| Other Info | Hometown: Nashville, TN
"What's most remarkable about Bare's songs is how effortlessly catchy they are...The only real curiosity about Bare's career to date is that he hasn't yet become a big name in modern rock--the kind of artist whose every album is awaited with the eager anticipation that greets the latest from Spoon or the Shins." —Nashville Scene
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.
In the late 90’s, he fronted the boss hog rock band, Bare Jr. With their two records, Boo-tay and Brainwasher, they memorably rocked out on a Nirvana-on-Skynryd-not-Sabbath groove, more indebted to the homebrew than "The Other H." These days he keeps himself even busier by appearing on albums by indie rock heroes like the Silver Jews and Frank Black and My Morning Jacket.
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.
Look, we LOVE Bobby's records and we want people to hear them. Maybe our descriptions are making you scratch your head or are scaring you off. Forgive us, his music is ahead of its time and we are not sure what to say about it. All the years we all wasted getting English degrees are powerless in coming up with suitable words to describe his projects. When someone around the office is absent-mindedly whistling a tune, chances are real good that it's, "I'll Be Around" or "Valentine" or "Borrow My Cape." Bobby's music is ample proof that commercial radio wouldn't know a genre-bending smash hit if it ran up and bit it in the ass, and, if radio programmers weren't all neutered corporate lapdogs, his songs would be in the broad canon of rock. Sample some tracks on the site, and see if you agree.
"Bare works the audience like a carnival barker who also happens to write tender, honest songs that move the room to awed silence. Do not miss the opportunity to catch the healing power of this band live, who will put a smile on your face and drink one with you after the show." —Upstate Link
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