Country musician Robert Bowlin began playing the ukulele at the age of one-and-a-half, and was playing the guitar at five. By the late 1970s, he was competing successfully in national flatpicking championships; he also picked up the fiddle along the way. His lengthy and successful career as a backup musician has included steady stage work with Bobby Bare, Tom T. Hall, Kathy Mattea, Bill Monroe, Maura O'Connell, the Osborne Brothers, Ray Price, Ricky Van Shelton, and Faron Young. In Nashville, he became a regular session musician, appearing on albums by Hall, Monroe, the Osborne Brothers, Boxcar Willie, and Hank Thompson, among many others. He was a member of the pickup Western Swing band the Time Jumpers. His songs "Pokeberry Jam" and "The Rain Came Down" (the latter co-written with Wil Maring) appeared on Live by Shady Mix in 2005, and he also played on the album. Maring cut her own version of "The Rain Came Down" on his 2006 album The Calling, with Bowlin contributing guitar and fiddle as well as producing. In 2007, FGM Records released Bowlin's debut solo album, Six String Soliloquy. ~ William Ruhlmann