David is a musician of diverse background, having grown up under the musical influence of his father and mother.  Xerxes Bowlin was a professional country  music bandmember in the 1960's, with strong leanings toward bluegrass.  His mother, Margaret, brought more formal music, such as classical music and Protestant church hymns alongside 1960's and 70's folk, mixed with Scottish and English commoner songs from the Middle Ages.

David performed with his mother, father, and brother during his teenage years in churches, playing bluegrass gospel and southern gospel with acoustic instrumentation. During this time, he also sang in school choirs, eventually making it to the Kentucky High School All-State Chorus during the 11th and 12th grade. Later, after high school and college, the family group carried on, during which time he picked up bass guitar and banjo.

David attended college at Cumberland College, where he studied classical singing and music theory.  In his extracurricular time (which, in reality, took more time than his actual studies) he got his first electric guitar and learned to play lead, which he utilized in a pop band that played covers contemporary to the time (late 1990's). 

It wasn't until around 2005 that David really returned to his foundations in American acoustic roots music.  He attended a couple of bluegrass and old-time music festivals, in which he competed in guitar flatpicking and placed poorly.  This inspired him to focus on learning to play lead on his acoustic guitar in new and better ways. 

When one hears David play and sing on different instruments and in a variety of styles, all of his diverse influences come out in his music. Not one to accept pigeonholing into one genre, he can be heard playing classical, country, bluegrass, blues, rock, and a little jazz. This diversity, and ability to play with people, is what David hopes to engender in his private lesson students, and what he draws on when playing with many people of different musical backgrounds. 

David teaches private lessons on guitar, banjo, and bass guitar. Click here for more info.

You can email David at david@peerlessmountain.com