John Dowling

John Dowling is a British banjo player. Dowling was born in Cornwall, England. He won first place at the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2000 with his band the Black Cat Theory, and went on to become the first European ever to win first place at the USA bluegrass banjo championship held at Winfield, Kansas. In 2007, he was featured as a master class tutor in a BBC1 reality series Play It Again along with Mark Knopfler, Jools Holland and Courtney Pine. He is a published author with Faber Music, and has toured extensively both in the UK and Europe. Over the years he has become a popular choice at weddings, not only for his uniqueness, but his professionalism and subtlety in making a wedding shine, especially during a drinks reception. John was originally noticed for traditional foot tapping Bluegrass tunes but, as a modern and serious instrumentalist, he has also taken the Banjo places where it would not normally be found, including contemporary songs, Jazz, and most recently arranging Classical Concertos for Banjo.