Bob:  Hope all is well with you.  Dad died but mom is doing great.  WE are listening to your cd  tonite and just having a great time.  How do we contact you.   The CD we are listening to is Bob Bodle in a former life.
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I bought in a former life a few years ago and it is so good, on so many levels, that i keep checking back for  a new alum but nothing,,,c'mon Bob.  Would you please make another, "I could listen  to for hours" record.  Like Distant Thunder to name just one of many
You are appreciated!
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I first learned of Rob Bodle from his trio, Warren, Bodle, & Allen.  Rob's influences make him more of a contemporary singer/songwriter, like a David Wilcox, than the trio's bluegrass and folk leanings.  This is a great mix of songs!  Some are downright funny, like the SUV Song, and others are really poignant and well-crafted.  Great performances and a fantastic sounding record.  Rob has got an honest voice--it allows him to deliver lines alternately knee-slap and heartbreak and have both work equally well.  I really like this CD.  
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When I got this CD in the mail I read Rob’s letter, a humble intro and request for a review. He wrote that this was his first solo CD and he was “simultaneously thrilled, proud and petrified.”  He has every reason to feel the first two and the third is simply unfounded. Bodle, part of the long-standing folk trio Warren Bodle & Allen, needn’t worry. His first effort is warm and beautifully produced and won’t be received with anything but deserved praise and fine reviews. 

There is something to be said for the simplicity of a good yarn and fine accompaniment. Bodle knows a good lyric line when he writes one, and like any good songwriter, he knows how to meld melody and an emotive delivery with harmony and balance of instrumentation. It’s all over every track of this 12-song collection. I wasn’t surprised to find that the most excellent multi-talented Rob Seals produced these tracks. If I had to compare Bodle’s style, I’d immediately pick Harry Chapin, who had the skeleton key to nearly every kind of folk doorway. Bodle isn’t as weighty as Chapin, though. I love his use of vegetable metaphoric and home-down simplicity to convey his message of “this is what I am” on “Something Different” – “I’m hopelessly romantic in an Muldar-Scully kind of way” is one excellent line. And Bodle’s inviting lead vocals even sound like Chapin somewhat, dusted with a bit of James Taylor, John Denver and a bit of sweet southern bluegrass. 

The CD was produced at Here2Hear studios and features guest spots by Scott Manring, Louis Allen, John Warren and Eddie Walker to name a few. Suffice it to say, Bodle has got the stuff to be a much bigger fish in the folk pond, and we’ll let him go as long as he comes back to the local swimmin’ hole every so often.  

– Allison King
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