- Rowland Salley
Rowland Salley (b. November 2, 1949) is an American musician, songwriter and artist, sometimes called Roly Salley. Salley is a bass guitarist and vocalist for
Chris Isaak 's band Silvertone. His best known tune is "Killing the Blues" which has been covered byJohn Prine ,Shawn Colvin and more recently,Robert Plant andAlison Krauss on their 2007 album, "Raising Sand ". As a band member for Chris Isaak, he was a regular on "The Chris Isaak Show ".Salley was born in
Belvidere, Illinois . [ [http://www.tv.com/rowland-salley/person/26688/summary.html] TV.com bio] He began playing bass in high school and was kicked off the track team for having long hair. He has written, "the timing of events is what often moves somebody. One of those events came for me in the form of a monster tornado that hit our high school one sunny Friday afternoon in the springtime. There was death and destruction and though I wasn't consciously trying to flee the place or the characters of my town ... there was a lot that I wanted to try in my lifetime ... [and] I ought to set about it before another "tornado" came along." [ [http://www.rowlandsalley.com/page1/page1.html] "The Back Fence" blog] His first move was toMadison, Wisconsin where he started a band. He then moved toWoodstock, New York . He got work as a session musician working with such performers asMaria Muldaur ,John Sebastian andPaul Butterfield . [ [http://www.rounderarchives.com/media/liner_notes/1166130182.pdf] Liner notes, "Woodstock Mountains: More Music from Mud Acres"] He later moved toToronto where he played with such performers asDavid Wilcox andIan and Sylvia . Later, he moved to Los Angeles where he backed up such singers asBobbie Gentry andJoan Baez . He moved to San Francisco in 1983. Two years later, he met Chris Isaak and has performed with the Silvertones ever since. [ [http://www.tv.com/rowland-salley/person/26688/biography.html] TV.com bio]Salley's solo album "Killing the Blues" was recorded on weekends in Vancouver during breaks in in filming "The Chris Isaak Show" in 2005. [ [http://cdbaby.com/cd/salley] CD Baby] The album is a mix of new and old material, dating as far back as 1977 (the title song). After Shawn Colvin recorded "Killing the Blues" in 1994 she wrote, "Larry Campbell from New York told me in 1981 while we were in a band together that I should learn this song by his friend, Roly Salley. Just when you think there's no new way to say anything, you hear a song like this and think, that's as good as anything before or since." [ [http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2005/08/011184.php] Quoted in PowerBlog]
Of the songwriting process, Salley has written, "the part I like best about writing is the second you realize that you've just written a song." [ [http://www.rowlandsalley.com/page1/page1.html] "The Back Fence" blog] He markets reproductions of his art through his website and has contributed his art to three of Maria Muldaur's albums. [ [http://www.mariamuldaur.com/discog.html] Maria Muldaur discogrphy]
During the Academy Awwards ceremony airing on US television in 2008, the retailer
JC Penney aired a commercial featuring the newly covered version of 'Killing the Blues' sung by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. [ [http://splendad.com/ads/show/1978-JCPenney-American-Living-Anthem SplendAd.com] ]Discography
* "Killing the Blues" (2005)
DVDs
* "Learning Electric Bass" (how-to, 1984)
References
External links
* [http://www.rowlandsalley.com/ Official website]
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