Bobby Bridger (born Robert Durham in

Columbia, Louisiana Columbia is a town in, and the parish seat of, Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 390 as of the 2010 census, down from 477 in 2000. History The land that became Columbia was first cleared by Daniel Humphries in 1827. ...

March 14, 1945) is a singer/songwriter/poet/actor/playwright/author and painter who for three decades has traveled the globe performing a trilogy of one man shows for audiences in America, Canada, Europe, Australia and Russia. He has recorded numerous albums for labels including

Monument Records Monument Records is an American record label in Washington, D.C. named for the Washington Monument, founded in 1958 by Fred Foster, Buddy Deane (a prominent Baltimore disc jockey at WTTG), and business manager Jack Kirby. Buddy Deane soon left ...

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

and Golden Egg Records. On television he appeared twice (1976 and 1978Asleep at the Wheel followed by Bobby Bridger
Austin City Limits, 1978) on the early years of

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

's "

Austin City Limits ''Austin City Limits'' is an American live music television program recorded and produced by Austin PBS. The show helped Austin become widely known in the United States as the "Live Music Capital of the World", and is the only television show t ...

", on American Experience on PBS, and on ABC's "

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

", A & E and

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

, as well as on

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

on radio. He is the composer of "Heal In The Wisdom", the official anthem of the

Kerrville Folk Festival The Kerrville Folk Festival is a music festival held for 18 consecutive days in the late spring/early summer at Quiet Valley Ranch near Kerrville, Texas. The Kerrville Folk Festival was founded in 1972 by the husband-wife team of Rod Kennedy an ...

for over 40 years. Bridger has been an artist-in-residence at the

Buffalo Bill Historical Center The Buffalo Bill Center of the West, formerly known as the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, is a complex of five museums and a research library featuring art and artifacts of the American West located in Cody, Wyoming. The five museums include the ...

in Cody, WY., the

Eugene O'Neill Theater Center The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit theater company founded in 1964 by George C. White. It is commonly referred to as The O'Neill. The center has received two Tony Awards, the 1979 Special Awa ...

Waterford, CT Waterford is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. It is named after Waterford, Ireland. The population was 19,571 at the 2020 census. The town center is listed as a census-designated place (CDP) and had a population of 3,07 ...

, the John G. Neihardt Center in Bancroft, NE and

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...

. Bridger starred in

Dale Wasserman Dale Wasserman (November 2, 1914 – December 21, 2008) was an American playwright, perhaps best known for his book for Man of La Mancha. Early life Dale Wasserman was born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, the child of Russian immigrants Samuel W ...

's groundbreaking musical, Shakespeare and The Indians and was featured with

David Carradine David Carradine ( ; born John Arthur Carradine Jr.; December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) was an American actor best known for playing martial arts roles. He is perhaps best known as the star of the 1970s television series ''Kung Fu'', playi ...

and

Will Sampson William Sampson Jr. (September 27, 1933 – June 3, 1987) was a Muscogee painter, actor, and rodeo performer. He is best known for his performance as the apparent deaf and mute Chief Bromden, the title role in ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' ...

in the drama

Black Elk Speaks ''Black Elk Speaks'' is a 1932 book by John G. Neihardt, an American poet and writer, who relates the story of Black Elk, an Oglala Lakota medicine man. Black Elk spoke in Lakota and Black Elk's son, Ben Black Elk, who was present during the tal ...

. Full company productions of Bridger's Seekers of the Fleece ran for eight consecutive summer seasons in

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

. He is the author of the award-winning book, ''Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing The Wild West'' (), An Autobiography, Bridger (), Where theTall Grass Grows (), and A Ballad of the West and contributed essays to anthologies on western icons Frank Waters and John G. Neihardt as, ell as numerous magazine and newspaper features. He is the subject of the documentary film "Quest Of An Epic Balladeer" and a DVD production of live performances of his trilogy of one man shows was released in 2005. He is the 2016 recipient of the John G. Neihardt Foundation's prestigious "Word Sender" Award. In 2019 Bridger produced an audiobook of Vine Deloria Jr.'s classic, The World We Used to Live In: Remembering the Powers of the Medicine Men.

External links

Bobby Bridger on Rag Radio, November 18, 2011
interviewed by

Thorne Dreyer Thorne Webb Dreyer (born August 1, 1945) is an American writer, editor, publisher, and political activist who played a major role in the 1960s-1970s counterculture, New Left, and underground press movements. Dreyer now lives in Austin, Texas, whe ...

, with live performance [56:33)
Bobby Bridger on the Lasting Impact of Native American Culture
by

, ''The Rag Blog'', March 15, 2012. Includes podcast of March 9, 2012, Rag Radio interview with Bobby Bridger (57:00).

References

1945 births Living people American male singer-songwriters People from Columbia, Louisiana Singer-songwriters from Louisiana {{US-singer-songwriter-stub

Further reading

External links

References