E-Press-Kit

Whether playing a fiddle tune at lightning speed, or coaxing the depth of emotion from a tragic ballad, Lee Rowe is introducing new audiences to the plaintive sound of the mountain dulcimer, an instrument that has it's roots in the Appalachian frontier of early America. Lee has held onto the instrument's traditional roots while creating new music that transcends easy categorization.

Lee began playing the dulcimer while still a teenager in Portsmouth, Virginia. Being isolated from the dulcimer community, he developed his own unique style by borrowing techniques from other instruments such as guitar and mandolin. He began performing and writing as part of an acoustic rock duet called Bonaparte's Revenge which gained prominence performing at local venues in Richmond, Virginia. Their self-titled album of original instrumentals, released in 1994, featured Lee's dazzling style, which combines complex crosspicking with the instrument's rhythmic drone.

His arrangements of traditional music won him the 1999 U.S. National Dulcimer Championship in Winfield, KS as well as the Illinois State Dulcimer Championship in Grafton, IL. He has also won awards at Uncle Dave Macon Days in Murfreesboro, TN and the Tennessee Valley Old-Time Fiddlers' Convention. His original compositions gained prominence with the release of his first cd, Wire and Wood. The cd is a collection of 15 songs, 10 are original, that truly show Lee’s range as a musician and composer.

Now living in Nashville, Lee is increasingly in demand as a teacher, conducting seminars at workshops and festivals from North Carolina to Texas, teaching students one on one, and as Adjunct Instructor of Mountain Dulcimer at Nashville State Technical Institute. Lee completed two books for mountain dulcimer. He continues to perform solo and as a member of the Nashville Dulcimer Quartet, which performs a repetoire of Classical and Old Time music and released their first cd, Four Part Inventions in 2002. Wherever he plays, Lee's performances are marked by his warm humor as much as his virtuosity.

His ultimate goal, whether as a composer, performer or teacher, is to expose more people to the beauty and potential of the mountain dulcimer as a vital and creative instrument.