Bobby Bare Jr.

With a big-as-the-room persona, an ability to rock the doors off the most jaded of clubs, the heart to hold a room completely still with just his guitar, and a genius for arrangement, Bobby Bare, Jr. and his band of merry makers are one of the most unique bands around. They are adept at abandoning common sense in favor of laying themselves at the feet of a rambunctious, freewheeling, and unfettered and unhinged muse. Few that we have found can combine humor, pain, and anger in such an effortlessly well-crafted manner. If encountered in public, beware: Bobby is a big, gregarious, good-natured fellow who will giddily talk music (from the Smiths to Roger Miller to Metallica to Dolly Parton--sometimes in one breath) until the bartender is tossing you both out. From his first release on Bloodshot, Bobby has testified as one of the most innovate songwriters and performers, content on warping the classic Nashville sound and embracing the eccentric. Bare has been known to pair up with some of the most unlikely suspects to contribute to his sound, including everyone from Shel Silverstein to Duane Dennison of Jesus Lizard to Andrew Bird.