BIO
Jimmy Bowen is the leader of Santa Fe and is considered one of the finest high lead/tenor voices in the field of bluegrass today. A native of Charlotte, NC, Jimmy is a multi-instrumentalist and has been performing since the age of eight. After earning an accounting degree from The Citadel, Jimmy chose to pursue a career in music. In 1988, Jimmy attained an invitation to the join the legendary Country Gentlemen. Jimmy traveled the United States and Canada with the Country Gentlemen during his 7 year tenure. The Country Gentlemen took him to diverse venues such as the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville Now TV Show, and the White House. In 1995, after leaving the Country Gentlemen, Jimmy had the pleasure of being a member of Continental Divide. Jimmy performed for almost 4 years with Continental Divide on such venues as Prime Time Country, TNN News, and was the recipient of the 1995 IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year award.
Joining Jimmy is Ron Lane on guitar. From Sutton, WV, Ron is very versatile in vocals as well as his great lead guitar work. Ron employs contemporary styles as well as traditional melody-based leads. He is also a very accomplished songwriter and brings many new original tunes to the group.
Rounding out Santa Fe is Blake Bowen on bass and Rick Briggs on banjo. Blake was born into a musical family (the Bowens to be exact) and has been playing bass since the age 7. His talents developed rapidly and expanded to the guitar and he even plays a bit of banjo as well. Blake performed with Grand Ole Opry member, Jesse McReynolds, and up-and-coming artist, Amber Burks, before joining Santa Fe full time.
Rick Briggs was born in Huntersville, NC. He had a variety of musical influences as a child, most notably his father, Judd Briggs, who had his own 6-state radio show. Rick began his own musical trek with the saxophone at 11, then guitar at the age of 13. In 1976 at the age of 15 the bluegrass fever struck and he took up the banjo. Though he made a lateral move into country music during the mid 90's and worked professionally playing keyboards, the banjo remained his true love. Rick has performed with several recording artists such as; Chubby Anthony, Dale Ann Bradley, Connie Smith, Tommy Williams, and Southern Rail as well as to graduate from the National Radio Institute in Washington, DC for Electronic Music Technology. He worked the Old Dominion Opry in Williamsburg, VA as keyboardists, banjoist and vocalist from 1991-97 and eventually became their Musical Director and Assistant General Manager. Rick is a member of the teaching staff at the Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend in Roanoke, VA. He currently lives in Central PA with his wife Shelley and their two sons Dillan and Jarrad.
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