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About Robert

Born under a cracking tower in Elizabeth, NJ, I crawled across 16 lanes of moving traffic to the Joyce Kilmer rest area where I was befriended by a kindly New Jersey State Trooper and brought to the teeming streets of New York City's Hell's Kitchen. There I was mentored by Joe Bonano, and luckily for me everything turned out OK.
View Robert's Resume
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The Blues

As an indication of my continuing appreciation of the Blues, I have included a photo with the legendary Muddy Waters at the Marble Bar in the early 1980s and a musical sample of a Howlin' Wolf song.
  • Bob and Muddy Waters 1980s
    Bob and Muddy Waters 1980s
    The Marble Bar was having some sort of shirt contest that night, I guess.
  • Little Red Rooster
    Bob playing slide guitar and singing this classic Howlin' Wolf song with Delta Connection Trio.
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    • Caleb Stine hosts "Woody Guthrie Dreams"

    Performed a Woody Guthrie song, "Pastures of Plenty," at a show with Caleb Stine, Linda Nelson, Phil Wiggins, Lisa Matthews & Mikel Gehl & More
    http://www.creativealliance.org/events/eventitem2615.html
    • Bob with Frozen Fox
      Bob with Frozen Fox
    • Pastures of Plenty
      A Woody Guthrie song performed at Caleb Stine's benefit for a play to be produced in New York.
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    • The Folk & Blues Project

    This is an educational project promoting American Folk and Blues music to elementary and middle-school students through both after-school singing clubs and arts-integration residencies. Bob has taught versions of two three- to five-day residencies ("Songs of the Civil War," and "Songs of the American Colonial Period") in two Baltimore middle schools and one in Anne Arundel County. These lessons integrate songs with American history which research shows help them to retain the material.
    • The Folk & Blues Project
      The Folk & Blues Project
    • The Folk & Blues Club 2011
      The Folk & Blues Club 2011
    • Arts Integration in the classroom
      Arts Integration in the classroom
    • songs-of-the-civil-war---residencyrev5.doc
    • songs-of-american-colonial-times---plan-1.doc

    • Solo, Duo, Trio, and other band work

    A variety of performances as a Singer/Songwriter, Blues singer, Cowboy singer, etc.
    • Re-imagining the Beatles
      Re-imagining the Beatles
      Bob with a thrown-together Beatles cover band at May Mart in 2010. They learned another group of Beatles' songs for the same event in 2011.
    • Katie Belle Blue
      Bob sings this great Townes Van Zandt song
    • At Cellar Door
      At Cellar Door
      Bob played bass at the Cellar Door in DC with the legendary Michael Hurley in 1978
    • The Dogtones
      The Dogtones
      Bob played with these Vermont folks in 1975 and 1976. The band featured the late, great Zoot Wilson.
    • Dying Crapshooter's Blues
      Bob sings this great Blind Willie McTell song with birds in the background, something you have to expect when you're recording outside.
    • Loose Shoes Rhythm Band
      Loose Shoes Rhythm Band
      Here's Bob singing with the Loose Shoes Rhythm Band in 1977 at the Marble Bar, where they opened for Talking Heads that same year.
    • Delta Connection Trio
      Delta Connection Trio
      Here shown playing Blues, Rock, and Reggae at the Evergreen Fall Picnic, this band gets a handful of gigs every year.
    • Evening With the Arts
      Evening With the Arts
      Playing "Goodnight Irene" at a school fundraiser with Renaissance artists Tom Chalkley, Eden and Nate Bowditch, and Ned Oldham
    • Patapsco Delta Boys
      Patapsco Delta Boys
      Bob plays semi-regularly with Tom Chalkley, cartoonist, singer, and harmonica player
    • Guitar player and keyboard owner
      Guitar player and keyboard owner
      A multi-instrumentalist, Bob plays guitar, bass, keyboards, ukulele, and kazoo
    •

    • The (Shameless) Mooks

    For over twenty years, this five-piece band has played a mixture of Rock, Reggae, Funk, Rockabilly, and R&B Classics. For most of that time the (Shameless) Mooks were generally considered to be the "Best Behaved Band in Baltimore."
    • Funkyard - by Robert Friedman
      An exploration of the world of shade-tree mechanics and the junkers they inevitably collect. In this song, Bob is thinking back to a time when he and his buddy (Ernest and Julio) ran an open-air car repair business called "God's Garage."
    • All Greased Up and No Place to Go
      Bob's greaseball-inspired ballad harkening back to the world of "Rocks and Jotters" he experienced going to a regional high school in New Jersey.
    • Give Me Back My Stuff - by Robert Friedman
      The Mooks play Bob's song about breaking up, which everyone knows is hard to do.
    • Dictator Blues - by Robert Friedman
      A meditation on totalitarian love. This song sometimes features Imelda Marcos, but not this time.
    • In the Dreamtime - by Robert Friedman
      "Suburban aborigines living in your neighborhood...."
    • mooksharbor1
      mooksharbor1
    •

    • Murder Ballads Show at Creative Alliance

    Organized and curated a performance on Halloween Weekend of Murder Ballads. Showcasing a wide variety of songs from 300-year-old Scots-Irish and English balladry, through classic Blues ballads, to English Music Hall songs and contemporary songs of murder and mayhem, this sold-out show presented Bob and many great local musicians including Tom Chalkley, Jon Glik, Walker and Jay, Eleanor Ellis, and the Austin Harp Family.
    http://www.creativealliance.org/events/eventitem2712.html
    • murderballads_simplesmall.jpg
      murderballads_simplesmall.jpg
    • The Werewolf
      A spooky song performed by Bob at his Murder Ballads show on Halloween Weekend 2011 was written by his friend and mentor, Michael Hurley.
    • Been on the Job Too Long
      On this song Bob and his ad-hoc ensemble perform this famous version of the Duncan and Brady family of Blues Ballads. This is a recording of part of the song from the show.
    • Down in the Willow Garden
      Here's one example of the other acts performing in the Murder Ballads show: Walker and Jay playing with the incomparable Jon Glik on this old song.
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    • Mambo Combo

    A five-piece band playing Latin and Caribbean dance music including original compositions by Robert Friedman. Over the years, the band has recorded two CDs, "Mr. Happy," and "Live." Every year (for over 20 years) thousands of people attend Mambo Combo performances at concerts, parties, and fundraisers throughout the region.
    • Smother Your Mother Tango - by RJF
      A classic tango with unusual instrumentation. The lyrics are about smothering mothers, but we never sing them.
    • Socalypso - by Robert Friedman
      A hybrid of two Trinidadian forms: Soca and Calypso, hence the name. Soca has a lilting beat that comes directly from East Indian folk music.
    • The Fates - by Robert Friedman
      This is a Bolero. The real title is "The Fates Conspire with Incredibly Bad Fortune to Create a Totally Untenable Situation."
    • mambo_md.jpg
      mambo_md.jpg
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