Mark Rowland
Mark Rowland spent a decade as executive editor of Musician magazine and wrote narrations for the best-selling multi-media books We Interrupt this Broadcast and And the Crowd Goes Wild. He was co-executive producer of TV One's award winning music documentary series Unsung, and served as chief writer and supervising producer of BET's award-winning documentary crime series American Gangster. He has produced and written over 100 one hour episodes of documentary programs for television, for such acclaimed series as Fox Sports' Beyond the Glory, History Channel's Modern Marvels, ESPN's Sports Century and VH1's Behind the Music. His extensive background in print journalism includes hundreds of articles for publications as diverse as Esquire, American Film, and the Los Angeles Times.
74 articles
List of articles in the library
Interview by Mark Rowland, unpublished, 23 September 1978
Marc Rowland interviews Dylan in Rochester prior to his concert at the Rochester Auditorium. The interview was broadcast on US radio. The transcript is from ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, July 1982
BENEATH THE ENDLESS SUMMER CINEMATIC SCENES OF JEALOUSY & TRAGEDY OF SWEETNESS & DREAD ...
Michael Jackson: Thriller (Epic)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, February 1983
IT SEEMS only a matter of time now before Michael Jackson becomes a candy bar or a video game. His music, after all, that remarkably ...
NRBQ: Organic Eclecticism in Orbit
Profile and Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, October 1983
SEEING NRBQ play in a club for the first time is a little like sauntering into an amusement park with all-new rides — you're happy ...
George Clinton: You Should Nuf Bit Fish (Capitol)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, February 1984
FOR MORE than a decade George Clinton has been mingling sci-fi symbolism, technopop textures, topical satire and shake-yer-booty funk into a personal cosmology as exotic ...
Ray Parker Jr.: Ray Parker, Jr.: Woman Out Of Control (Arista)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, February 1984
RAY PARKER, Jr. is a riddle. He's a black, crossover auteur who writes, produces, arranges and pretty much performs everything on his records, claims Motown ...
Kool and the Gang: Kool & the Gang: Twenty Years of Funk Foundation and Pop Permutation
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, April 1984
ROBERT "KOOL" Bell's father was a boxing man. He worked his trade on the upper west side, part of a neighborhood now long gone, Lincoln ...
Tina Turner: The Soulful Queen of Rock'n'roll Struts Back Into the Spotlight
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, September 1984
PRIVATE DANCER is Tina Turner's new album; 'I Might Have Been Queen' the first song; and it's hard to decide which title, album's or single's, ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Yoko Ono's Sweet Vindication
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, December 1984
ONCE YOKO Ono was the most unjustly maligned figure in I popular music; now that some measure of public sympathy has swung to her side, ...
Jesse Johnson: Jesse Johnson (A&M)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, 1985
WHEN A guitarist makes his reputation in Minneapolis, proceeds to write the hottest tune on the most recent Time LP ('Jungle Love'), plays his ass ...
Al Jarreau: Has The Adult Contemporary Songwriter Eclipsed The Jazz Singer?
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1985
FOUR JARREAU brothers grew up in Milwaukee. They all sang. Three still live there. "My older brother had a fine tenor voice," Al recalls. "The ...
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, April 1985
IT'S NOT terribly surprising that Alison Moyet's first solo record sounds like a modern pop evocation of 60s soul — after all, that's what everyone ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, June 1985
MORE CURIOUS CONNECTIONS: NEW ORLEANS BRASS MEETS SPOKEN WORD ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, June 1985
MORE CURIOUS CONNECTIONS: NEW ORLEANS BRASS MEETS SPOKEN WORD ...
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, June 1985
Industry of Mercy: Bruce & Tina lead a parade of mobilized mega-stars. ...
Marvin Gaye: Dream Of A Lifetime (Columbia)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, July 1985
JUST WHEN you thought it was safe to go back into the bedroom, here comes Dream Of A Lifetime, an appropriately kinky coda to the ...
Walter Becker, China Crisis, Steely Dan: Walter Becker: Dr. Wu Goes Hawaiian
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, September 1985
STEELY DAN'S MYSTERY MAN REAPPEARS ...
Joni Mitchell: Dog Eat Dog (Geffen)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, November 1985
Joni looks at dogs from both sides now: coyotes to curs to sheepskin wolves ...
The Rolling Stones: Ian Stewart: Like A Rolling Stone
Obituary by Mark Rowland, Musician, March 1986
IAN STEWART helped found the Rolling Stones, and he remained an integral member of that group until December 12, 1985, the day he died of ...
Prince & the Revolution: Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Rowland, Billboard, 14 June 1986
LOS ANGELES' renovated deco showpiece proved an appropriate setting for the May 30 Prince concert. The 90-minute "warm-up" engagement for his U.S. tour — slated ...
