Biography:

THERE REALLY WAS FAMILY & TRADITION SURROUNDING SWEET WATER JUNCTION BAND, TOUCHING THE PAST, PRESENT & THE FUTURE ...Sweet Water Junction Band is proud of its history. In fact, there is so much history to this family band that it can’t all be written here. This page will go back to the very start of this band's musical journey. It all started w/ David McDowell’s father Porter McDowell. On February 29, 1916, Porter was born in the small community of Patesville, Kentucky. Porter was raised with three brothers & two sisters & got his education working in the family coal mine. During the Great Depression at the age of 15, Porter left home by hopping a freight train (a common practice during the Depression) & joined the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) in Seattle, Washington.This was one of President Roosevelt's New Deal plans to help people help themselves during the harshest of economic times. After a few years in Seattle, Porter set out for the Midwest, he worked his way through Chicago, IL & in 1936 ended up in Fort Wayne, IN.There he found a multitude of work & called for his family to move up from Kentucky to this “prosperous” industrial city. Porter had started playing homegrown bluegrass music with his family when he was a child in Kentucky. Those days of the front porch gatherings produced some awesome talent that still influences our music today. Remember there was no television in those days & only the well-off could afford a radio, so a community would gather at a neighbor’s house & entertain one another. After arriving in Ft Wayne Porter decided to work with a band to make some extra money & that was the start of a legend. By 1949 Porter was working with bands that opened doors & future possibilities for his son, David, as he started his music career. Porter played many times w/ Joe Taylor & the Indiana Redbirds and also joined up with Slim Adams as the Midwestern Trio. They played countless times on the historical live Chicago radio station WLS, for the National Barn Dance. The group including Porter, was also a regular every Saturday morning on Ft Wayne, IN’s WOWO live country music program & radio station WANE. The Midwestern Trio, played w/ some of the legendary greats from those days like Roy Rogers, George Jones, Tex Ritter, Little Jimmy Dickens, Carl Smith, Porter Waggoner, Roy Acuff & Ferlin Husky to name a few. He played many times at the historical Buck Lake Ranch, Angola, IN, known as the "Nashville of the North". Porter was also a Co-Writer of a song that Tex Ritter had charted in 1951. Also in 1951 Porter who just happened to be in Nashville “in the right place at the right time”, was given by Leo Fender of the Fender Corporation, the 3rd Fender Bass off his assembly line for him to try out publicly as a country Bassist. It was a Fender Precision Bass, the 3rd of its kind. The first is in Leo's Possession with the second one still in the factory. Interestingly enough, several later years Porter lost that same bass in a poker game! Being one of the early pioneers of Country Music Porter's name was in the Old Country Music Hall of Fame before the fire & subsequent move. When you would listen to some of the stories that Porter had to share you could hear history in the making. He used to say “We traveled with a five-piece band in a 1941 Packard Hearse w/ my old stand-up bass fiddle stuffed in the back”. My, how times have changed. Porter McDowell is the Grandfather of the Sweet Water Junction Band. If you take the time to listen to this excellent family’s music, you will hear the product of those seeds he planted so many years ago. History is still in the making... the beginning of a family tradition that's still alive today. Porter's son, David, born 6/11/52, was surrounded by the musical influence of his father as he grew. In 1960 at 9 yrs old his dad handed him his old Gibson Archtop guitar & showed him three chords in the key of "C". They were “C”, “F” & “G”. Then he started taking lessons from Shorty Cook who was from the Music Manor in Ft Wayne, IN.  He was the founder of The "Down Homers" a group Bill Haley performed in before he formed Bill Haley & The Comets, a nationally popular rock & roll band that toured with Elvis Presley & Buddy Holly. In 1964 Dave's life was changed forever w/ the appearance of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. He was 11 yrs old & enthralled w/ this new cultural music. He sat down w/ his record player & played along w/ the "fab four" until he knew every note they were playing. He was sure his parents were upset w/ this new direction he was heading & probably wished they had missed the Ed Sullivan Show that night. One indicator of this was that his Mom decided it was time for him to take lessons on the keyboard & even sat down to teach him the lap steel guitar. The truth was that he excelled at both of these instruments, but his first love was still the guitar. About this same time Dave's dad & he was going to his Uncle Tom’s house faithfully every Saturday night & playing together until sunrise each Sunday morning. Dave would stand in on the guitar along w/ his Uncle Tom, any guest singers or musicians & his Dad who played bass guitar. This went on for several years & Dave attributes his learning guitar to Shorty Cook & those wild nights of family music. The year 1970 was a turnaround year for Dave. He was almost 18 yrs old, a product of the 1960's revolution mentality & you might say at that point not to easy on his parents or any other authority figure for that matter. He had left home early & joined up w/ a touring Hippie group called Count Five. They were a bunch of guys in their late 20’s that played Rock music from the 1950’s to current releases of Psychedelic Rock ...AS space does not allow here, to Conti this history go to official website at: http://www.sweetwaterjunctionband.com/david.htm