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RIP Tim Lowman of Low Volts, Blackout Party, etc
His band San Diego Music Awards included Best New Artist, Best Blues Album, and Best Americana
"We lost Tim [Lowman] very suddenly, early this morning," posted 91X Loundspeaker co-host Timothy Joseph on Facebook on Sunday, December 28. He and Lou Niles dedicated the evening's program to Lowman, well-known from popular local acts such as Low Volts and Blackout Party. Lowman reportedly died from injuries sustained when his motorcycle collided with an SUV on Pershing Drive near Balboa Park at around 1:40AM. Paramedics responded quickly, but Lowman died before he could be transported to a hospital. He was 51 years old.
Timothy Scott Lowman's great-grandfather J. Warren Lowman (aka Doc Lowman) was a Missouri gospel singer and record collector who wrote a book about how he escaped the electric chair (as detailed in the documentary film Doc:Lowman). Born and raised in Los Angeles, the younger Lowman says his mother sent him to live with his dad in Boulder, Colorado.
At the beginning of December, Lowman posted a BandCamp video for the Low Volts track "The Dove (Off the Family Christmas Tree," which he described as "My Xmas tune based on our true, Colorado family Christmas tale many moons ago. I'm on guitar, vocals and percussion and Mike Butler engineered, mixed and played baritone guitar and lap steel."
Lowman's project Low Volts was essentially a one-man band. “It’s just me, a kickdrum, an old guitar and a microphone," he told The Reader. "Kind of a cross between early Elvis and Evel Knievel.” Lowman also played flute.
When Low Volts released Twist Shake Grind Break in 2011, the band took home San Diego Music Awards for Best New Artist and Best Blues Album, while Lowman’s other group Blackout Party won the Best Americana award for their debut album Bottom of the Sea. In 2012, Low Volts won Best Local Recording at the SDMAs. In October 2013, they took home the Best Rock SDMA trophy.
In early 2014, as Low Volts, Lowman recorded a song heard on the “Liege Lord” episode of the CW network’s TV show Reign. “I basically imagined what Low Volts would sound like 500 years ago and wrote it on instruments similar to that time in musical history," he told the Reader. "Mandolins, hand drums, flute harmonies, and dark, mysterious vocal tracks. I had no idea what the scene would be before it aired. I had never even heard of the show before.”
Lowman said he was surprised by the action accompanying “Deep Within the Forest.” “The song was set to a scene in a Scottish brothel where, just as things are getting heated up, the door is busted open, someone gets brutally murdered by a wooden stake to the neck, and the entire place gets torched to the ground!” That wasn't his only soundtrack credit. The comedy Super Troopers 2 features the Blackout Party song "All My Friends," alongside tracks by Low Volts and occasional Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy.
Around 2016, Lowman moved to Nashville with his Blackout Party bandmate, singer/songwriter Brian Holwerda. Lowman was by then performing as Low Volts, although he eventually returned to San Diego, while Holwerda stayed in Tennessee.
Lowman told The Reader that, during his time in Nashville, developers came in like a “greed-fueled tornado, flattening all the charming brick homes…it is now the same cost as living in San Diego, minus the ocean.” Lowman says he came back for a San Diego New Year’s Eve show, and decided to move back. “I believe it’s crucial not only for musicians, but as humans to travel and absorb cultures and values from other parts of the country and the world.”
Over the years, Lowman's emerging worldliness included getting married to local singer Dani Bell, and becoming a dad. He was also known for his graphic design work for companies like South Coast Surf Shops, creating and working on album covers, T-shirt graphics, menus, logos, and what he described as "polishing up weird AI graphics."
Music, however, was always at the forefront as his ongoing lifelong passion. Lowman was known for his gifted songwriting, with local guitarists giving him particular props for the way he was able to tune his guitars so low that it almost sounded Sabbath-like. “With that low, open tuning," he told The Reader 2012, "I can emulate bass, rhythm, and lead at the same time. The lowest string is tuned to C#. I have to change strings after every show, and the frets get destroyed due to excessive vibration, but it’s worth it to me for that swampy tone.”
“I definitely treat my gear better than most humans. Most of my gear is very rare or customized...I pinstripe my guitars and paint my amps to create something different than what the masses have. I even have an old chrome hood ornament on my kick drum.”
Local Falling Doves bandleader Christopher Leyva remembers "I last saw Tim at the Casbah, and I should have made time to catch up but I left quickly, this fucking sucks man. At our age, we must always say hello! This goes down our collection of friends that will burn a hole inside our heart."
Here's something you might be interested in.