Stevie Wonder: The Forum, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Rowland, Billboard, 26 July 1986
THIS YEAR marks the 25th anniversary of Stevie Wonder's association with Motown, and this triumphant career retrospective proved a fitting celebration. ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, September 1986
FROM 'TENDER LOVE' TO 'NASTY', THEY'RE ALWAYS IN CONTROL ...
The Smiths: Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Rowland, Billboard, 27 September 1986
SMITHSMANIA HAS yet to erupt here on the scale that it has in England, the quartet's home. But if reaction to the second of two ...
Tina Turner: Mega Woman Conquers the World
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, October 1986
QUEEN TINA DOES NOT WANT ANY MORE POP, FUNK, REGGAE OR SOUL. QUEEN TINA WANTS TO ROCK 'N' ROLL ...
Miles Davis: Tutu (Warner Bros.)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, December 1986
TUTU IS A pop album. Tutu is a jazz album. Wait, you're both right! Tutu seems unlikely to pry many new converts from either camp, ...
Tony Bennett: "The Best Singer In The Business" — Frank Sinatra
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, December 1986
TONY BENNETT has recorded eighty-nine albums in a career spanning more than three decades, all on Columbia records. But his latest effort, The Art Of ...
Los Lobos: A Story of Survival
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, April 1987
YOU CAN'T say Los Lobos is special just because they've been together thirteen years, or because most of the band has known one another since ...
Tom Waits is Flying Upside Down (On Purpose)
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, October 1987
"IT'S ALWAYS the mistakes," Tom Waits is saying. "Most things begin as a mistake. Most breakthroughs in music come out of a revolution of the ...
NRBQ: Uncommon Denominators (Rounder CD); God Bless Us All (Rounder)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, March 1988
AFTER 20 YEARS, and typically without fanfare, NRBQ has gotten around to releasing their first live album, God Bless Us All, and first career retrospective, ...
Neil Young: Cruise Control: Neil Young's Lonesome Drive
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, June 1988
EVEN IN Los Angeles, where cool cars are as common as Taco Bells, you can't help but ogle the elegant black and chrome Caddy limo ...
Leonard Cohen's Nervous Breakthrough
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, July 1988
"I THINK IF I HAD ONE OF THOSE GOOD VOICES, I WOULD HAVE DONE IT COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY," Leonard Cohen ruminates. "I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE SUNG ...
Prince: Lovesexy (Warner Bros./Paisley Park); The Black Album (unreleased)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, July 1988
Taking It Back to the Streets ...
Randy Newman: Pop's Mark Twain Continues to Mix the Oil With the Vinegar
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, November 1988
EVERY FIVE years or so, Randy Newman gets a little famous. Back in 1972, he recorded 'Sail Away', a song that grew so much in ...
Guns N' Roses: If Guns N' Roses are Outlawed, only Outlaws will have Guns N' Roses
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, December 1988
"IF I'D GONE on through school," Axl Rose says, "I'd probably be a lawyer. Then I could take half the people who screw with me ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1989
HAL WILLNER, UNRIVALED KING OF THE "TRIBUTE" ALBUM, TURNS TO DISNEY ...
Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney: Elvis Costello in Love & War
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, March 1989
THERE'S A deceptive balm in the air, a bright December afternoon curdled by icy darts of breeze, as Elvis Costello and Cait O'Riordan stride along ...
Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt: Life Lessons: Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, August 1989
Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt find hope in a hard world. ...
Richard Thompson Rings Some Changes
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1990
The acoustic eclectic appreciates purists, but wouldn't want to be one ...
Soul II Soul: Jazzie B Keeps On Movin'
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, June 1990
JAZZIE B SAT near one corner of the crowded North Hollywood sound studio, watching the musicians casually file into the room and take their places ...
Billy Idol: Front Man: Billy Idol
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, August 1990
I KNOW you're still in rehab [note: Idol's left leg was severely injured in a motorcycle accident several months ago]. But with Charmed Life flying ...
Steve Earle Does It the Hard Way
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, October 1990
DRIVING WEST out of Nashville on a summer afternoon the hills look green and lazy, a deceptively pastoral view. "This is a poor county," Steve ...
Guns N' Roses: Slash: Appetite for Reconstruction
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, December 1990
Access to Excess with Guns N' Roses' Slash ...
Elvis Costello, Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead: Jerry Garcia and Elvis Costello: Strange Bedfellows
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, March 1991
AS EVERYONE knows, Grateful Dead fans come in all sorts and sizes — including one Elvis Costello. And so, when Musician got the idea of ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, July 1991
THE 'NICK OF Time' baby has arrived. "Everyone thought I was singing that song about me," Bonnie Raitt is saying. "But it was happening to ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, July 1991
Guilty pleasures are the best kind ...
Ice-T: The Code of Many Colors
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, August 1991
ON THE cover of Ice-T's new record, O.G. Original Gangster are two photos. In the first he's wearing a tuxedo, standing against a backdrop of ...
