Bob Childers
Encyclopedia
Robert Wayne “Bob” Childers (born November 20, 1946, in West Union, West Virginia
- died April 22, 2008, Stillwater, Oklahoma
) was an American
country
/folk
singer-songwriter
who has achieved widespread critical acclaim since the late 1970s. Childers was known alternately as the "father" "grandfather" or "godfather" of the regional scene known as Red Dirt
music. Childers renown as a songwriter led to the comparisons to both Bob Dylan
and Woody Guthrie
. Childers contribution to the art of songwriting has been acknowledged by many critics but also his artistic peers.
when he was seven years old. He developed an interest in music and started playing guitar at age 16. After graduating from Ponca City high school he moved even further west and studied music in Berkeley, California
. After a stint in California, Childers returned to Oklahoma - this time to Stillwater - where he found "people interested in the natural and supernatural aspects of life and love, and folks not afraid to sing about it."
Childers emerged in 1979 with his debut album titled I Ain't No Jukebox which he recorded with help from friend Jimmy LaFave
. The album received many positive reviews and led Childers to begin touring nation-wide. In March 1979, the Three Mile Island
nuclear reactor disaster took place. Protestors of Three Mile Island, having heard Childers' song "Sunshine, Wind and Water," invited him to perform at a no-nukes rally in Washington, DC. Childers performed before Arlo Guthrie
and Pete Seeger
in front of a crowd estimated to be 65,000 to 100,000 persons. His second album, Singing Trees, Dancing Waters, was released in 1982. Success in the music industry lead Childers to relocate to Nashville, Tennessee
.
In 1986 Childers released two albums Four Horsemen, and a collection of instrumental works, King David's Lament. While many of his peers had success in Nashville, Childers chose to relocate to Austin, Texas
. He then released Circles Toward the Sun (1990). By 1991 Childers had relocated again, back to Oklahoma where he released Nothin' More Natural (1996), Hat Trick (1999) and a fan club collection of rarities La vita è bella - Outtakes, Demos and Jams 1980 - 1988 (2000.) His return to Oklahoma facilitated collaboration with other Red Dirt music artists including Dirt & Spirit with The Great Divide (1999), Two Buffalos Walking - Live At The Blue Door with Terry "Buffalo" Ware (2003), Kindred Spirits with Randy Crouch
(2004) and Ride for the Cimarron with Jason Boland and the Stragglers
(2006.)
In 2003 Jimmy LaFave produced a Woody Guthrie tribute show called Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway. The ensemble show toured around the country and included a rotating cast of singer-songwriters individually performing Guthrie's songs. Interspersed between songs were Guthrie's philosophical writings read by Childers, sometimes called the "Dylan of the dust", who served as the show's narrator.
By 2004 Childers health was in decline. A long time smoker, Childers suffered from numerous lung-related ailments including pneumonia
and COPD
, sometimes known as "lung disease." To help Childers with his medical bills, Chris Maxwell of Binky Records spearheaded an effort to raise funds. The result of that effort is a three-CD compilation, Restless Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Bob Childers, released in 2004. The collection features tracks from over 50 performers who donated versions of Childers' songs, recorded at their own expense.
and Tom Skinner. In an interview with The Current in 2007, Childers said of his songwriting, "I just keep it honest and keep it simple. There really is no secret to writing a song."
Even before the release of the tribute box-set Restless Spirits, Childers influence on other song writers was pervasive. The Tulsa World reported that Bob Childers songs have been recorded by more than 200 artists. Many musicians have stated that Childers served as a mentor. Bassist-guitarist Bob Wiles said of Childers, "He was the first older, respected musician to take us
seriously, probably when we didn't deserve it. And he encouraged us to take ourselves seriously. He's done that with a lot of bands. Bob is that common thread through us all." When asked what it was like to be a mentor to so many aspsiring singer-songwriters, Childers said, "I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. It makes me try a little harder, knowing that people are being influenced. It makes me try to do right a little bit more."
Childers was a regular at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
held every July in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. At the 10th annual festival in July 2007, seven "10-year artists" - artists who had participated every year since the festival's inception - performed at a benefit show titled "In the Spirit of Woody Guthrie". Those artists were Jimmy LaFave
, Don Conoscenti, Ellis Paul
, Joel Rafael
, Terry "Buffalo" Ware, the Red Dirt Rangers, and Childers.
In 2008, a special pre-festival Childers tribute show was held at Cain's Ballroom
in Tulsa on July 8, 2008, the evening before the official start of the festival. Performers at the tribute included Jimmy LaFave, The Burns Sisters
, The Red Dirt Rangers, Mike McClure, Joel Rafael, Stoney LaRue
and Tom Skinner. In addition, the festival program booklet included a special Bob Childers Memorial Page, and quotes made by his songwriting friends were interspersed as tributes throughout. The Tulsa World announced that Childers would be inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in October 2008 at a gala to be held in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The induction ceremony, held at the Muskogee
Civic Center, took place on October 8, 2008. The Red Dirt Rangers and Tom Skinner accepted the award on behalf of Childers.
