January 2006
1/25/06: every year Al Kooper posts his 50 favorite songs on www.alkooper.com and this was one i wrote and stuck on the tommy castro album i did a few months ago... considering what a legendary dude Kooper is (read his biography) i thought this was nice.

46. No One Left To Lie To - (Castro, T./Bowe, K.)
Tommy Castro
Produced by Tommy Castro, Kevin Bowe, Steve Spirn, and Gordon Brislawn
The blue-eyed bluesman pushes through the ranks and sticks out with this well-done ballad. Ya got me, Tommy - nicely done. Shoulda been nominated for SOME blues award.....

If you're watching TV or listening to the radio and you hear the new ad for Great Clips "Walk Right In, Sit Right Down" well you can curse my name. But just for the record, if they waved that kind of do-re-mi in your face you would have done it too. Plus it was fun! That's Bongo from the Okemah Prophets on drums and yours truly on the rest of it. You'll have to figure out the mystery vocalist yourself....

Upcoming projects are a debut album by Allison Scott. Think modern day Laura Nyro and Carole King, you won't be far off the mark. The demos I've been writing and recording with Tony Sims are almost done; I'll post them on the site and you can decide who would win if he was in a Greco Roman death match with Dwight Yoakum, I know where my money is. Visit www.carolinesmithsongs.com and pick up her new EP CD. All I can say is you'll be hearing a lot more from this one soon.

December 2005
12/31/05: 2005 was such a cool year that if I was smart I'd retire or just go out back and shoot myself in celebration because in all honesty it's probably all downhill from here. But since guns scare me, I'll carry on. A big "I'm sorry" to the few people (my mom....) that like to come see me play in those stinky bars but after doing that Westerberg tour it's hard to get excited about those 7 people in Blaine that would really rather hear "Free Bird" and are more than willing to let you know that. You know who you are. Plus the studio thing has gotten so busy; after a ten hour day it's hard to get excited about packing up all my crap to go play more music. Do I sound like a wuss? Well, there you go. I'm thinking about doing some solo shows in '06, actually learning some of my newer songs, memorizing lyrics and doing it right. We'll see how that pans out. Really I just don't want to move amps any more. Anyone who complains is welcome to do that for me.

The things I'm most excited about in '06 are the young and hideously talented artists I'm working with. Joanne Shaw Taylor of Birmingham England will be having her "coming out" very soon. Plays guitar like SRV and sings like Dusty Springfield. Cute, funny, British, she has "the whole package" as industry scumbags would say. And will say. Tony Sims plays guitar like.... Tony Sims. And piano too and sings and is about to put the ache and pain and danger back into country music. Real country music, not boy band/hair metal/southern rock country music. Caroline Smith is putting the Cutie back into the Death Cab. She writes, sings and plays guitar better than any other girl in the DL (that's Detroit Lakes for all you ignorant city folk...). We just finished her debut EP and opened for BB King in Rochester and Duluth where BB put his personal stamp of approval on her music. She's amazing. And lastly but not leastly...... Ali Scott. You've never heard of her but you will. Unconsciously channelling the ghost of Laura Nyro, this unbelievably soulful piano playing singer/songwriter will make you cry at some point in the next year; we start her album soon.

Some musical people and things I'm thankful for in '05......

Gibson guitars- thanks for the SG Shannon.
Kobalt Music Publishing-finally...
ESPN Sports- you rule Claude
Paul Westerberg- words fail me
Mick Sterling- maybe you do know what dirty is
Sound Toys- echo boy is awesome
IPR- like joining a cult but without the bad stuff
Tim Dressen- podcast king

August 2005
8/8/05: I just finished the new Mick Sterling solo CD "Saturday & Sunday Morning" and my unbiased opinion is.... it's badass. Comes out in less than 2 weeks with 12 songs, I think 9 of which Mick and I wrote over the last year. You'll be thrilled to know that it's a dreaded "concept album" but I'm not going to cheapen the experience by saying anything more. The new Renee Austin CD I produced comes out this month as well, it's called "Right About Love". I don't know anything else about that one though because I don't think she's speaking to me.... I can't really confirm that though, because I don't think she's speaking to me. Kind of hurts my head to think about it. What doesn't hurt my head is the stuff I just turned in to ESPN to use for the X Games. If you're watching that and you hear something going on waaaay behind the guys talking- that's me!

June 2005
6/14/05: Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler has included Kevin's song "The Blues is My Business," recorded by Etta James on his iTunes Music Store Celebrity Playlist. Kevin can now die a happy man.

May 2005
5/29/05: Finally finished producing the new Renee Austin album for Blind Pig, took a long time due to touring commitments by everyone involved. I don't know the title yet but we co wrote many of the songs together. Next up is producing Mick Sterling's first solo album titled "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning"; we've been writing the songs together for almost a year and we're finally ready to press "record". Also just started producing an EP for a very young Detroit Lakes singer songwriter named Caroline Smith. You'll be hearing much more about her later on.

April 2005
4/1/05: Due to an increasingly busy recording studio schedule, I've been forced to take a leave of absence from the Rolling Blunder Revue. For now, they're going to have to continue rolling and blundering without me. I'm guessing most of the fans will not miss me much, some may not even notice I'm gone! It's been a lot of fun but there are only so many hours in the day and things have just gotten a little out of control lately with the Westerberg tour and working on so many records at the same time.

March 2005
3/1/05: Tommy Castro's new album, Soul Shaker, has been released on Blind Pig to great reviews ("his best ever"), debuting at #2 on the Billboard blues chart.

3/20/05: In mid-April, Kevin leaves for the last leg of the Paul Westerberg & His Only Friends tour, heading through the Midwest and East Coast with a rumored late night TV show slot in New York City.

