Biography
I began learning guitar in 1967, inspired by the guitar and vocal work of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. I am grateful that almost all of my folk-singing friends in college and graduate school were fingerstyle players.
I grew up in Amarillo, TX; attended Brown University, Providence, RI. I immediately entered Princeton Theological Seminary, and was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1975. I served pastorates in Quanah, TX; Pryor, OK; Denton, TX; Chili, NY; and Honeoye Falls, NY. I retired in 2015. Since 1998, I dedicated my music to providing benefit concerts in the Rochester, NY area, and prior to the COVID pandemic raised almost $57,000 of benefit funds. I have been a member of the Golden Link Folk Singing Society since 1992. I served as President in 1996/97 (the year of GL's 25th anniversary), and again in 2017 to 2022 (including GL's 50th anniversary). When my term ended, I told the Board, "I will only be 97 when the 75th anniversary comes around." I served for four years as Artistic Director for our annual Turtle Hill Folk Festival. One of the true pleasures of my life is those years of getting to know the phenomenal people who graced our Festival stage. I have led workshops on "Fingerstyle for People Who Have Never Tried It," "Simple Ways to Embellish Your Playing," "How to Make Someone Else's Song Your Own," and "There is Exciting Territory Beyond the Third Fret." Try as I might, I don't seem to have the songwriting gift. I consider myself a "song finder," on the theory that if I don't find songs, learn them, arrange them, and play them most people will never hear them. It is ironic that the current singer/songwriter culture forgets that up until people like Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel, songwriting was not very well accepted. This song-finder is more than grateful for the welcome that PFMS has offered.
I "found" the Portland Folk Music Society in 2022, and have been grateful for that connection. Thankfully, virtual media shortens the 2706 miles between us. When I clicked onto the Song Circle the first time, the first words I heard were from Dave Mongeau: "Well, Val Fowler. That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Welcome." I knew Dave when he attended the Golden Link sing arounds, prior to moving West.
I am hoping to attend the 2024 Singtime festival, so that the "Hollywood Squares" faces will become real-time faces, and real-time friends.