soft rock work hand in hand for an album that is not very satisfying. Which brings us directly to the raison d'être for today's One Buck Record.   

The Rowans are the kind of group where a well-chosen compilation is probably all you need from them. As described above, all of them have a moment here and there - their first two moreso than the last two - but none of them hold together particularly well. Thus, the Brothers' Keepers, because these twenty tracks are really that and you don't need much, if anything more, from Lorin, Chris and Peter. I added a couple of live tracks from a 1976 Winterland concert that give a slightly tougher edge to a Jubilation track like "Calle Music", has the aforementioned "Land Of The Navajo" and "I Do Believe" which I do bellieve is an otherwise unavailable track they never recorded in the studio. 

So, everyone ready for some sweet sweet Seventies music, Calle or otherwise? Thought so, then let's roll...