Memphis, and he started playing in bars and nightclubs with much older musicians. They used to sneak him in the back door and hide him behind an upright piano where no one could see how young he was. Sowell also played a lot of sock hops. He joined his first band, the Red Notes, an instrumental group, in 1959. His parents' house hosted many jam sessions for area musicians. Many successful professional musicians have come out of Frayser suburb of Memphis, and Sowell has picked with most of them. Around the age of 16 the British Invasion meant Sowell had to adapt to a new kind of music, in which the organ was a more prominent instrument than the piano. Sowell played in numerous groups in the 1960s. In 1966 he won the Mid-South Fair and was scheduled to appear on Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour on CBS Television, but before he could go there, he was drafted and served in the Vietnam War, and his music career was put on hold, although he played while in the military, NCO and Officers Clubs, winning talent shows. After the war and a bout with alcoholism, Sowell got back on the right track. He returned to his first love, the piano, playing and recording in an easy-listening style. Later life Bobby Sowell has been performing music professionally from 1959 to the present day. In 2010, he formed a new blues band, Coldwater Revival (CWR). He is actively performing solo gigs or with the band, recording new music. Discography Natural High (1996) Country Gold Tribute (1999) Falling Waters (2014) a Tendre Merci (2015) Ricky's Got The Blues (2015) Many Colors of Tennessee (2016) A Simpler Life (2017) Sleepy bubbles (2017) Keep In Touch (2017) Oh Me, Oh My (2017) Let There Be Light' (2017) Selected reading Bobby Sowell Rockabilly Biography: Bob Timmers (2002) The Memphis garage rock yearbook, 1960-1975 Ron Hall (2003), Memphis Blues Musicians: Amazon.com'' (2010) References External links "Rockabilly Hall of Fame" "Induction Certificate" 1947 births Living people American country pianists American country rock singers American country singer-songwriters Memphis blues musicians American rockabilly musicians American blues pianists American male pianists American blues singers People from Memphis, Tennessee Singer-songwriters from Tennessee Southern Baptists 20th-century American pianists Baptists from Tennessee Country musicians from Tennessee 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians American male singer-songwriters