Urban Pioneers interview with Gloria Rowland Anderson, July 20, 2007

Recording of an interview by Polly Stewart with Gloria Rowland Anderson, a participant in the Utah folk music scene of the 1960s. Jennifer Bott [now Bateman] served as sound engineer. Transcript by Laura R. Marcus [now Green]. One of the interview recordings that Polly Stewart and Jennifer Bott conducted for the Utah Folk Music Revival Oral History Project, 2004-2011

Gloria Rowland grew up in a Mormon family in Floyd County, Virginia. She was musically talented--while still in elementary shool, she regularly performed on a TV station, WDBJ, the Hayden Huddleston Show. In high school she sang with Doug Wilson and the Trail Dusters on TV; and joined a Virginia country string band "The Greenwood Singers." After high school she and and her brother made a bold decision to leave Virginia and move out to the west attending Brigham Young University at Provo, Utah. During her college years, when folk singers like Joen Baez became well known, Ms. Rowland made a shift from singing popular songs to folk songs, and reconnonected to her roots by singing her family repertoire of Virginia hill songs. Despite she felt being a second class citizen as a woman in the bluegrass music scene, and being repressed by the political sensorship at BYU, she enjoyed her college years and made meaningful connections with many Musicians. After getting married to Hans Anderson, sha had 8 sons, all of whom play music instruments. About 30 years later, she ended her marriage , and became independent from LDS church, however she remains close to her family and friends who are still active LDS members. She recently teamed up with McRay Magelby and Peter Netka to formed a band called Rosewood Tio for the performance at the Utah Urban Pioneers Reunion Concert, Jan 24, 2007