Paul Stowe

From the streets and squares, pubs and clubs to many more important music stages and festivals of Europe and North America this musician has performed as a solo artist or with his bands in his over 25 year musical career. Paul's musical roots are in the 60' and 70's folk boom and new acoustic music movement where he began to play as a street musician, as a university student in sessions, coffee houses as a solo artist and in acoustic bands. Travels throughout North America and Europe opened his mind to other regional and international styles which he could add and arrange to his accomplished Celtic and American guitar styles.

Since 1986 Stowe has lived in and near Munich, Germany working as the front man till 1991 in the well-known German band "Kentucky Bluefield" and since 1986 in his duo and band "Matching Ties". While expanding his repertoire of American music he has built up a wide repertoire of Irish and British folk standards and original songs represented in 4 Matching Ties CDs (the latest CD "Across the Sea" released in Sep. 2006) and on many guest tracks as a studio artist. As an expert of flat-picking, finger-picking and bottleneck (acoustic slide) guitar styles he has also been an active instructor of the guitar, teaching privately and organising his own guitar workshops in Munich and throughout Germany.

Returning to his early days as a performer, he began to play solo again in 1996. Round guitar full of rhythmic accompaniment and chordal solos together with a voice versed in folk, blues, country, and rock styles make for a show wide in scope and styles. Great importance is placed on contact to the audience through spontaneous grimaces and slap-stick humor, often translated into his second languages German, Italian and Spanish.

Whether playing an Irish ballad, a 60's song, a Robert Johnson blues, or an original song, Paul's guitar and voice unify all these styles into his own original sound. Born in Hartford, Conn. (USA) Paul began to play the guitar at the age of 12. He began playing street music, and performing at festivals and clubs in Salt Lake City, Utah (USA) at the age of 16. After two years of touring throughout Europe with folk and blues bands he lived in Florence, Italy for 1 ½ years before moving to Munich, Germany to join the country and bluegrass band "Kentucky Bluefield" and founding "Matching Ties". Paul also teaches guitar in his home outside Munich, near Rosenheim, Germany.

Email: paulstowe@matchingties.com

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