The Ozarks Chronicle/Ozarks Music

As a teenage boy growing up in western Maries county, Harold Rowden spent his weekends listening to the music of his favorites, Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs, on the Grand Ole Opry. That was not unusual for anyone living on a farm during the 1940s. By the time he was in the eighth grade, Harold had a guitar and was teaching himself to play along with the music he was learning to love called "bluegrass." He had no idea that some 60 years later he would still be playing bluegrass music and that he would be performing it on stage with nearly his entire family.

Harold still lives in western Maries County very near the same farm he grew up on. Living there with him is his wife Lois, who was also raised in western Maries County . Her maiden name was Burd and she grew up singing in church with her sisters.

With a last name of Burd you would expect the family to sing and play music and they did. Harold's mother and Lois's father both played banjo, so as the saying goes, "music is in their blood." While Harold and Lois were courting, Harold would play music with Lois's father and it must have been pretty good because the Harold and Lois were married in 1949.

In comes the band.

Harold likes to say his kids are "Fifties models." Kevin, Randy, Keith and Rhonda were all born during the years Harold was playing with a band called the "Crossroads Quartet," beginning in 1952. That band would do local shows and record 15-minute tapes to send to a radio station at the Lake of the Ozarks .

During those days all kinds of music was played on one station. Harold can remember listening to Frank Sinatra on the same station along with country and bluegrass.

After several years with the "Quartet," Harold moved into the Sixties with a new band, "The Bluegrass Five." The family was growing up and traveling to festivals with the band and Lois was always there taking care of the kids and listening to the music--usually in the front row.

At festivals and at home, the kids got their exposure to the music and all four began to take it up on their own, teaching themselves just as their father had, although Rhonda says she did take piano lessons for a time.

It was also at a festival that another important event happened. It was while dad was playing a show at the Dixon High School that Rhonda met her future husband, who was another musician, Dwight Slone. Dwight

grew up on a farm in western Maries county (is this beginning to sound familiar?) and learned to played guitar from a fellow who trained horses for his father.

Though they did not know it at the time, the beginnings of The Rowden Review were forming.

Harold played about 26 years with "The Bluegrass Five" and it was during this time the family was practicing their own music. The boys could all play more than one instrument, but no one wanted to play bass so Rhonda stuck to that.

Keith liked to hang out with his Grandpa Burd, who played banjo, so that became Keith's favorite too.

Kevin was the man on guitar, and Randy liked the mandolin.

Dwight, who was a permanent part of the family by this time, plays multiple instruments but favors the Dobro, and as Rhonda and Harold say "he can sing any part."

The Rowden Review had become a band and after playing around the area and for family they did their first festival in 1980, and they have been together ever since. The family will perform at 7 p.m., Saturday, March 31, in Vienna at the Best of Missouri Bluegrass Show held in the Vienna High School Auditorium. This is the 23rd year for the show hosted as a fund raiser for The Historical Society of Maries County.

Anyone familiar with bluegrass music knows that a family band is nothing new, but rarely do they stay together over 25 years. It's how the family works as a team that has kept them playing for such a long time. Growing up, the kids learned to work together and respect each other and it shows in how they work together with their music.

The group all decided on the name of the band and what songs they would do in those first years; they still do today. Their first recording was done in the early Eighties. They have been on the stage and making new recordings ever since.

Their most recent CD called "Medals for Mother" well represents the type of songs the Review likes best. Kevin and Harold are both big fans of the story-style songs of Larry Sparks. Rhonda keeps the gospel songs coming while Dwight enjoys the traditional, yet highly creative, sounds of Blue Highway . Randy and Keith are the hard driving, fast and fun song lovers, always something with a little twist.

Though they each have favorites it's always straight up traditional bluegrass. They choose the music and how to play it as a team and it shows. Their playing is solid and harmonies are tight--just like a good bluegrass band should be.

As kids, they looked out for one another and helped each other, and on the stage today it's just the same although now they do have one more brother/husband. Harold says of Dwight "he fits right in, just like he's one of my own kids. Rhonda did a good job picking him!".

If you ever want to offer a meal in exchange for their music don't say spaghetti! Lois Rowden likes to tell the story of when the kids were little and had to work together to help around the house while she was going to college to become a teacher. The boys would help dad with the chores and 8-year-old Rhonda's job was to get supper on the table. Since Rhonda couldn't really cook yet, Lois would fix all the meals and Rhonda would warm them. The easiest thing to fix was spaghetti and this was a Rowden family meal too many nights, according to the boys. They don't eat much spaghetti anymore.

The Rowden Review has been playing together all over the state many years. But, not so far from home they couldn't go and get back in the same night if they wanted to. The band had no desires to "make it to the big time," instead making their families the first priority.

When the grandkids were little the Review didn't do as many shows, because "family comes first" says the band. The music is as good as it gets and the group probably would have a national following if they traveled further from home, but it just wasn't their goal.

Harold says, "We like to stay close to home and do shows for the community and local festivals; we just enjoy playing together as a family." Harold has tried never to put too much pressure on the music, or the band to travel. This is part of what he believes has helped keep them together for so many years.

Many other Rowden and Slone family members sing and play music. Both sides of the families get together and play over holidays and other occasions, just for fun.

Kevin's son, Travis, even plays with the band now and then and is part of their most recent recording. The whole family gets along and enjoys being together and playing music. It's easy to see their closeness when the band is on stage playing a solid traditional piece with tight family harmony, Rhonda smiling to the band and the crowd as she introduces each song.

Harold even still plays his Martin D-18 that he bought in 1954. He has others but says playing this one is just tradition--a family tradition.

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