Bobby Bare - The Moon Was Blue

It's become popular in the last few years for older singers to take a break and release an album of favorite old songs, standards, and just stuff they like. Bobby Bare follows down that road (which was probably originally paved by Willie Nelson's "Stardust") with "The Moon Was Blue," a work of love driven by Bobby Bare Jr., pulling his father out of a twenty-year retirement. Bare's rich voice and love of song makes this much more than an album of covers. It's an instant classic.

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It's been way too long since we last heard Bobby Bare singing. Except for an appearance with fellow legends Waylon Jennings, Jerry Reed, and Mel Tillis on the fun disc "Old Dogs," Bobby Bare has been sitting back, his songs pushed to classic country stations and the dust bins of old record stores. But now, thanks to the machinations of his son, Bobby Jr. (last heard by country audiences as the bright-voiced 5-year-old on "Daddy, What If?" and popular to the indie rock crowd as Bobby Bare Jr.'s Young Criminals Starvation League), Bobby Bare is back, with a disc of songs culled from some of the finest songwriters of the 60's and 70's, including a magnificent re-working of "Everybody's Talking At Me," and the beautiful "Yesterday When I Was Young."

Produced heavily by Bobby Jr., the album is a strange but delightful twisting of the legendary songs and vocals with that funky modern indie-rock feel. It's crisp and interesting, capturing the essence of roots music, both old and new, fitting together rather surprisingly well. It's deeply effective with such powerful songs as "Are You Sincere," "I Am An Island," and "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan."

I'm hoping that Bobby Jr.'s dream for this album - that his own young fans will re-discover his father - will come true. It's a grand introduction not only to Bobby Sr., but to these old songs, as well.