Charlie Bowman

American musician and fiddle player.
Brother of Elbert Bowman, Walter Bowman and Argil Bowman.

Band membership:
The Hill Billies (8-May-1925 - 1928)
Blue Ridge Ramblers (1928 - 1935)
Blue Ridge Music Makers (1935)
Charlie Bowman And His Southern Mountaineers a.k.a. Charlie Bowman And His Southerners (1936-1937)

* 30-Jul-1889 (Gray Station, TN, USA)
† 20-May-1962

He was known as “the champion fiddler of East Tennessee”. Some people called him “Fiddlin’ Charlie Bowman” while others called him “Tenn-O-See Charlie”. Still others called him “Fox Hunt Charlie”. As family members, we knew him simply as “Uncle Charlie”. He was a natural born old-time fiddler possibly because his father, Samuel Bowman, and his grandfather, Jim Bowman, were both old-time fiddlers.

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In the early 1920’s, a fiddlers’ contest was held in Johnson City and sponsored by the United Commercial Travelers. Local businessman, Bert Pouder, had heard about Charlie’s fiddling and wanted him to participate in the contest. Mr. Pouder offered him five dollars of his own money if he would participate in the contest.
While walking down the street, he saw several signs advertising the contest featuring Georgia’s state champion fiddler, Clayton McMitchen. Charlie doubted that he was good enough to be in the contest, but decided to give it a try. It paid off as he won second place and was awarded $25 prize money. Getting paid $30 for fiddling in a contest inspired Charlie to enter more contests.

Over the next several months, Charlie began to travel to fiddlers’ contests both locally and in nearby states. He kept a log which showed that he entered such events in Tennessee (Bluff City, Bristol, Boones Creek, Erwin, Embreville, Johnson City, Jonesboro, Kingsport, Limestone, Mountain City, Washington College, Knoxville, Lamar), in Georgia (Atlanta, Rome), in North Carolina (Boone, Bakersville, Wilkesboro), in Virginia (Dante), and in Washington D.C. Amazingly, Charlie won 28 of the 32 contests he entered.
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Charlie wrote a fiddle instrumental called “East Tennessee Blues” for Brunswick Records. Charlie is also credited for putting together the words of the songs “Nine Pound Hammer” and the companion song “Roll on Buddy” from a tune he had heard from some railroad workers.

Over the years, Charlie was associated with an impressive list of old-time musicians such as Clayton McMitchen, Riley Puckett, Fiddlin’ John Carson, Uncle Am Stuart, Dudley Vance, James Cowan Powers, the Harris Brothers, the Roe Brothers, “Dad” Williams, Carson Robinson, Uncle Dave Macon, Bill Monroe (before he switched to Bluegrass), Roy Acuff, Kirk & Sam McGee, the Delmore Brothers, Charlie Poole, and the versatile Vernon Dalhart.