CULVER CITY NEWS: BOB, WHEN DID YOU START SINGING AND WRITING?
Bob Lind: Before most of your readers were an active impulse in their parents’ neurons. I was probably seven or eight. Back then, you couldn’t download or YouTube songs you liked. You had to wait until they came on the radio. There were some songs I liked right away. I wanted to sing them. I had a good melodic sense so I would grasp the tunes right away, but I couldn’t always get all the lyrics the first or second time I heard the records. So I would walk around singing the songs and make up words to the parts I didn’t know. When I finally heard the real words, I always liked my words better. Later, age 11, I learned to play guitar. It seemed like a small stretch from making up missing lyrics to actual songwriting. I started scratching out my own melodies and making up ALL the words.
DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND…
That’s not up to me to. I don’t describe it at all. I just do it. Other people can describe it if they want to.
WHO ARE YOUR MAIN INFLUENCES?
There are zillions of singers who made me want to sing. And many others who made me glad that’s what I wanted to do. Gene Autry and Roy Rogers started me off. And early Burl Ives (before that wimpy “Little Bitty Tear” and “Holly Jolly Christmas” stuff). Back when I first heard him, he was a folk singer. He had balls. One of the few tenors who didn’t sound weak and effeminate to me. Later I heard others like Jesse Colin Young and Jackie Wilson, but this was in the ‘40s and pop singers had this stick-up-the-ass rigidity in their voices. Burl Ives was strong and intimate. I was five or six and my parents had his “Wayfarin’ Stranger” album. I had never heard anyone play guitar with his fingers. And that fascinated me.
WHAT IS YOUR BEST GIG TO DATE? AND WORST?
How can I answer that? I’ve done scads of both — mostly good. Anytime I can get in front of an audience that loves my work, that’s a great gig. Right this moment, the one that leaps to mind as one of the best is my induction in 2013 into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. But there were all kinds of emotions enhancing that. Being back where it all started, being introduced by Al Chapman who gave me my start in music around the Denver coffee house circuit, playing for people who have loved and supported me for five decades…. That was heady and beautiful. (There’s a clip of it up on YouTube). As far as the worst. you have to play some awful dives for some horrible audiences in order to develop your chops. But once you learn how to stand on a stage and deliver the goods there are few bad gigs. That said, one of the worst in recent memory is my lead-off show at the Troubadour Reunion in 2014, I think it was. I was looking forward to playing it. I got there early and I was originally scheduled to go on midway through. But Larry Murray, the M.C. came to me in a panic and said, “So-and-So, our lead act can’t make it. Would you PLEASE do me a favor and step in.” I said yes and went on first. People were still flooding in from the bar, shaking hands, renewing old acquaintances and hadn’t settled into hearing music. So I sang into a frothy sea of conversation. It reminded me of the old days when I started out in noisy bars. Not a happy experience.
DO YOU HAVE ALBUMS / SINGLES / DOWNLOADS AVAILABLE?
Of course. The best ones are the last two: “Finding You Again” and “Magellan Was Wrong.”
HAVE YOU PLAYED BOULEVARD MUSIC BEFORE? DO YOU LIKE PLAYING CULVER CITY?
Never. I’ve played all over the L.A. area but not recently. Looking forward.
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE SET?
My best.
WHEN THIS SHOW IS DONE, WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR?
I’m concentrating on my plays for the rest of the year. Two of them are going into production in South Florida next season. I’m shopping another one around and working on a new one.
Bob Lind performs at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14 at Boulevard Musi, 4316 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City; 310-398-2583; ticket price is $17.50.