In between foraging about for food in the woods and teaching survivalist courses, Sean Rowe emerged in the 2000s as an intensely passionate songwriter with a deep baritone voice full of trembling sorrow and menace. Born in the small town of Troy in upstate New York, he first started singing in his uncle's church group when he was eight years old and after learning guitar at 12, played with punk and rock bands in his teenage years. His love of the outdoors led him to take courses with the naturalist Tom Brown Jr. and he once spent 24 days alone in the wilderness, living off the land, but he couldn't completely leave behind the music, and after building his reputation at open-mic nights in local dive bars, independent label Anti-Records released his his album 'Magic' in 2009.
Though naturally influenced by the great folk troubadours, country outlaws and blues ramblers, it was the impassioned, gut bucket delivery of soul wailers like Otis Redding and Ray Charles who inspired his singing style, and over the years his slightly beaten-up acoustic guitar named Sidney became another key part of his ragged, rhythmic, well-rusted sound. His songwriting and general demeanour also drew comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Waylon Jennings on albums 'The Salesman and the Shark' and 'Madmen' and he spent time travelling around the US playing randomly arranged house shows in the living rooms, garages and front yards of fans that he'd met on Facebook.
He went on release the EP 'Her Songs' in 2015 featuring tracks by female artists such as Neko Case, Cat Power and Lucinda Williams and had his song 'To Leave Something Behind' used in the Ben Affleck movie 'The Accountant' before returning in 2017 with 'New Lore', a crowdfunded album of more tender, rumbling, Americana-folk ballads.
