John Howie Jr. and the Rosewood Bluff

When the time came to record his first "solo" album, country/honky-tonk singer/songwriter John Howie Jr. (Two Dollar Pistols, Rosewood Bluff) decided that the set of songs he had at hand, a set that documented the dissolution of a relationship, was just too personal to release under any banner other than his own name. That set of songs became Not Tonight.

Recorded over a series of sessions in starting in Spring of 2015 with esteemed Southern Culture On The Skids frontman Rick Miller behind the boards at his Kudzu Ranch studio, John Howie Jr.’s eponymous debut is a somber, haunting and emotionally-fraught affair that is the most deeply personal album he’s yet made. It documents a grappling with loss and loss of control that has Howie searching for any light at the end of the tunnel.
“This album is a step forward from a disconcerting period of time in my life,” Howie says.
“In this case, the long, slow dissolution of a relationship. Everything that goes with that is in these songs: loss, loneliness, booze, suspicion, all of it. Not Tonight confronts a specific, painful period in my life, and the music is largely sparser, the lyrics more confessional than before. It ends on a relatively high note, but it's a mighty rough road gettin' there.”

Enlisting a who's-who of Chapel Hill-area players to help commit his vision to tape, Howie tapped into the deep well of compatriots from the stable of relationships he’s cultivated in his two-plus decade career in music.
Featuring appearances by members of his own backing band The Rosewood Bluff, Sarah Shook and the Disarmers, the Shirlette Ammons Band, and Tonk, the subject matter of Not Tonight felt a little too personal to commit to anything but his own name.
In 1995, Howie’s band the Two Dollar Pistols emerged out of the alt-country explosion that gave the world Whiskeytown and the Backsliders, among others. The Pistols spent twelve years traveling around the United States and Europe, making records for the esteemed Yep Roc label with an updated, soulful take on old-school country and honky-tonk sounds. Over the course of seven albums – including a series of duets with Grammy nominee Tift Merritt – Howie and the band developed a sizeable following, packing clubs on the East Coast and being flown to festivals in Europe, while the band's albums regularly appeared on the Gavin Americana chart. In that time, the Pistols shared the stage with a veritable who's-who of country music legends, including Merle Haggard, Dale Watson, BR-549, the Derailers, and many more, and were invited to play at Opryland in 2003.
When the Two Dollar Pistols went on an extended hiatus in 2008, Howie set about forming a new group, an expansion on the Pistols' sound that broadened its musical scope to incorporate other influences that had crept into John's songwriting, like Southern soul, rhythm and blues and country-rock.
That group, John Howie Jr. and the Rosewood Bluff, has released two full-length albums, and, like the Pistols, the Rosewood Bluff has shared the stage with big names like the legendary George Jones, Wayne Hancock, Shovels and Rope, and many more. Both of the Rosewood Bluff's albums, 2011's Leavin' Yesterday and 2014's Everything Except Goodbye, were met with critical acclaim and received steady airplay on key programs like Sirius/XM's Outlaw Country. The band's five piece line up - that includes pedal steel guitar - allows for movement between honky-tonk shuffles, driving country-rock numbers, and deep soul ballads, all delivered via Howie's rich baritone.
Howie spent the majority of 2016/2017 on the road playing drums for Bloodshot Records artists Sarah Shook and the Disarmers, but left the group in late 2017 to continue to work on his own music, both on Not Tonight, and with his beloved Rosewood Bluff.