Tony Bennett: Forty Years — The Artistry of Tony Bennett (Columbia/legacy)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, September 1991
THERE'S NO ONE so cold as a cold Italian, the saying goes. And as this lovingly crafted, four-CD boxed set demonstrates, there's none so warm ...
Motley Crüe's Piece of the Action
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1992
WHAT A difference a decade makes. "When we started," Motley Crüe singer Vince Neil recalls, "we were so naive about the business that our first ...
Miles Davis, Easy Mo Bee: Miles Davis with Easy Mo Bee: Doo-Bop (Warner Bros.)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, June 1992
THE RAP ON MILES ...
Bob Dylan: Pantages Theatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, August 1992
THE UNITED States may be too vast a place for any one person to hold the title of greatest living songwriter. So let's be fair ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1993
LET'S BEGIN with Ice-T'S Top Seven reasons for pulling 'Cop Killer' off the shelves: ...
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: Michael Franti: Hero of Hiphoprisy
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1993
"ONE THING I try to do when I perform a song is go back to where I was in my mind when I wrote it," ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1993
NOT LONG ago, Tom Waits and his family uprooted from Los Angeles, his home for many years, and moved up the coast to the quieter, ...
R.E.M., Neil Young: The Men on the Harvest Moon: Young-Buck!
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, April 1993
OUTSIDE THE sky was dark and the rain was falling hard. But the pre-concert scene congealing toward the rear of Universal Studios stage 12 was ...
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, June 1993
IF PEOPLE get the governments they deserve, as the saying goes, they probably get the pop stars they deserve as well. It's a humbling angle ...
Victoria Williams' Sweet Visions
Profile by Mark Rowland, Musician, July 1993
VICTORIA WILLIAMS resides on the second story of a rustic, wood-framed house, with a back porch that overlooks a sloping garden full of giant chard ...
Joni Mitchell at Troubadours of Folk Festival: Drake Stadium, UCLA
Live Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, August 1993
FOR HER FIRST public performance in several years, Joni Mitchell found a way to affirm her spiritual ties to the folk music community whence she ...
Counting Crows: Music From Big Orange
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, November 1993
COUNTING CROWS SOWS SEEDS OF ROMANCE IN A WINTER OF DISCONTENT ...
Guns N' Roses: Frontman: Slash
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, February 1994
WHAT HAVE you been doing since The Spaghetti Incident? ...
Bonnie Raitt: Frontwoman: Bonnie Raitt
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, April 1994
FOR YOU, how does Longing in Their Hearts differ or break new ground from Nick of Time and Luck of the Draw? ...
John Fogerty, Randy Newman, Prince: Lenny Waronker: All In The Family
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, July 1994
Warner Brothers President Lenny Waronker is not your Average Corporate Cheese ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, August 1994
From Get Back to Backbeat Glyn Johns and Don Was Have Produced a Rock 'n'Roll Hall of Fame. ...
Report by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1995
IN 1994 PEARL Jam showed they weren't just the biggest band in America, they were the most revolutionary. Now that's a combination we haven't seen ...
Merle Haggard: Frontman: Merle Haggard
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, September 1995
YOU'VE BEEN the subject of two recent tribute records, Mama's Hungry Eyes and Tulare Dust. What was your reaction to hearing them? ...
David Bowie, Brian Eno: David Bowie & Brian Eno: The Outside Story
Interview by Mac Randall, Mark Rowland, Musician, November 1995
DAVID BOWIE AND BRIAN ENO EXPLAIN IT ALL FOR YOU — by Mark Rowland ...
Cypress Hill: Very Sane in the Brain
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1996
Cypress Hill survives the rap race ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, October 1996
TWO HOURS north of San Francisco, you can drive a country road that snakes past a redwood grove, into a driveway that curls around a ...
Harlan Howard: How I Wrote All Those Songs by Harlan Howard
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, November 1996
"I HIT NASHVILLE with the greatest bunch of guys — Roger Miller, Bill Anderson, Willie Nelson. We were hanging together every night at Tootsies, playing ...
Beck, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Beck meets Petty
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1997
Rockin', Writin', Survivin' in L.A. ...
Iris DeMent: Frontwoman: Iris DeMent
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1997
YOUR LAST record, My Life, was centered around the death of your father and felt very introspective. On The Way I Should, you address themes ...
fIREHOSE, The Minutemen, Mike Watt: Sideman: Mike Watt
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, December 1997
ALTHOUGH YOU'VE really been the leader on most of your band projects since the Minutemen, playing bass almost connotes the term "sideman." ...
Steve Earle: El Corazon (E-Squared/Warner Bros.)
Review and Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, December 1997
Slice of Life ...
Counting Crows, Natalie Imbruglia: Singing in the Rain
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, November 1998
Reflections on singing, with Natalie Imbruglia and Counting Crows' Adam Duritz. ...
Freedy Johnston learns to let go
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, April 1999
FREEDY JOHNSTON has this complicated relationship with control. He wants it over his music, for all the right reasons, but he knows from experience that ...
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