Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys Legends and Lies And More by Bobby Bare @ ARTISTdirect.com

Returning to RCA after a stint at Mercury Records, Bobby Bare teamed up with songwriter Shel Silverstein for 1973's Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies. The idea of the record is clearly laid out in the title -- this album is a collection of American tall tales and myths, all filtered through Silverstein's signature humor (sometimes silly, sometimes clever, sometimes sentimental, sometimes slyly lewd) and delivered with Bare's signature warm, friendly manner. Although Bare had recorded a song or two of Shel's before, this was the first time that he devoted a full album to his material. But more noteworthy is that this album finds the singer developing a loose, offhand way of performance that emphasizes both his character and the freewheeling eclecticism of his music. Musically, it's not far removed from his Mercury records, where his progressive country rubbed shoulders with pop, rock, and folk, but his laid-back, open-ended performances let the music breathe, while the Silverstein songs give the album cohesion and an overt, welcome sense of humor. All this helped reignite Bare's career, giving him a new signature sound that carried him through the next few years, until he left RCA for Columbia, where he just got rowdier. It was also the biggest album of his career, spending 30 weeks on the -Billboard country charts (where it peaked at number five), with a number one hit in "Marie Laveau" and a number two single in "Daddy What If." Years later, it still stands as one of his very best -- maybe it didn't produce classics like "Detroit City," nor does it have the brilliant highs of some earlier and later records, but song for song, Bare was rarely this consistent or enjoyable. [In 2007, RCA/Legacy reissued Lullabies, Legends and Lies as a double-disc deluxe edition. The original album is on the first disc while the second disc is devoted to Silverstein covers Bare recorded over the '70s and early '80s, including highlights from the riotous Down N Dirty album ("Numbers" and "Tequlia Sheila"). It's an excellent supplement, making an already essential album even better.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

MP3 Downloads

What's Hot from ARTISTdirect

All Music Guide Review

Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies (And More) User Reviews

Red Tunic Troll

posted on Fri, 07 Dec 2007 10:15:33

Grand expansion of Bare and Silverstein's first collaboration

The lengthy artistic collaboration between country singer Bobby Bare and author/poet/cartoonist/songwriter Shel Silverstein began in earnest with this 1973 LP. At the time, Bare had been regularly charting country hits for fifteen years, and Silverstein had found great success as a songwriter with the Irish Rovers (1968's "The Unicorn") Johnny Cash (1969's "A Boy Named Sue"), Loretta Lynn (1971's "One's on the Way"), and Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show (1972's "Sylvia's Mother"). Bare himself covered "Sylvia's Mothers" and rode it to #12 on the country chart and subsequently invited Silverstein to write him a theme album. Bare self produced the album in the Spring of 1973.

Silverstein's witty, humorous and ultimately affectionate songs found a terrific interpreter in Bare. As a singer who could be arch and coy at the same time, Bare explored both the warmth and tongue-in-cheek nature of Silverstein's works. Recorded in-studio in front of a small group of family and friends, Bare's spoken word introductions and the audience's laughter provides continuity between tall tales of Paul Bunyan, voodoo, magic, swamps, bikers and robots. The album's hits include the tale of a New Orleans voodoo queen, "Marie Lavaux," a duet with Bare's then five-year old son Bobby Jr., "Daddy What If," and a bluesy tune of brawling, "The Winner."

RCA Legacy's 2007 reissue adds a second disc that includes Bare's earlier version of "Sylvia's Mother," which isn't nearly as bombastic as the Silverstein-produced version by Dr. Hook, and a sampling from the next eight years of Bare/Silverstein collaborations on RCA and Columbia. Highlights include the children's chorus accompanying "Singin' in the Kitchen," the ironic prophesy of "Brian Hennessey," and the touchingly sad, "This Guitar Is For Sale." There are bank robberies, marriages and paroles gone awry, a eulogy, and a male chauvinist's comeuppance among songs drawn from seven different Bare albums of the '70s and '80s.

Bare's in great form throughout, spinning yarns with a smile and a hint that there's some truth to be found amid the fanciful stories. Silverstein found other singers to connect with his material, but never anyone who connected so fully or for so long as Bare. The double CD set is housed in a tri-fold digipack with a 24-page booklet that includes the original liner and song notes, a new essay by Rich Kienzle and over a dozen photos. [©2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]

Bobby Bare

Browse Artists