TUSCUMBIA-The Alabama Music Hall of Fame will honor Edwin “Peck” Rowell on Saturday, July 19, 2014 at 1:00 p.m. with an Achiever’s Display Unveiling and Book Signing. The public is invited to attend.
For every artist appearing on stage there are many individuals that have made that appearance possible. People that teach, support, and expose the talents of these artists, and Edwin “Peck” Rowell will be recognized as such with an unveiling of an exhibit at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame July 19 at 1 p.m.”. said Dixie Connell Griffin, Manager. He will be available to sign his book, “A Place I Couldn’t Leave.”
A native of Loachapoka, AL, Rowell has spent much of his life entertaining people in the east central Alabama
community and offering the opportunity of future stardom to those working with him. Among those who passed through Rowell’s band on their way to Nashville were Mike Johnson, who is the reigning Academy of Country Music Steel Guitar Player of the Year, Charlie Whitten, who worked with Martina McBride and the Judds, Jimmy Peppers, Joe Gibson, Lamar Morris, and his son Ernie Rowell, bass player and front man for George Jones, Ray Price and Mel Tillis.
As the youngest of nine children, Peck grew up on a farm, in a family with a strong musical heritage. His father taught him guitar, and his grandfather taught him fiddle.
Edwin “Peck” Rowell
After his discharge from the Air Force at the end of WWII, Rowell began play in a band put together for parties and special occasions. This led to him forming The Covered Wagon Boys, which he fronted for the next 32 years. The Covered Wagon Boys played for 10 years at “The Wagon Wheel” in Opelika; Rowell then built the Blue Creek Recreation Center on Lake Martin. He operated the venue for 22 years, bringing in many of the stars of Country music to headline shows. Some of the stars that performed were Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Mel Tillis, Connie Smith, Charlie Louvin, Ray Price, Bill Anderson.
Rowell was also a country music disk jockey, working a five year stint at WJHO radio in Opelika in the early 1950s. He was recognized for his work as “Deejay of the Week” by WSM radio in Nashville.
Peck Rowell spent a lot of time over the last couple of years completing a book telling his life story. It chronicles simple country life in Loachapoka, Al. It tells how he influenced the music of his time-recording, playing, writing, and promoting what he loved-country Music. Although he loved Nashville, he could never leave home to chase that dream, even as he encouraged countless others to do just that-even his own son.
MEDIA RELEAS/ALABAMA MUSIC HALL OF FAME/Dixie Connell Griffin
