
15-year-old mandolinist and songwriter Wyatt Ellis rang in 2025 with the release of Winds of Rowan County, a double-sided, limited-edition 45 RPM vinyl single, featuring Wyatt alongside music icon Peter Rowan.
Like an instant classic, Winds of Rowan County sounds like you’ve heard it before. About halfway through the opening instrumental, Peter’s vocal floats over the lush melody, as if haunting the hills and dales of Rowan County. As Peter’s voice drifts away, like a melancholic wind vanishing in the distance, the tune briefly returns to an instrumental format. Peter’s singing returns, his ululations bringing the song to a close.
Rowan, who has been a mentor and champion of Wyatt for many years, describes what makes the young musician unique: “Wyatt’s understanding of the music goes way beyond mechanical; he intuits the ancient tones!“
Peter has described the ancient tones to me as he learned them from Bill Monroe: “It wasn’t that you hear the ancient tones, and so you go and try to make them. You make the music, and the ancient tones emerge. You follow the musical rules, but you’re not invested in them. The ancient tones emerge from the application of selflessness.”
According to Wyatt…
“I originally wrote Winds of Rowan County as an instrumental when I was 13, right after playing mandolin at Peter Rowan’s induction into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2022. In 2024, just before we were set to go into the studio, Peter emailed me from Ireland, saying that he was hearing lyrics to the tune, and asked if I’d be interested in hearing them. Of course, I said yes.
We worked out a verse and chorus together in the studio, creating an ‘instrumental sandwich’—my music framing Peter’s lyrics. Since then, we’ve been writing a bunch via email and over the phone.
We’ve even worked up a few more verses to Winds of Rowan County. When we first worked up the lyrics, Peter had some verses that would’ve taken more time to add. The vibe was that of a man in prison longing for his bride, but we didn’t really work in the extra verses at the studio.
Who knows what the future might hold for the song and the tale it could tell?”
I wrote an article for Bluegrass Today in 2022 called Turtle on a Fence Post. The title came from Peter’s Bluegrass Hall of Fame induction speech. Humbly thanking the many excellent musicians he’s played with, Peter said, “If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know that someone helped him get there.”
And Wyatt, in a similar manner, knows that the support he’s received from Peter and the bluegrass community has been pivotal to his career.
This collaboration reflects one of the most precious things about bluegrass—honoring the past by building a bridge to the future. Winds of Rowan County honors Rowan’s legacy while passing the torch of “old-school” bluegrass to Wyatt, one of the genre’s newest flame-keepers.
Issued on Wyatt’s own Knee-High Records, side A features Winds of Rowan County, paired with side B, a cover of Bill Monroe’s Memories of You, produced by Grammy nominated multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Christopher Henry.
Winds of Rowan County has been added to Spotify’s New Grass and Amazon Music’s Fresh Folk & Americana playlists. The single can be purchased on 45 RPM vinyl from Wyatt’s web site, or digitally from popular download and streaming services online.
Radio programmers will find the tracks at AirPlay Direct.