Ralston Bowles is an American songwriter, producer, musician and singer from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

[edit] Biography

Ralston playing his song "I Love You" at the wedding of his niece, Rachel Banks.

Ralston Bowles was born on August 31, 1952 to parents, Buel Bowles of Green Sulphur Springs, West Virginia (1913-2002) and May Jean Morgan of Vincennes, Indiana (1919-1998). Bowles's parents met in Gary, Indiana, married, and had two children, Thomas Ralston and Mary-Jane Wallace.

Bowles was married to Cindy Fowler, daughter of Lew and Marlene Fowler of Cadillac, Michigan, in 1973 and they have had three children together: Samuel, Jesse, and Ethan.

Bowles wrote the songs "Fragile", recorded by Peter Mulvey and Caroline Aiken, and "Grace", based on a book by author Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace?. Bowles wrote the latter song after reading a pre-publication galley of the book. After the book was published, singer Bono of U2 wrote and released a similar song of the same title, based on the same book; the song appeared on the album All That You Can't Leave Behind.

Bowles has been a fixture on the western Michigan music scene since 1970, helping the Grand Rapids music scene to flourish while encouraging national artists to make Grand Rapids a tour stop on their schedules. Host of the Frederik Meijer Gardens Tuesday Evening Music Club and a supporter of numerous charities through benefit concerts, he has performed with the Hothouse Flowers, T-Bone Burnett, Shawn Colvin and the Del McCoury Band.

In 2004 Bowles released a debut album, Carwreck Conversations. It was produced by Marvin Etzioni (former member of Lone Justice and producer of Counting Crows, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Peter Case and Grey DeLisle), engineered by David Vaught. The musicians include David Raven (drums), Brian Head (percussion), Danny McGough (keyboards) and Eric Heywood (pedal steel). It was recognized with three Jammie Awards: "album of the year", "best folk album" and "artist of the year."

2007 saw the re-release of Carwreck Conversations on Wildflower Records (Judy Collins label; Judy Collins, also Amy Speace, Andy White, Heather Greene, Jimmy Norman, Kenny White, The Saints, Ali Eskandarian and Wes Charlton) into Europe and US.

Fall 2008 "Rally at the Texas Hotel" is released on Wildflower Records into Europe and receives accolades from Swedish and Dutch Americana Music Press. Produced by Marvin Etzioni and features studio contributions by Gurf Morlix, Charlie Sexton, Jagoda and Radoslav Lorkovic.

Bowles received, in 2009, an acoustic guitar hand-made by his Father-in-law, Lew Fowler.

Bowles was featured in The Grand Rapids Press's weekly "Sunday Profile" on August 30, 2009.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Solo albums

• Carwreck Conversations (2004)
• Carwreck Conversations' Wildflower Records release to Europe' (2007)
• Rally at The Texas Hotel (2008)

[edit] Compilations

• Winter in West Michigan: A Benefit for Heartside Community (song: "Light a Candle") (2002)
• Standing Together: A Benefit for Public Schools ("Remember") (2003)
• Paste Magazine Music Sampler No. 9 ("Everybody but You") (2004)
• One on One (One Songwriter, One Instrument) ("Remember") (2004)^[1]
• Words ("Paper Moon") (2004)
• Grand Rapids Compilation ("Velvet Elvis") (2005)
• Standing Together 2: A Benefit for Public Schools ("Utah") (2009)

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Ralston Bowles official website

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