John Howie Jr. and the Rosewood Bluff

The Return of…John Howie Jr. & the Rosewood Bluff, released April 18 on Schoolkids Records, heralds the reappearance of North Carolina’s finest honky tonkin’, soulful country-rockers. 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of John Howie Jr.’s iconic career as a band leader/singer/songwriter, from the legendary Two Dollar Pistols through to the Rosewood Bluff, with a 2018 solo album thrown in for good measure.
The Rosewood Bluff's five piece line up features Nathan Golub on pedal steel guitar, Tim Shearer on electric guitar, Mark Connor on bass and Dave Hartman on drums, with Howie on rhythm guitar and lead vocals as always. This allows for variation between honky-tonk shuffles, driving country-rock numbers, and deep soul ballads, all delivered via Howie's rich baritone.
All of these styles come together on The Return of… to provide the quintessential musical backdrop for Howie’s lyrics that explore the ups and downs, the ins and outs, the backwards and forwards of relationships in an increasingly fragmented, confusing world. The album’s twelve tracks are written from the perspective of Howie’s beloved underdogs, the folks who struggle to find a reason to get out of bed in the morning, the folks who struggle to shake off bad habits and bad decisions, the folks who find a reason to keep going despite the setbacks.