3/25/05: Kevin just performed several songs with Tommy Castro and his band on their new live concert DVD shot at the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico, Calif. The DVD will be released soon on Blind Pig Records and features several of the songs Kevin co-wrote and produced on Tommy's newest CD, Soul Shaker.

February 2005
2/15/05: Strange but true news: The United States Air Force Liberty Band has just cut Kevin's song "The Blues Is My Business" for their new album. And those flyboys really rock it up.

January 2005
1/7/05: One of my songs "What You Didn't Say" (written with and sung by Tom Leonard) was just used on "America's Top Model". This has got to be the cultural pinnacle of my career. My piece de resistance. or piece of something.

1/19/05: Just finished two days of tracking (at Terrarium, my favorite studio) for Renee Austin's second album on Blind Pig Records. Billy Thommes on drums, Paul Diethelm on guitar, Dik Shopteau on bass and me on ordering lunch and pouring coffee. Great songs are coming out of this, early favorites are "Chicken Coop" and "Harder Than It Has To Be".

1/22/05: Construction on Kevin's new studio is done; the drum room was designed by Dave Ahl who also built Flyte Tyme studios and many other pimpin' cribs. Sorry, my inner Vanilla slipped out there. Special thanks to Hugo and Brian who did the hard labor on this. I'll just be sitting in my little room and chanting fake kaballah mantras until rehearsals for the Westerberg tour start in a few weeks. Apparently you can't get into the city of Los Angeles any more unless you know your kaballah.

November 2004
11/1/04: KB has finished production and mixing on Tommy Castro's new
Blind Pig album "Soul Shaker" to be released in February of '05. The
album features a guest shot by slide wizard Roy Rogers and several
songs co-written by Kevin and Tommy Castro.

11/7/04: KB lived to tell about 3 sold out shows with Paul Westerberg
& The Painkillers at Mpls's Pantages Theater on Nov. 5,6 and 7. A
possible tour out west and down south is being whispered about for
February. Despite his therapist's best advice, Kevin has offered his
services to this misguided venture, hoping that the bus will leave
before Westerberg figures out that he could have gottten a better (but
not better dressed) man.

11/14/04: KB will be producing Renee Austin's next album for Blind Pig
Records over the winter months. He's also working on a solo album for
Mick Sterling.

October 2004
Kevin is playing guitar in Paul Westerberg's new band The Painkillers. They will be debuting at the Pantages Theatre in early November.

September 2004
Kevin is producing Tommy Castro's upcoming album on Blind Pig Records; recording takes place at Sy Klopps in San Francisco through the month of October, mixing at Terrarium in Minneapolis during the last week of October.

August 2004
Joanne Shaw Taylor took the Bayfront Blues Festival in Duluth by storm, stealing the show in front of 15,000 people. Kevin stood next to her, backed her up on guitar and looked old enough to be her father.

July 2004
Kevin and Mick Sterling are writing songs together for an upcoming Mick Sterling solo album which Kevin is producing. Titles include "Man Pants", "Who Died And Made You King?" and "You Don't Know What Dirty Is".

June 2004
One of Kevin's songs "The Blues Is My Business" (from Etta James "Let's Roll" album) was used on "The Sopranos".

April 2004
Etta James' "Let's Roll" album (with 4 of Kevin's songs on it) won the Grammy for "Best Contemporary Blues Album".

March 2004
Kevin has signed 19 year old singer/guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor from the UK; she is now being managed by Blue Sky Artist Mgmt. Kevin and Jo are writing and recording demos to land her a US recording contract.

February 9, 2004
Grammy Winner
Etta James's "Let's Roll" CD won the Grammy for best blues recording. Kevin has 4 songs on it.

Janurary 15, 2004
Etta James's new "Let's Roll" CD has been nominated for a Grammy for best blues recording. Kevin has 4 songs on it. And I finished producing Shane Henry's album for Shanachie called "Deliverance," and it's out in April, featuring bass/drums by Stevie Ray Vaughn's Double Trouble and 2 guest guitar solos by Kenny Wayne Shepherd. It was mixed by David Z in Nashville.

October 20, 2003
Renee Austin CD released
Renee Austin's new CD is out on Blind Pig Records. Kevin and Dik Shopteau produced it, kb played some guitar, wrote 2 songs, dik played bass, andy played slide on some songs, the core of jonny lang's live band played the rest of the tracks. one song is a duet with delbert mcclinton. Initial reviews are stellar, Renee is definitely on her way to big things.

October 20, 2003
Kevin is travelling to LA soon to record Kenny Wayne Shepherd putting some guest guitar on Shane Henry's debut CD on Shanachie Records. The Okemah Prophets debut CD on Corazong Records is coming out very soon in Europe and Canada; it's called "Angels on the Freeway (Crosses on the Road)". It features some songs from "Restoration" and 6 new studio recordings.

July 6, 2003
Lynyrd Skynyrd's new release, Vicious Cylcle has sold 80,000 units. Kevin wrote the fourth track, Dead Man Waling with the band. Etta James new CD, Lets Roll, is the fastest selling release of her career so far. When she recently played in Minneapolis, Kevin met with her and was invited to write some songs at her house in LA. Kevin is also in the process of finishing the production of Renee Austins next CD. He recently went to Nashville and produced a duet between Renee and Delbert McClinton. He also wrote two songs on the album, Black Pearl and Pour the Sugar Slowly.
 
April 15, 2003
Keving is producing Renee Austins album on Blind Pig. A bunch of Jonny Langs live band members are playing on it. Kevin is wrapping up production on Shane Henrys Shanachie Records debut.
One of Kevins songs, Ordinary Life will be used on an upcoming episode of Boston Public.

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