Artists:Bob Gibson

Bob Gibson was born on November 16, 1931, in Brooklyn and grew up along the Hudson River north of New York City where he sang in the church choir. When he left high school in his senior year, he hitchhiked around the country, eventually returning to New York City to become a partner in a firm which taught speed-reading. In 1953 he met Pete Seeger and was so impressed with Pete and his music, he "took the money I had set aside for rent" and bought a banjo. Immersed in the study of folk music, he learned to play the banjo, quit his job and hit the road to collect songs.

By the age of 22 Bob was performing at schools, ladies’ social clubs, lounges, cabarets, and cruise ships from New York to Miami, from the Bahamas to Cleveland, finally landing in Chicago. There he met the man who would become his manager. Albert Grossman had a new idea for a folk club and in 1956 launched The Gate of Horn where he signed Bob for what turned out to be an 11-month engagement — first as an opening act and later as a headliner. By 1958, this 26-year old husband and father of three had recorded four albums on Riverside, appeared as a regular on the Arthur Godfrey show, helped launch the Hootenanny craze in New York’s Greenwich Village, and was well on his way to becoming a legend in Chicago, not to mention a major force in the folk renaissance. Indeed, as groups sprung up in ever increasing numbers, it was difficult to find any new album that didn’t contain at least one Gibson song.

Bob’s eye for new talent was matched by his willingness to share the spotlight. Often in his travels he would run across an unknown performer with great promise whom he would bring to Chicago to be his opening act — Joan Baez and Judy Collins to name but two. In 1959, at the Newport Folk Festival, Bob Gibson became the first to introduce Joan Baez to a national audience.

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