Album Notes

This Bob Evans IS NOT a well known restaurant chain. This Bob Evans IS an award winning, Canadian finger-style guitarist. He combines an eclectic mix of contemporary finger-style guitar and traditional roots music along with a warm vocal style, tilted sense of humour and down to earth stage presence to provide a refreshing performance experience.

Since returning to performing at the “turn of the century” he has performed throughout Canada, the United States, Taiwan and Britain.

In 2003 Bob won the prestigious U.S. National Fingerpicking Champion title in Winfield, Kansas, having placed 3rd in the same competition the year before. He became only the second Canadian to have won the title in the 25 years of the competition, the other being the well known guitarist Don Ross.

His latest recording is 4 on 6, a collection of arrangements and reinterpretations for solo guitar of 12 classic songs by The Beatles. It has been nominated for Outstanding Instrument Album in the Western Canadian Music Awards that will be awarded October 19, 2008.

4 on 6 follows his two previous CDs on the Acoustic Tonic Music label, The Voice in the Grain was nominated for nominated Best Instrumental Recording at the 2004 Western Canadian Music Awards and 2005 Canadian Folk Music Awards. Caffeinated Coffee won Outstanding Instrumental Album at the 2000 Canadian Music Awards.

A performer in the Canadian music scene for over 30 years, Bob originally pursued a musical career in the mid-70’s. With a wide-ranging mixed repertoire of traditional ballads, classic piano rags arranged for guitar, bluegrass, jug band and swing music, he performed at festivals and folk clubs across the country and appeared on national radio and television. He recorded extensively during this period, including two solo albums (featuring a similar eclectic mix of musical styles) and was featured on two compilations of international ragtime guitarists on the guitar-based label Kicking Mule Records. He also wrote and performed music for theatre and dance companies.

In 1979 he settled down to be with his family and eventually pursue a career in information technology. Over the next few years the guitar was gradually set aside.

In the mid 1990’s, as his children grew up and began to move out on their own, Bob began to get the beginnings of an urge to pick up the guitar again. But it wasn’t until 1999 that he seriously returned to playing and recorded his well received CD, Caffeinated Coffee. Originally conceived as a demo to send to folk clubs, Caffeinated Coffee went on to garner exceptional reviews, and, as perviously mentioned, was awarded Outstanding Instrumental Recording at the 2000 Western Canadian Music Awards.

While his recent recordings have been of instrumental music, his live performances continue to encompass a wide range of material. Blaming it, in part, on his love over the years of the diverse and unusual radio programming of CBC hosts like Jeurgen Gothe, Max Ferguson and Allan McFee, Bob is not afraid to present a traditional ballad alongside the Theme From Peter Gunn or an original composition. He has developed a reputation for well-paced shows reinforced with a healthy dose of his own off-kilter sense of humour.

Besides composing and performing guitar music, Bob also hosted a weekly radio program for five years, Six Strings & A Million Possibilities, which focused on music from the world of the guitar music, as well as a similarly themed series for CBC radio called Six Strings in the Summer.