The Perlich Post: Bear Family readies massive Bobby Bare sings Shel Silverstein box

Friday, August 28, 2020

Bear Family readies massive Bobby Bare sings Shel Silverstein box

The mammoth Bear Family box including 137 tracks over 8 CDs along with a 128 page hardcover book is due October 2.

Bobby Bare sings Shel Silverstein Plus

Eight CDs with 137 tracks including 25 previously unreleased recordings.
Bobby Bare's interpretations of more than a hundred Shel Silverstein songs.
Classic sides from 1972 - 1983 incl. six complete albums.
Shel Silverstein wrote hits like Sylvia’s Mother and A Boy Named Sue (made famous by Johnny Cash).
The live album Great American Saturday Night (unreleased at the time) is expanded here with 3 tracks.
128-page, LP-sized hardcover book with a 2020 Hank Davis interview with Bobby Bare about his friendship with Shel Silverstein, complete lyrics transcriptions, and detailed sessions discography. It also includes a new essay by Dave Samuelson about Shel Silverstein and his multi-faceted work.

If most people associate the late Shel Silverstein with his children's literature, others remember his cartoons and graphic travelogues for Playboy. By contrast, relatively few recognize this Chicago native as a prolific songwriter, penning such hits as Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue," Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show's "The Cover Of Rolling Stone," Loretta Lynn's "One's On The Way," and The Irish Rovers' "The Unicorn." He also wrote "Put Another Log On The Fire," Tompall Glaser's memorable showcase on 'Wanted! The Outlaws,' country music's first platinum-selling album.

No artist recorded more Silverstein songs than veteran country singer Bobby Bare. His 1972 cover of Silverstein's bittersweet "Sylvia's Mother" launched a professional relationship that led to an enduring friendship. At Bare's request, Silverstein conceived and composed entire concept albums, starting with 'Lullabys, Legends And Lies,' an exercise in pure imagination from 1974. This two-LP set established Bare as a major album artist and yielded Marie Laveau, the first chart-topping single of the singer's long recording career. A follow-up album, 'Hard Time Hungrys,' captured the downbeat mood of American workers during the mid- '70s recession. A perceptive 'Billboard' reviewer hailed 'Hard Time Hungrys' as "something historians will look back upon." Bare's family participated in the whimsical 'Singin' In The Kitchen,' which included the tender Daddy What If.

During the late '70s, Silverstein shifted his creative focus to playwriting and children's books, but he continued crafting clever songs specifically for Bare. When Bare wound down his major-label recording career in the mid-'80s, the singer had recorded more than 100 Silverstein originals, fifteen of them on the notorious Great American Saturday Night album, recorded in 1977 but shelved when Bare left RCA for a more lucrative contract with Columbia.

Despite their lyrical and historical importance, the Bare/Silverstein collaborations have been sporadically and haphazardly reissued during the compact disc era. In response, BEAR FAMILY has put together Bobby Bare Sings Shel Silverstein Plus, the first comprehensive collection of this material. Accompanied by a 128-page hardcover book, its eight CDs include 137 tracks, 25 of them previously unissued. Six albums appear complete, including integral songs by other writers. The long-unheard 'Great American Saturday Night' includes three songs missing from a recent independent label release.

The box set contains an LP-sized, lavishly illustrated 128-page hardcover book that contains song lyrics and a discography. In a conversation with Hank Davis, Bare recalls his years working with Silverstein, and Dave Samuelson documents the songwriter's multiple creative pursuits.

Often stepping well beyond today's rigid boundaries of political correctness, many songs on Bobby Bare Sings Shel Silverstein Plus reflect an earlier era that understood and appreciated irony and satire. Besides this anthology's vivid sagas about winners, losers, and lonely all-night cafés, listeners will also discover charming children's songs and touching, affectionate love ballads, all reflecting the irreplaceable vision of Shel Silverstein.