West Union, West Virginia
West Union, incorporated July 20, 1881, is a town in Doddridge County, West Virginia. The population was 806 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Doddridge County. The mayor is Robert Fetty as of 2011. The town is located along Middle Island Creek at the junction of U.S...
- died April 22, 2008, Stillwater, Oklahoma
Stillwater, Oklahoma
Stillwater is a city in north-central Oklahoma at the intersection of U.S. 177 and State Highway 51. It is the county seat of Payne County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 45,688. Stillwater is the principal city of the Stillwater Micropolitan Statistical...
) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
/folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
who has achieved widespread critical acclaim since the late 1970s. Childers was known alternately as the "father" "grandfather" or "godfather" of the regional scene known as Red Dirt
Red Dirt (music)
Red Dirt Music is a music genre that gets its name from the color of soil found in Oklahoma. Although Stillwater, Oklahoma is considered to be the epicenter of Red Dirt music, there's a Texas Red Dirt sound as well. Outlaws Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson are associated with that distinctive...
music. Childers renown as a songwriter led to the comparisons to both Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
. Childers contribution to the art of songwriting has been acknowledged by many critics but also his artistic peers.
Biography and Works
Childers, the son of Howard and Rhea (Gaskins) Childers, moved with his family from West Virginia to Ponca City, OklahomaPonca City, Oklahoma
Ponca City is a small city in Kay and Osage counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, which was named after the Ponca Tribe. Located in north central Oklahoma, it lies approximately south of the Kansas border, and approximately east of Interstate 35. 25,919 people called Ponca City home at the...
when he was seven years old. He developed an interest in music and started playing guitar at age 16. After graduating from Ponca City high school he moved even further west and studied music in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
. After a stint in California, Childers returned to Oklahoma - this time to Stillwater - where he found "people interested in the natural and supernatural aspects of life and love, and folks not afraid to sing about it."
Childers emerged in 1979 with his debut album titled I Ain't No Jukebox which he recorded with help from friend Jimmy LaFave
Jimmy LaFave
Jimmy LaFave is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician born in Wills Point, Texas, a small farming community located near Dallas. At a young age, LaFave's family moved to the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, Texas where he attended junior high and high school. By the early teens LaFave was...
. The album received many positive reviews and led Childers to begin touring nation-wide. In March 1979, the Three Mile Island
Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....
nuclear reactor disaster took place. Protestors of Three Mile Island, having heard Childers' song "Sunshine, Wind and Water," invited him to perform at a no-nukes rally in Washington, DC. Childers performed before Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
and Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
in front of a crowd estimated to be 65,000 to 100,000 persons. His second album, Singing Trees, Dancing Waters, was released in 1982. Success in the music industry lead Childers to relocate to Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
.
In 1986 Childers released two albums Four Horsemen, and a collection of instrumental works, King David's Lament. While many of his peers had success in Nashville, Childers chose to relocate to Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
. He then released Circles Toward the Sun (1990). By 1991 Childers had relocated again, back to Oklahoma where he released Nothin' More Natural (1996), Hat Trick (1999) and a fan club collection of rarities La vita è bella - Outtakes, Demos and Jams 1980 - 1988 (2000.) His return to Oklahoma facilitated collaboration with other Red Dirt music artists including Dirt & Spirit with The Great Divide (1999), Two Buffalos Walking - Live At The Blue Door with Terry "Buffalo" Ware (2003), Kindred Spirits with Randy Crouch
Randy Crouch
Randy Crouch is an Oklahoma-based multi-instrumentalist. In eastern Oklahoma, Crouch is best known as a fiddle player. Although he has been referred to as "the world's best rock fiddler," Crouch also plays guitar and pedal steel among other instruments.-Biography:Growing up the son of a...
(2004) and Ride for the Cimarron with Jason Boland and the Stragglers
Jason Boland & the Stragglers
Jason Boland & the Stragglers are an American Texas Country/Red Dirt group featuring Harrah, Oklahoma native Jason Boland , Roger Ray , Brad Rice , and Grant Tracy...
(2006.)
In 2003 Jimmy LaFave produced a Woody Guthrie tribute show called Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway. The ensemble show toured around the country and included a rotating cast of singer-songwriters individually performing Guthrie's songs. Interspersed between songs were Guthrie's philosophical writings read by Childers, sometimes called the "Dylan of the dust", who served as the show's narrator.
By 2004 Childers health was in decline. A long time smoker, Childers suffered from numerous lung-related ailments including pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
and COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , also known as chronic obstructive lung disease , chronic obstructive airway disease , chronic airflow limitation and chronic obstructive respiratory disease , is the co-occurrence of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, a pair of commonly co-existing diseases...
