Bobby Bridger Accessions

Bobby Bridger began his professional recording career in Nashville, 1967, with Monument and Nugget Records. In 1970, Bridger signed with RCA Records and recorded two albums of original material (Merging of Our Minds, and And I Wanted to Sing for the People) before parting ways in 1973. Bridger launched his own Golden Egg Records in 1980 and released Heal in the Wisdom (1981), the four-disc boxed set, A Ballad of the West (2000), Songs from A Ballad of the West (2003), and Bridger's seventh studio album and current release, Vagabond Heart (2015).

Bridger has performed twice on PBS's Austin City Limits as well as other programs. Bridger's songs have been recorded by a diverse range of artists from pop (Bobby Goldboro) to country (Claude Gray), even to rock (The Lost Gonzo Band). His song, Heal in the Wisdom, has been the official anthem of the Kerrville Folk Festival since 1979.

A Ballad of the West, Bridger's trilogy of historical epic ballads, has been highly-acclaimed by renowned screenwriters and playwrights, western American historians, organizations, universities and institutions since its debut in the early 1970s. Bridger was the very first artist-in-residence at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming and the John G. Neihardt Center in Nebraska, and at Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. His 1990 theatrical company was the first professional theater troupe to ever tour Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The production was invited to return for an encore in 1991. He also remains the only ever "Balladeer-in-Residence" at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut.

Bridger toured internationally from 1975-2011 performing A Ballad of the West as a one-man show and acting in Dale Wasserman's Shakespeare and the Indians and Christopher Sergel's stage adaptation of Black Elk Speaks. Full company productions of Bridger's Seekers of the Fleece ran from 1988-1994 in Cody, Wyoming. Bridger continues to perform his ballad Lakota but has retired live performances of ballads Seekers of the Fleece and Pahaska.

Bridger is the author of A Ballad of the West, the award-winning Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing the Wild West, Bridger (autobiography), and Where the Tall Grass Grow: Becoming Indigenous and the Mythological Legacy of the American West. He resides in Houston, TX, with his wife Melissa and son Gabriel.

- From artist's website