A simple, plain website (not at all like the type I design and build) to keep me in contact with the outside world and for it to keep in contact with me.
Reach me by email here.
Short Bio
- Born in Toronto (sorry, I can’t help that!) and raised in the years I can remember on Castlefield Avenue until I was twelve. Had a year of piano and three years of cello to get me started in music performance.
- Summers at cub, scout, and Y camps in the Kawarthas, Haliburton Highlands, and Georgian Bay areas of Ontario. Two summers as a counselor at Camp Kandalore got me two life-long friends. Paddling the Saugeen River from Walkerton to Southampton each Victoria Day weekend.
- Teen years in the beautiful city of Guelph, where I taught myself guitar, went to GCVI, and regularly hitch-hiked to Toronto to visit my grade school buddies, attend concerts, and go to Sam the Record Man. Worked the kitchens of both Guelph hospitals during high school.
- One year in Calgary in 1976 where “They’ll give you a job if you have a pulse.” the year after dropping out of high school before completing Grade 13.
- Spent a few months at both Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY (Music Studio Engineering) and the Ontario College of Art (Photographic Art).
- One year back in Guelph, working at the photo lab of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food on the University of Guelph campus.
- A move to Edmonton in 1978 (where I knew pretty well nobody) when I was 20 to once again offer my pulse and get a number of jobs, trying to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
- Fathered my lovely daughter, Wendy, who was adopted by my then-girlfriend’s sister and brother-in-law.
- Bought four acres west of Edmonton in the County of Parkland with an aim to live the “Harrowsmith lifestyle.”
- Built (partly with my own hands) a passive solar home in 1983 on the acreage and named the place “Hovelhill” for the derelict farm buildings that stood on it. I also got married and had my fantastic son, Christopher.
- In the same year, I landed a “career job” at Moore Business Forms in Edmonton.
- In 1988, after divorcing my “test wife” a couple of years earlier, I married Jean Tait, who’s put up with me until now — at least, last time I checked.
- After six years of the corporate game, I set out on my own and began Aurora Bar Code Technologies, a firm dedicated to providing system solutions that employed the nascent technology of bar coding.
- Lived on the acreage for 30 years and then sold it and became a “townie” by moving to Spruce Grove.
- Happily worked occasionally as a performer in the Edmonton area, as a solo act or with the trio I started, Meridian Line.
- Lived the small-city life for nine years until Jean and I got fed up with Alberta and being in the same place so long and moved to Williamswood, Nova Scotia. There, we found friendly folks, crazy weather, and a small lake at the bottom of our property where I can swim and launch my canoe into.
- Have a lovely daughter-in-law and son, Christopher, who live in the Macedon Range area of Australia (NW of Melbourne) with our two grandchildren.
Photo Gallery
Purely for informational purposes — and to elicit perhaps a few laughs — here are some photos of my taken over the many decades of my existence on the planet.
Meridian Line v3 with Rick Diesbourg and Rik Cormier (my two "side-ricks")
Meridian Line v2 with Rick Diesbourg and Angie Draude
Ian Bowden c. 1988 featured in an Edmonton business publication shortly after starting Aurora Bar Code Technologies Ltd.
Ian Bowden c. 2014
Well, if I can't have long hair, maybe a long beard? Nope.
Me at 3 c. 1961
Ian Bowden and Bill Werthmann c. 2021
Ian Bowden c. 2017 - just before I cut my hair
Merdian Line v1 with Cindy Pearce and Rick Diesbourg c. 2011
Esks' playing card - Ian Bowden - I had season tickets for 41 years with the Eskimos/Elks
