bobby bare

Home folks think I'm big in Detroit city,
From the letters that I write they think I'm fine,
But by day I make the cars,
by night I make the bars,
If only they could read between the lines

Bare knows a good song when he hears one. He championed Tom T Hall, Townes van Zandt, Kristofferson, Silverstein, Bob McDill before the rest of Nashville took notice. His son is a fine songwriter too.

"The bike is all fixed and my little boy's in bed asleep
His little old puppy is curled in a ball at my feet
My wife's baking cookies to feed to the Bridge Club again
I'm almost out of cigarettes and Margie's at the Lincoln Park Inn"

same here. i was happy to see this thread.

i also like how steadfastly folk-like the song is, with its incessant repetition of the title phrase and its short melody lines.

i was reading elsewhere on ilm a comment by frank kogan about bare's 2005 album, and how in spots in successfully revived certain qualities of 1960s/70s countrypolitan. especially the sort of "background" use of a chorus, which frank intriguingly related to the sort of obvious distinction between background and foreground elements he associates with 1950s graphic design. "500 miles" seems to exemplify what frank is referring to. the chorus never exactly intrudes onto the central vocal performance; it serves to set it off. it's very low in the mix.

ive been looking for calgary snow for years...

there is something about bares stuff that i always clump into the outlaw camp (his hardness, his sadness, his restlessness) (oddly enough amazon agrees w. me) why is he considered countrypolitian?

look for jerry lee lewis's cover of detroit city, its hard.

i think he's somewhat known for bridging the two camps, at least aesthetically--nashville countrypolitan and "outlaw" country. anyway, the "outlaw" movement is generally dated to the 1970s, while much of bare's major work was done in the 1960s, when willie nelson (for example) was still in nashville cutting "countrypolitan" records.

anyway, certain production qualities of his best records definitely link up to the "nashville sound"--i suspect that they were record with the same session players as worked on the major records identified with this sound.

Fun fact: Bare was a participant in this year's Norwegian selection final for the Eurovision Song Contest, partnering up with some other dude. They finished third.

http://g.api.no/obscura/pub/298x1000r/04173/1329041281000_tooji20120212_4173568298x1000r.jpg

(Bare second from left.)