, sometimes known as "lung disease." To help Childers with his medical bills, Chris Maxwell of Binky Records spearheaded an effort to raise funds. The result of that effort is a three-CD compilation, Restless Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Bob Childers, released in 2004. The collection features tracks from over 50 performers who donated versions of Childers' songs, recorded at their own expense.
Tributes and Legacy
Five years prior to his death, Childers was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Awards Red Dirt Hall of Fame along with Steve RipleySteve Ripley
Steve Ripley is a recording artist, songwriter, studio engineer, guitarist, and inventor. He has been active in the music business since 1977...
and Tom Skinner. In an interview with The Current in 2007, Childers said of his songwriting, "I just keep it honest and keep it simple. There really is no secret to writing a song."
Even before the release of the tribute box-set Restless Spirits, Childers influence on other song writers was pervasive. The Tulsa World reported that Bob Childers songs have been recorded by more than 200 artists. Many musicians have stated that Childers served as a mentor. Bassist-guitarist Bob Wiles said of Childers, "He was the first older, respected musician to take us
seriously, probably when we didn't deserve it. And he encouraged us to take ourselves seriously. He's done that with a lot of bands. Bob is that common thread through us all." When asked what it was like to be a mentor to so many aspsiring singer-songwriters, Childers said, "I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. It makes me try a little harder, knowing that people are being influenced. It makes me try to do right a little bit more."
Childers was a regular at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival is held annually in mid-July to commemorate the life and music of Woody Guthrie. The festival is held on the weekend closest to July 14 - the date of Guthrie's birth - in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. Daytime main stage performances are held indoors at the...
held every July in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. At the 10th annual festival in July 2007, seven "10-year artists" - artists who had participated every year since the festival's inception - performed at a benefit show titled "In the Spirit of Woody Guthrie". Those artists were Jimmy LaFave
Jimmy LaFave
Jimmy LaFave is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician born in Wills Point, Texas, a small farming community located near Dallas. At a young age, LaFave's family moved to the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, Texas where he attended junior high and high school. By the early teens LaFave was...
, Don Conoscenti, Ellis Paul
Ellis Paul
Ellis Paul is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. Born in Aroostook County, Maine, Paul is a key figure in what has become known as the Boston school of songwriting, a literate, provocative and urbanely romantic folk-pop style that helped ignite the folk revival of the 1990s...
, Joel Rafael
Joel Rafael
Joel Rafael is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician from San Diego County, California.Described as a natural interpreter of Woody Guthrie's lyrics and music, Woodyboye, Rafael's second volume to celebrate the songs of Woody Guthrie, was released on Appleseed in 2005. The first volume,...
, Terry "Buffalo" Ware, the Red Dirt Rangers, and Childers.
In 2008, a special pre-festival Childers tribute show was held at Cain's Ballroom
Cain's Ballroom
Cain's Ballroom is a historic music venue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, built in 1924 to serve as a garage for one of Tulsa's founders, Tate Brady. Madison W. "Daddy" Cain purchased the building in 1930 and named it , where he charged 10¢ for dance lessons. The academy was the site of the Texas Playboys'...
in Tulsa on July 8, 2008, the evening before the official start of the festival. Performers at the tribute included Jimmy LaFave, The Burns Sisters
The Burns Sisters
Folk, pop and rock are given a Celtic slant by Ithaca, New York-based vocalists the Burns Sisters. Accompanied by Rich DePaolo's guitar, Eric Aceto's fiddle and their own guitar and mandolin, the three sisters—Annie, Marie and Jeannie—harmonize with heartfelt spirit...
, The Red Dirt Rangers, Mike McClure, Joel Rafael, Stoney LaRue
Stoney Larue
Stoney LaRue is a Texas Country/Red Dirt artist. Born in Taft, Texas, LaRue was raised in Southeastern Oklahoma and began playing country music at a young age....
and Tom Skinner. In addition, the festival program booklet included a special Bob Childers Memorial Page, and quotes made by his songwriting friends were interspersed as tributes throughout. The Tulsa World announced that Childers would be inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in October 2008 at a gala to be held in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The induction ceremony, held at the Muskogee
Muskogee, Oklahoma
Muskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh-largest city in Oklahoma....
Civic Center, took place on October 8, 2008. The Red Dirt Rangers and Tom Skinner accepted the award on behalf of Childers.
Further reading
- Galleywinter discussion forum. Rest In Peace Bob Childers the grandfather of Red Dirt Music. April 22, 2008.
- Wooley, John. Jimmy LaFave, Red Dirt's Austin Ambassador. Tulsa World, Jan. 4, 2002. Retrieved Aug. 5, 2008.