Andrew Rowan Summers

{{short description|American lawyer}}

Andrew Rowan Summers (December 15, 1912– March 1968) was an American folk singer and player of the Appalachian dulcimer.{{cite web|title=Andrew Rowan Summers|url=http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/andrew_rowan_summers|publisher=Rate Your Music|accessdate=11 June 2015}} He is credited with a large role in preserving Appalachian music from extinction.{{cite book|author=Douglas Summers Brown|title=The Office|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pi0TAAAAYAAJ|year=1970|page=5}} Summers was among the earliest musicians to draw attention to the dulcimer to a wider audience outside the Appalachians, with John Jacob Niles being one of the few earlier.{{cite book|author=Bob Coltman|title=Paul Clayton and the Folksong Revival|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GVoIAQAAMAAJ|year=2008|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-6132-9|page=94}}

Summers was born in Abingdon, Virginia in 1912, and enrolled in the University of Virginia in 1930.{{cite book|author=Ray McKinley Lawless|title=Folksingers and folksongs in America: a handbook of biography, bibliography, and discography. Illustrated from paintings by Thomas Hart Benton and others, and from designs in Steuben glass. 1st ed|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8oowAQAAIAAJ|year=1960|publisher=Sloan and Pearce|page=220}} Despite his interest in music, he ended up getting a degree in law, working as an attorney and later teaching at New York University.{{cite book|author=David Bonner|title=Revolutionizing Children's Records: The Young People's Records and Children's Record Guild Series, 1946-1977|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ekAAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA69|date=26 November 2007|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-1-4617-1938-0|pages=69–}}