Rowland Salley
| Roly Salley | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Rowland Salley |
| Born | November 2, 1949 |
| Origin | Belvidere, Illinois |
| Genres | Rock, rock n' roll, roots rock |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, bass guitar |
| Associated acts | Chris Isaak |
| Website | www.rowlandsalley.com |
Rowland Salley (born November 2, 1949) is an American musician, songwriter and artist, sometimes called Roly Salley. Salley is a bass guitarist and vocalist for Chris Isaak's band Silvertone. His best-known tune is "Killing the Blues", which has been covered by John Prine, Chris Smither, Shawn Colvin, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and most recently Shooter Jennings and Billy Ray Cyrus in 2015. As a band member for Chris Isaak, he was a regular on The Chris Isaak Show. Salley resides in California with his long term girlfriend from Australia.
Salley was born in Belvidere, Illinois. He began playing bass in high school and was kicked off the track team for having long hair. He has written, "the timing of events is what often moves somebody. One of those events came for me in the form of a monster tornado that hit our high school one sunny Friday afternoon in the springtime [21 April 1967]. There was death and destruction and though I wasn't consciously trying to flee the place or the characters of my town... there was a lot that I wanted to try in my lifetime... [and] I ought to set about it before another "tornado" came along." His first move was to Madison, Wisconsin where he started a band. He then moved to . He got work as a session musician working with such performers as Maria Muldaur, John Sebastian and Paul Butterfield. He later moved to Toronto where he played with such performers as David Wilcox and Ian and Sylvia. Later, he moved to Los Angeles where he backed up such singers as Bobbie Gentry and Joan Baez. He moved to San Francisco in 1983. Two years later, he met Chris Isaak and has performed with the Silvertones ever since.
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