Rowland Salley (born November 2, 1949) is an American musician, sometimes called Roly Salley. He is a bass guitarist and vocalist for
Chris Isaak
Christopher Joseph Isaak (born June 26, 1956) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional actor. He is widely known for his breakthrough hit and signature song "Wicked Game", as well as other songs such as "Blue Hotel", "Baby D ...
's band Silvertone. His best-known tune is "Killing the Blues", which has been covered by
John Prine
John Edward Prine (; October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music. He was active as a composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional actor from the early 1970s until his death. He ...
,
Chris Smither
William Christopher Smither (born November 11, 1944) is an American folk/blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. His music draws deeply from the blues, American folk music, and modern poets and philosophers.
Early life, influences and educat ...
,
Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin (born Shawna Lee Colvin, January 10, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. While Colvin has been a solo recording artist for decades, she is best known for her 1998 Grammy Award-winning song "Sunny Came Home".
Early ...
,
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...
and
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of 8 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with ...
, and most recently
Shooter Jennings
Waylon Albright "Shooter" Jennings (born May 19, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He is the only son of country singers Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. In a career spanning over two decades, Shooter Jenni ...
and
Billy Ray Cyrus
Billy Ray Cyrus (born August 25, 1961) is an American country singer and actor. He has released 16 studio albums and 53 singles since 1992, and is known for his hit single "Achy Breaky Heart", which topped the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart and ...
in 2015. As a band member for Chris Isaak, he was a regular on ''
The Chris Isaak Show
''The Chris Isaak Show'' is an American television sitcom that follows a fictionalized version of the life of American rock musician Chris Isaak. The show portrays Isaak and his band members as everyday people with everyday problems. The series wa ...
''. Salley resides in California with his wife.
Biography
Salley was born in
Belvidere, Illinois
Belvidere is a city in Boone County, settled on the Kishwaukee River in far northern Illinois, United States. Known as the 'City of Murals', Belvidere is home to several public art installations throughout the North and South State Street histo ...
. He began playing bass in high school and was kicked off the track team for having long hair. 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
pril 21, 1967 There was death and destruction and though I wasn't consciously trying to flee the place or the characters of my town... there was a lot that I wanted to try in my lifetime...
ndI ought to set about it before another "tornado" came along."
[''The Back Fence'' blog](_blank)
His first move was to
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
where he started a band. He then moved to
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, NY. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 in 2000 ...
. He got work as a session musician working with such performers as
Maria Muldaur
Maria Muldaur (born Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D'Amato; September 12, 1942) is an American folk and blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s. She recorded the 1973 hit song "Midnight at the Oasis" and has ...
,
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonicist who founded the rock band The Lovin' Spoonful. He made an impromptu appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969[Paul Butterfield
Paul Vaughn Butterfield (December 17, 1942May 4, 1987) was an American blues harmonica player, singer and band leader. After early training as a classical flautist, he developed an interest in blues harmonica. He explored the blues scene in his n ...]
. He later moved to
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
where he played with such performers as
David Wilcox and
Ian and Sylvia
Ian & Sylvia were a Canadian folk and country music duo which consisted of Ian and Sylvia Tyson, née Fricker. They began performing together in 1959 (full-time in 1961), married in 1964, and divorced and stopped performing together in 1975.
His ...
. Later, he moved to Los Angeles where he backed up such singers as
Bobbie Gentry
Bobbie Gentry (born Roberta Lee Streeter; July 27, 1942) is a retired American singer-songwriter, who was one of the first female artists in America to compose and produce her own material.
Gentry rose to international fame in 1967 with her Sou ...
and
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
. He moved to San Francisco in 1983. Two years later, he met Chris Isaak and has performed with the Silvertones ever since.
Salley's solo album ''Killing the Blues'' was recorded on weekends in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
during breaks in filming ''The Chris Isaak Show'' in 2004. The album is a mix of new and old material, dating as far back as 1977 (the title song). After Shawn Colvin recorded "Killing the Blues" in 1994 she wrote, "
Larry Campbell
Larry W. Campbell (born 28 February 1948) is a Canadian politician that served as the 37th mayor of Vancouver, Canada from 2002 until 2005 and since 2005 has been a member of the Senate of Canada.
Before he was mayor, Campbell worked for t ...
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 Muldaur's albums.
''Why the Artist Creates''
In 1998, Salley co-directed a short documentary film about himself called ''Why the Artist Creates''. The 24-minute film premiered on PBS station KQED-TV in San Francisco and is described as a celebration of music, art, and the creative choices we all make. It won a national Silver Telly award, was an Emmy nominee, and a Columbus International Film Festival honoree. It was produced by Luanne Bole-Becker who met Salley at a 1993 Chris Isaak concert. In the months that followed, they explored through correspondence why Salley chose to be a musician and painter. In this documentary based on their letters, Bole-Becker and Salley collaborate with film and video artists, merging original music and visuals into a human interest story honoring the creative spirit.
"Killing the Blues"
During the Academy Awards ceremony airing on US television in 2008, the retailer
JC Penney
Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...
aired a commercial featuring the newly covered version of 'Killing the Blues' sung by
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of 8 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with ...
and
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...
. This version was listed as No. 51 on ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
''s list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. It later earned a
Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals
The Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to quality country music collaborations for artists who do ...
in February 2009.
Discography
* ''Killing the Blues'' (2005)
DVDs
* ''Learning Electric Bass'' (how-to, 1984)
VHS
* ''Why the Artist Creates'' (April 1, 1998)
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salley, Rowland
Songwriters from Illinois
People from Belvidere, Illinois
1949 births
Living people
Guitarists from Illinois
20th-century American bass guitarists