The music was never supposed to stop so suddenly and tragically.
Thirty-five-year-old Patrick Bowman, a 2001 Columbus North High School graduate, was driving into Columbus with his fiancee on Jan. 27, 2018, to meet some friends at the Columbus Bar after spending the day before recording vocals for a new album under his stage name Tilford Sellers.
In a catastrophic chain-reaction accident, a tow truck plowed into the back of Bowman’s car on Jonathan Moore Pike on Columbus’ west side at 7:40 p.m. that night, killing Bowman and severely injuring fiancee Sarah Fliehman. It was a collision so severe that family members were advised not to view the car the two were traveling in after the accident.
Consumed with grief and pain, Bowman’s parents continue to struggle with the loss of their music-loving son more than a year after his death.
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But when they were approached at the funeral home by one of his friends and bandmates known as the Wagon Burners about the recordings, the chance to keep Bowman’s musical legacy alive became a possibility.
“As parents, you always think your children will be here to remember you,” said his mother, Judy Bowman, as she rested her hand on one of the vinyl albums that now carries her son’s voice and songs. “I want him to be remembered. This is to preserve his memory.”
The new album, “Another Day With You,” features 10 original songs that Bowman wrote and performs along with one cover — the entire project finished through the efforts of his family and bandmates who stepped in to finish the songs that their friend had started. The recordings they started with were Patrick singing accompanied by his acoustic guitar in a Bloomington studio.
That original recording has been preserved in an accompanying Tilford Sellers CD called “Switchyard South Sessions,” named for the recording studio where Patrick recorded the acoustic tracks that were used for “Another Day with You.”
The band and Bowman’s family are hosting a record release event from 4:30 to 10 p.m. Thursday at Columbus Bar in downtown Columbus, at which the album will be available in color vinyl, black vinyl and CD. Bowman’s band will play at the event starting at about 7 p.m. in an alley next to the bar, and Adam Lee, who played Johnny Cash in the musical “Million Dollar Quartet” in Chicago, will also perform.
A second record release event is at 8 p.m. Aug. 24 at Duke’s in Indianapolis, a bar that opened after Bowman’s death, but the venue has been described by his friends as something “Patrick would have loved,” his father said.
A way to remember
The vocals on the initial recording, which Judy and her husband Rick described as just “rough vocals” as the first step in the recording process, were discovered by Ryan Payton, who plays pedal steel, electric guitar, dobro, mandolin, harp and piano with Patrick.
When Payton told them about the recordings, they said they had no idea that Patrick had the workings of an album already prepared, and did not know how, or if, it could be finished.
“Ryan felt is was a calling,” his mother said. “He recruited more talent in Bloomington, and with Patrick’s band-mates, the recordings began to take shape.
The album was sound engineered by Paul Mahern of Mahern Audio in Bloomington, who has worked on projects for John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Neil Young.
Patrick, performing as Tilford Sellers, and his bandmates were traditional country all the way, preferring rockabilly and classic honky-tonk tunes to anything the new country music market could ever offer. He had been just been nominated for the 2018 Ameripolitan Awards for best honky-tonk male performer.
“That nomination was huge for him,” his father said. The award went to Luke Bell just 17 days after Patrick’s death.
“We used to say he was born 30 years too late,” his father said of his Patrick’s musical heroes — Hank Williams, George Jones, Johnny Cash and even Buck Owens.
“Not everybody could play Buck Owens, but Patrick could,” Judy Bowman said.
“Patrick used to say the music was always in his head — he would come up with a new song — the tune would come first. He used to tell me, ‘the music is in here and it has to come out,’ “ his father said.
Patrick had a huge vinyl album collection of classic country music, she said. Patrick’s dream was eventually going to Nashville to further his music career.
Using handwritten notes to guide the arrangements and instruments, the band members used Patrick’s guitars in finishing his recording. They were available only because Patrick had left his gear with Payton the day of the accident, instead of his usual practice of packing it into his car trunk, his father said.
The Bowmans were invited in and the musicians played the songs with different versions, asking which version they preferred — with fiddle or without?
The process was somewhat simplified in that Patrick had talked about the songs with his friends and they “tried to stick with what Patrick would have wanted,” his mother said.
Although Judy Bowman still dissolves into tears when talking about her son, she laughed when remembering her insistence that Patrick take piano lessons for a year before allowing him to get his first guitar in the sixth grade — a year of piano that he “absolutely hated,” she said.
Before giving his heart to honky-tonk, Patrick embraced the punk music scene during his high school days, going on a tour to Chicago, Baltimore and other cities with his band Lenore Syndrome.
At Patrick’s funeral, one of his bandmates from that trip said she considered it the best time of her life, traveling with the band in a van all those years ago.
Eerily, some of the song titles on the album seem to foretell the grief and pain that followed Patrick Bowman’s death, leaving such an emptiness. The first track is “It’s Wrong You’re Gone” followed by “Tanker Full of Tears.”
While the album is entitled “Another Day With You,” the last track on the album,” the author’s favorite track on the album is probably “She’s Coming Home,” according to his parents.
In his memory
Utilizing resources available at the Heritage Fund — The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, the Bowmans set up the Patrick Bowman Memorial Music Fund in their son’s memory, and hope to use the proceeds from the sale of the album to bolster that total.
In a nod to their son’s continuing passion of pursuing a music career, the fund provides grants for musicians up to age 35 who are playing Patrick’s genre of music and need help with music, lessons, travel, gear, touring, recording fees — all the things Patrick worked for before his tragic death.
The Bowmans asked for donations to the fund in lieu of flowers and pledge that 100 percent of the proceeds of each record, CD or album download will go into the fund to help other musicians.
“We want to preserve Patrick’s memory with his music,” his mother said. “I don’t think there is ever closure. But this is working toward something positive. We want to do something positive in his memory.”
Patrick’s parents said a copy of the album will be sent to the Library of Congress where it will be in a searchable location for people to discover.
“People can start to remember Patrick for his music,” his mother said. “We are blessed to have this.”
As the album liner notes say, Patrick is playing the acoustic guitar on all the album tracks of “Another Day With You.”
“…If you listen closely, you might be able to hear the pearl snap buttons of his sleeve occasionally hitting the guitar,” his bandmates wrote.
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Two album release events are planned for the Tilford Sellers releases "Another Day With You," and a second CD called "Switchyard South Sessions," which is just Patrick Bowman and his acoustic guitar.
The first is at Columbus Bar, 322 Fourth St., Columbus.
When: 4:30 to 10 p.m. Thursday; featuring at 7 p.m., Patrick Bowman’s bandmates performing along with a performance by Adam Lee, who performed as Johnny Cash in the musical "Million Dollar Quartet" in Chicago.
A second album release is planned at Duke’s, a honky-tonk venue and neighborhood pub at 2352 S. West St., Indianapolis, at 8 p.m. Aug. 24.
All proceeds are being donated to the Patrick Bowman Memorial Music Fund, which benefits musicians pursing Bowman’s genre of music to help with recording, equipment and other expenses.
Album prices: $15-$20 for CDs to $25-$30 for vinyl.
The album will also be available soon at tilfordsellers.net.
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To learn more about the Patrick Bowman Memorial Music fund, visit heritagefundbc.org/patrick-bowman-memorial-music-fund.
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