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The John Cowan Band

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The John Cowan Band performs "Carla's Got a New Tattoo"

John Cowan has come a long way since his initial rise to fame in the rootsy experimental bluegrass band New Grass Revival, in front of the likes of Sam Bush, Bela Fleck and Pat Flynn. After NGR disbanded in 1990, the ever-innvoative Cowan changed gears, testing his voice on various genres including soul, rock, blues and country. And while his former bandmates each went on to achieve individual fame, he continued to operate primarily below the radar. Cowan’s remembered his acoustic roots over the years, though, and now he’s come full circle with his new band, The John Cowan Band. Alongside Jeff Autry (guitar), Wayne Benson (mandolin), Shad Cobb (fiddle) and Noam Pikelny (banjo), Cowan is making the same kind of genre-crossing, high-quality “newgrass” music he made with NGR. Cowan notes on his online journal that NGR was “never percieved as ‘cool’ because whatever pop culture defined at any moment as cool…was. Certainly not a bunch of knuckleheads playing ‘whatzit’ music.” Well, he’s got a new band of knuckleheads, and if we had anything to say about it, they’d all be considered cool. Come out and see The John Cowan Band as it stops at Sportsmen’s Tavern this Sunday in support of its most recent studio release, Tattoo, which hit the shelves only a month ago.

Sunday, July 8 at 4pm. Sportsmen’s Tavern, 326 Amherst Street (874-7734). $20