RIP Tim Lowman of Low Volts, Blackout Party, etc
His band San Diego Music Awards included Best New Artist, Best Blues Album, and Best Americana
RIP Tim Lowman of Low Volts, Blackout Party, etc
His band San Diego Music Awards included Best New Artist, Best Blues Album, and Best Americana
"We lost Tim [Lowman] very suddenly, early this morning," posted 91X Loundspeaker co-host Timothy Joseph on Facebook on Sunday, December 28. He and Lou Niles dedicated the evening's program to Lowman, well-known from popular local acts such as Low Volts and Blackout Party. Lowman reportedly died from injuries sustained when his motorcycle collided with an SUV on Pershing Drive near Balboa Park at around 1:40AM. Paramedics responded quickly, but Lowman died before he could be transported to a hospital. He was 51 years old.
Timothy Scott Lowman's great-grandfather J. Warren Lowman (aka Doc Lowman) was a Missouri gospel singer and record collector who wrote a book about how he escaped the electric chair (as detailed in the documentary film Doc:Lowman). Born and raised in Los Angeles, the younger Lowman says his mother sent him to live with his dad in Boulder, Colorado.
At the beginning of December, Lowman posted a BandCamp video for the Low Volts track "The Dove (Off the Family Christmas Tree," which he described as "My Xmas tune based on our true, Colorado family Christmas tale many moons ago. I'm on guitar, vocals and percussion and Mike Butler engineered, mixed and played baritone guitar and lap steel."
Lowman's project Low Volts was essentially a one-man band. “It’s just me, a kickdrum, an old guitar and a microphone," he told The Reader. "Kind of a cross between early Elvis and Evel Knievel.” Lowman also played flute.
When Low Volts released Twist Shake Grind Break in 2011, the band took home San Diego Music Awards for Best New Artist and Best Blues Album, while Lowman’s other group Blackout Party won the Best Americana award for their debut album Bottom of the Sea. In 2012, Low Volts won Best Local Recording at the SDMAs. In October 2013, they took home the Best Rock SDMA trophy.
In early 2014, as Low Volts, Lowman recorded a song heard on the “Liege Lord” episode of the CW network’s TV show Reign. “I basically imagined what Low Volts would sound like 500 years ago and wrote it on instruments similar to that time in musical history," he told the Reader. "Mandolins, hand drums, flute harmonies, and dark, mysterious vocal tracks. I had no idea what the scene would be before it aired. I had never even heard of the show before.”
Lowman said he was surprised by the action accompanying “Deep Within the Forest.” “The song was set to a scene in a Scottish brothel where, just as things are getting heated up, the door is busted open, someone gets brutally murdered by a wooden stake to the neck, and the entire place gets torched to the ground!” That wasn't his only soundtrack credit. The comedy Super Troopers 2 features the Blackout Party song "All My Friends," alongside tracks by Low Volts and occasional Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy.
Around 2016, Lowman moved to Nashville with his Blackout Party bandmate, singer/songwriter Brian Holwerda. Lowman was by then performing as Low Volts, although he eventually returned to San Diego, while Holwerda stayed in Tennessee.
Lowman told The Reader that, during his time in Nashville, developers came in like a “greed-fueled tornado, flattening all the charming brick homes…it is now the same cost as living in San Diego, minus the ocean.” Lowman says he came back for a San Diego New Year’s Eve show, and decided to move back. “I believe it’s crucial not only for musicians, but as humans to travel and absorb cultures and values from other parts of the country and the world.”
Over the years, Lowman's emerging worldliness included getting married to local singer Dani Bell, and becoming a dad. He was also known for his graphic design work for companies like South Coast Surf Shops, creating and working on album covers, T-shirt graphics, menus, logos, and what he described as "polishing up weird AI graphics."
Music, however, was always at the forefront as his ongoing lifelong passion. Lowman was known for his gifted songwriting, with local guitarists giving him particular props for the way he was able to tune his guitars so low that it almost sounded Sabbath-like. “With that low, open tuning," he told The Reader 2012, "I can emulate bass, rhythm, and lead at the same time. The lowest string is tuned to C#. I have to change strings after every show, and the frets get destroyed due to excessive vibration, but it’s worth it to me for that swampy tone.”
“I definitely treat my gear better than most humans. Most of my gear is very rare or customized...I pinstripe my guitars and paint my amps to create something different than what the masses have. I even have an old chrome hood ornament on my kick drum.”
Local Falling Doves bandleader Christopher Leyva remembers "I last saw Tim at the Casbah, and I should have made time to catch up but I left quickly, this fucking sucks man. At our age, we must always say hello! This goes down our collection of friends that will burn a hole inside our heart."
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