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Revision as of 13:55, 30 October 2007 by W guice (talk | contribs) (Isaak surely)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Rowland Salley (b. November 2, 1949) is an American musician, songwriter and artist. He is sometimes called Roly Salley. Salley is perhaps best known a bass guitar and vocalist for Chris Isaak's band Silvertone. Among his best known tunes is "Killing the Blues" which has been covered by John Prine, Shawn Colvin and, recently, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss on their 2007 album, Raising Sand. As a band member for Chris Isaak, he was a regular on The Chris Isaak Show.
Salley was born in Rockford, Illinois. He began playing base in high school and was kicked off the track team for having long hair. He left home before finishing school. He has written, "the timing of events is what often moves somebody. One of those events came for me in the form of a monster tornado that hit our high school one sunny Friday afternoon in the springtime. There was death and destruction and though I wasn't consciously trying to flee the place or the characters of my town ... I acquired the sense that since there was a lot that I wanted to try in my lifetime ... I ought to set about it before another "tornado" came along and stopped me early." His first move was to Madison, Wisconsin where he started a band. He then moved to Woodstock, New York. He got work as a session musician working with such performers as Maria Muldaur, John Sebastian and Paul Butterfield. He later moved to Toronto where he played with such performers as David Wilcox and Ian and Sylvia. Later, he moved to Los Angeles where he backed up such singers as Bobbie Gentry and Joan Baez. He moved to San Francisco in 1983. Two years later, he met Chris Isaak and has performed with the Silvertones ever since.
Salley's 2005 album Killing the Blues was recorded on weekends in Vancouver during breaks in in filming The Chris Isaak Show.The album is a mix of new and old material, dating as far back as 1977 (the title song). When Shawn Colville decided to sing it in 1981, she wrote, "Larry Campbell from New York told me in 1981 while we were in a band together that I should learn this song by his friend, Roly Salley. Just when you think there's no new way to say anything, you hear a song like this and think, that's as good as anything before or since."
Of the songwriting process, Salley has written, "the part I like best about writing is the second you realize that you've just written a song." He markets reproductions of his art through his website and has contributed his art to three of Maria Muldauer's albums.
Discography
- Killing the Blues (2005)
DVDs
- Learning Electric Bass (how-to, 1984)
References
- TV.com bio
- The Back Fence blog
- Liner notes, Woodstock Mountains: More Music from Mud Acres
- TV.com bio
- CD Baby
- Quoted in PowerBlog
- The Back Fence blog
- Maria Muldaur discogrphy