A Nashville Cat Steps Out Front

By Chet Flippo

As one of the premier session guitarists on Music Row, Brent Rowan is a certified cool Nashville cat and one of the heirs to the Chet Atkins mantle (the song "Mister C" here is dedicated to Atkins). In recording sessions, he's called on to play everything. So, for his debut album, he wrote 14 instrumentals, all played in classical style on acoustic guitars. The songs are evocative of pastoral settings suggested by the song titles themselves.

For example, "Waxahachie Sunset" (RealAudio excerpt), with its Southwestern feeling and Spanish flair, very much conjures up a lazy, sunny day in that sleepy Texas town (which is Rowan's hometown).

For guitar buffs, Rowan includes information on guitars, strings and tunings used on each song. The lovely "Cottonwood Canyon" RealAudio excerpt), for instance, is played on a Dillon guitar on light gauge bronze strings in traditional Celtic open tuning (DADGAD), and "Fish Creek Falls" (RealAudio excerpt) is played on the Dillon with Martin strings and a Fender pick in open G (DGDGBD)