Ralston Bowles @ Ten Pound Fiddle @ Creole Gallery

Ralston Bowles (R) accompanied by Drew Howard (L)

Photo by Pat Power

On his website, Grand Rapids singer/songwriter Ralston Bowles chose to include a quote from a reviewer who called his music mature and thoughtful, and it is indeed both.

It is rare to find an acclaimed singer/songwriter who starts a recording career after turning 50, but Ralston produced his first album Carwreck Conversations just five years ago. When his friend Pat Power introduced Ralston to the Lansing audience at the Ten Pound Fiddle show at the Creole Gallery, he noted that Ralston has always been involved in music, for many years promoting other artists. Ralston is now getting serious about producing his own work, and it has earned him a recording contract with Judy Collins’ label Wildflower.

For anyone touched by the Sixties and its continuing echoes, Ralston’s lyrics evoke the era without any hint of cloying sentimentality or nostalgia. His song ‘Velvet Elvis’ makes us laugh. ‘JFK’ always makes me cry. And ‘James Dean’ reminds those of us who are past the halfway point that both the the journey really matters. (As a leading-edge Boomer myself, I am reminded that what most folks call “history” I simply call “my life.”)

Some of Ralston’s song also do a great job of capturing today. His ‘(I Don’t Want to Be Just Your) Friend on Facebook’ expresses the ambivalence most of us feel about maintaining friendships in cyberspace.

Ralston was accompanied on guitar and pedal steel by Drew (Cap’n Midnite) Howard. Since he’s also my husband, conflict of interest prevents me from telling you how great he is, but you can see for yourself in the videos below.

Also appearing at the Ten Pound Fiddle show at the Creole Gallery that night was "http://lansingonlinenews.com/?p=743">Miguel Cabanas - click here for video of his performance