Bobby lives in the Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
area, and has played both professionally and semi-professionally since he was
12 years old. Although he has had some formal guitar and music education,
Bobby is largely self-taught through decades of practice, playing, and
voracious study of music theory.
Besides playing in several bands of his own, Bobby played on the Nashville
circuit for several years. He has performing with Tex Ritter,
Tex Williams,
Tommy Duncan (Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys), Pee Wee King (wrote the song
Tennessee Waltz), Stringbean (Hee Haw TV show), Ernie Ashworth, Freddie Weller
and Kathie Lee Gifford.
Long retired from the Nashville music scene, Bobby is by no means limited to
country guitar playing; he is an accomplished, stylistically diverse musician
who plays blues, rock, jazz, bluegrass, and pop fluently. His broad range of
influences
include Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, Django Reinhardt,
Joe Pass, and George Harrison.
Bobby is a thoroughly committed private instructor, teaching some 30 students
per week, and he also records a wide variety of clients in his private studio.
With Guitar Tricks since 2003, Bobby's clear, detailed lessons go from how to
hold a guitar and use a pick to his own chordal melody arrangements of public
domain songs.
