In North Carolina, if you're a music fan of any stripe, you know the name John Howie Jr. John is a singer and writer who grew up in a trailer in the Wake County woods. He's a Chapel Hill stalwart inevitably bound for the NC Music Hall of Fame. He plays country music - straight, no chaser, with the soulful baritone of a backwoods Barry White.

His current outfit, John Howie Jr and the Rosewood Bluff, is beloved by fans, critics, and fellow musicians. His previous band,