Bo Brown

Bo Brown. photo credit; Dennis Crider

Bo has been around the music scene in Springfield, Missouri since the late Pleistocene, but not as long as Benny Mahan (early Jurassic, God rest his soul).

Some early bands in the 70′s: Spillwater, with Ruell & Alan Chappell, Carl Garner – Duckburg Times with Dave Wilson, Don Brink Billy Toone. In the late ’70s Bo and John Kendrick started The Undergrass Boys, along with Dave Wilson, George Horne & Rick Davidson. UGB toured extensively in the Midwest on the college concert and club circuit, and played a string of concert dates with notables such as Emmylou Harris, Juice Newton, Leon Russell, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and many others. The group disbanded in 1983, another casualty of road women and hard living.

In 1984, Bo dropped off the edge of the earth, and took to the woods under the tutelage of Jim Fire Eagle (a Native American tribal elder and medicine man) to embark on another phase of his life. A year later, he started a career in ornithology, and traveled around the U.S. and Central America working on songbird field research projects. During winters when the work was slow, he came back to Springfield to play in several bands such as Mountain Aire and The Bluegrass Zombies from Hell. In 1993, he moved back for good to start a stone-age survival school, Red Willow Primitive Skills, now First Earth Wilderness School, also playing with the Mullets and the now legendary Howie & The Hillcats.

Another bluegrass side-project started up with Roger Matthews, Andy Dye and Matt Maydew, Them Dang Peckerwoods (the funniest band to grace a stage in these parts), that later evolved into Hogmolly. That brings us to the present, where as a musical whore (Bo’s words not the writer’s) he still performs with Howie and the Hillcats, Da Mullets, and anyone that will hire him. His main project is with The Lowdown Fancy, playing original funk/rock/rapgrass tunes. Also look for his mandolin/Dobro work on the soundtrack to Winter’s Bone, a movie filmed in and about the Ozarks, it recently received four Oscar Nominations.

Members Of;

The Lowdown Fancy: Steve Ames,  Bo Brown, Mike Henderson and Aaron Holmes. The Love Mussel Brass accompanies the band occasionally, featuring Jim Rea,  Cole Gurley, and Ryan Boone. Howie and the Hillcats: Mark “Howie” Denny,  Bo Brown, DR Randolph, Seth Randolph, Josh Randolph, Kelly Brown, and Richie Rebuth. Da Mullets: DR Randolph, DC Cunningham,  and Bo Brown.

Influences

Early influences were Sons of the Pioneers, Bob Wills, and old country and bluegrass from the Grand Ole’ Opry (songs his mom sang to him on the way to the fishin’ hole). After discovering rock music in the ’60, things turned a bit wilder, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Johnny Winter and the like. A big turning point in 1975 was being dragged to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield KS to re-discover bluegrass and flatpick guitar (Bo didn’t want to go because of the possibility of banjos, but was later convinced on the prospect of multitudes of scantily clad dancing women). Bo then quit playing electric and went totally acoustic until the last couple of years, and incorporates swing, psychedelic, rock, funk and bluegrass sounds into his picking style. In addition to the acoustic instruments, he now plays a bit of electric and bass guitar with Lowdown Fancy.

Instruments

Mandolin, Dobro, guitar, bass and vocals

Making Blowgun Darts