Bob Proehl

About Bob Proehl

Bob was born and raised in the Northeastern US. He graduated from SUNY Geneseo with degrees in English and Philosophy and completed his MA in English at Boston University. Since escaping graduate school, he’s resided in Ithaca, operating No Radio Records, an independent record store and performance space, as well as DJing under the name AutoMatic Buffalo. His first book, The Gilded Palace of Sin, on the slight rise and quick fall of the Flying Burrito Brothers, is due out later this year from Continuum Press.

Features

Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer): One More Time with the King of Western Swing

By Bob Proehl

Today, many performers play a revivalist form of Western Swing, but even more may be tipping a hat to Bob Wills without even knowing it. Chomping down on his cigar, Wills and his legacy strut around the stage of musical history, rarely taking the lead but now and then giving a holler of approval. [20 March 2009]

Columns

Keeping Some Dirt Under the Grass: John Hartford and the Roots of Newgrass

By Bob Proehl

At a time when country music was shining like a new dime, John Hartford and his collaborators were digging into old time music to find something new. [2 November 2009]

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

Kris Kristofferson: Leonard Cohen-esque

By Bob Proehl

Kristofferson at times evokes Leonard Cohen, with a voice that pulls the listener into the depths of darkened barrooms, whether to share a sob story or a bit of tongue-in-cheek sagacity. His 20th album is out soon. [1 October 2009]

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

The Ghetto of Genre

By Bob Proehl

Proehl discovered the secret Supremes country album. Now all the genre-restricting straightjackets bounding country music are off. [3 August 2009]

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

Five Days in March: Uncle Tupelo’s Quiet Revolution

By Bob Proehl

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy may have left country behind, but in 1992, he helped redefine the sound of alt-country. [26 June 2009]

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

To Lefty to Willie to Phossy with Love

By Bob Proehl

Even in railing against the influence of another, the musician must admit that influence and its inescapability. Like Br’er Rabbit and the tar baby, every blow struck just brings the two closer together. [4 June 2009]

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

Killing Him Didn’t Make Her Love Go Away

By Bob Proehl

Violence in music begets violence in music: female artists reclaim the murder ballad. [27 April 2009]

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

Time for a Repress: ‘The Gilded Palace of Sin’

By Bob Proehl

For people lucky enough to stumble upon the Flying Burrito Brothers, they made country cool. The music's simplicity and emotive directness, often derided and mocked by hipsters, could now be valid, vital and mean something to a modern audience. [30 March 2009]

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

“Gone Country” and Hoping to Make It Back Alive

By Bob Proehl

Going to Nashville to become country at this point is a little like going to New York City to become the Velvet Underground. [2 March 2009]

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

Hank’s Other Side: Religion, Radio, and the Roots of Country Music

By Bob Proehl

Hank Williams' recordings for WSM's Mother's Best Flour radio show challenge the modern listener's idea that country music reserves Jesus for Sunday morning. [2 February 2009]

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

CMAs and the End of Genre or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Kid Rock

By Bob Proehl

This year's CMA winners point to a future where the only thing necessary to be classified as country is a desire to join in and sing. [9 December 2008]

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

Countrypolitik: What’s Right and What’s Left About Country Music

By Bob Proehl

At a first glance, country music seems traditionally allied with the sort of down-home, small-town ethics and values touted by the Republicans. But the politics of country music has never been a simple red or blue. [20 October 2008]

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

Reviews

Secret Identity Crisis by Matthew J. Costello

By Bob Proehl

In a move fairly common to comics scholarship, Costello at times overstates the case for superhero comics as a product of their times rather than a product of a particular individual’s creative choices. [28 July 2009]

Frankly, My Dear by Molly Haskell

By Bob Proehl

Alas, this does little to ease a skeptic’s misgivings about a film whose scope and beauty at times feel like a Technicolor gloss on one of the darkest periods in American history. [22 July 2009]

William Eggleston: Photographer

By Bob Proehl

A museum tour guide analysis of Eggleston’s work -- exactly the type of analysis both Eggleston and his work staunchly resist. [20 April 2009]

The Spy Collection Megaset

By Bob Proehl

Rather like the the pu pu platter, there’s too much of one thing, not enough of another in this collection of British spy TV

Our Man in Havana

By Bob Proehl

A lost gem from the team that crafted The Third Man finally shows up on DVD. [2 March 2009]

Otis Redding: Respect Live 1967

By Bob Proehl

If Sam Cooke’s style is defined by a sort of grace and smoothness, Otis Redding’s feels more like that of a great force held in check, threatening to break loose. [24 February 2009]

Gospel According to Al Green

By Bob Proehl

The 25th anniversary edition of this documentary shows the singer’s return to the church after early commercial successes. [12 February 2009]

Omega: The Unkown

By Bob Proehl

Full of explicit weirdness, Omega: The Unknown is the loving work of professional fan fiction. [10 February 2009]

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel

By Bob Proehl

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For collects 25 years of Alison Bechdel’s battle against patriarchy, heterosexual hegemony and most everything else. [3 February 2009]