Mountain Stage Musical Director Ron Sowell releases his fourth solo album.
written by christy perry tuohey
photographed by rafael barker
TUNE IN TO NPR’s Mountain Stage weekly broadcast and you’ll hear him—Musical Director Ron Sowell, who leads a band of West Virginia–based musicians he’s played with for decades. Some of them also perform on his latest solo album, Dance Till the Music Stops. Making music with longtime friends is essential to his artistry.
Sowell has been making music since he was a kid listening to his dad’s Friday night barbershop quartet practices in their living room. The dulcet tones lured him into singing along out in the hallway. In school, he met singing partners Chuck Rives and Tommy Williams—the three harmonized together in high school and college choirs. Asking them to add vocals to a song on the new album about his dad’s barbershop group, “Out There in the Hall/The Old Songs,” only made sense.
“The song was written about one of my most vivid early musical memories,” Sowell explains. “It was a dream to get them to come to the studio and be a part of the barbershop quartet in the end.”
Another of Sowell’s friends inspired the album’s title track, “Dance Till the Music Stops.” He learned at a class reunion that his friend Dusty had passed away from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. Dusty’s wife said that, after her husband’s diagnosis, someone asked him what he was going to do. “And he said, ‘Well, I guess I’ll just dance till the music stops,’” Sowell says. “That just stopped me in my tracks, full body chills, and I knew I had to write a song about it.”
Dance Till the Music Stops is Sowell’s fourth solo album. After moving to West Virginia in the 1970s, he formed two popular Kanawha Valley–based bands, the Putnam County Pickers and Stark Raven Band, putting out two albums with each. Bandmates Ammed Solomon and Julie Adams, both from Stark Raven days, perform on the new LP, along with Mountain Stage host Kathy Mattea.
Sowell’s songwriting chops have evolved and deepened. He describes the new record, eight songs of which were written with songwriting partner Jon Wikstrom, as his best work so far. As for the album’s overarching theme, he says, “Basically, my philosophy through this album is: aging is inevitable, but getting old is optional.” ronsowell.com, @ronsowellmusic on FB
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