Bobby Bridger

Had to put this up as a flashback to

the night that Bobby opened for

Emmylou Harris, when I produced a

show with her in Montana in 1982.

A Ballad of the West is inherently a multi-media performance piece which should be seen, heard and read in order to ensure a complete experience. My intent in creating the epic trilogy has been to synthesize poetic, musical, graphic and historical narratives into a unique, comprehensive artistic creation. I have performed various configurations of the trilogy as one-man shows for over thirty years all over the world. From 1988-1995, often with up to 26 artists, Part One, Seekers of the Fleece, was performed as a full-company musical all over the state of Wyoming. Aside from the live performances, however, one of the reasons A Ballad of the West has taken over three decades to produce in its entirety is because of the difficulty in presenting all of the various narratives together as a unified work. The poetic and musical narratives were first published in Four Winds Magazine in1980 with a graphic narrative featuring the watercolors of the only painter to capture images of the mountain men, Alfred Jacob Miller. The Four Winds publication led to the publication of a hard-back edition of poetic and musical narratives in 1982. In 1993 a paperback edition of these narratives were published. Of course, these various publications presented the poetic and musical lyrics, but, with no recordings of the narratives available, the epic trilogy could be read but not heard. Finally, in December, 2000, Golden Egg Records released a deluxe, four-disc set of the recordings of all three parts of A Ballad of the West.

“Bobby Bridger’s A Ballad of the West trilogy -deeply felt and passionately expressed- is a treasure of the American spirit” 
Bill Wittliff, screenwriter/producer 
Lonesome Dove, Legends Of The Fall, and The Perfect Storm

“...a wonderful piece of Americana based on a grand and majestic part of our historical background. It is thoroughly original and exciting in its concept.” 
Alvin Josephy, Editor,  American Heritage Magazine

“A Ballad of the West is poetry to be chanted , sung and acted. It calls to mind the great mavericks Whitman, Sandburg and Earl Robinson. The form is speechsong, written for both eye and ear. It also happens to be electrifying theater.” 
Dale Wasserman, Playwright,  Man of LaMancha, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

“A major work...a unique historical presentation of monumental dimensions.” 
The Buffalo Bill Historical Center

“Bridger’s songs and text are splendid.” 
Dee Brown, Author, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

“Bobby Bridger has carved out a unique and captivating place for himself in our culture. A dramatist and a songwriter, an actor and a singer, a historian and a contemporary recording artist; Bridger speaks and sings with the many voices of the west, old and new. A Ballad of the West makes you listen, makes you learn and makes you dream.”
Alan Menken, Playwright/Composer 
Little Shop of Horrors, and Disney’s Little Mermaid, Beauty and The Beast, Pocahontas,  The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules

“What came aimed directly at my heart was pure magic. A magic superseding words and tunes, an invocation of deep feeling... . This is the magic of Bobby Bridger’s A Ballad of the West...a magic that suggests that the richest storied fleece we still have to discover lies in the yet unplumbed psychic resources of America today.”
Frank Waters, Author,  The Man Who Killed The Deer, The Book of the Hopi

“...a dynamite piece of work!” 
Joel Oppenheimer  The Village Voice

“I sincerely doubt that anyone will so completely capture the spirit of time and place as Bobby Bridger has done in A Ballad of the West. It is a triumph over time and space as all spiritual synthesis must be.” 
Vine DeLoria, Jr., Author,  Custer Died For Your Sins, God Is Red, Red Earth, White Lies

“...it blends history, music, poetry and fundamental values. Most important, it tells us something of who we are and how we got here.” 
Sam Stanley, Center for the Study of Man, The Smithsonian Institution

“Bridger is a ‘Shakespeare’ of the American West!”
George C. White, Founder and President, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center  First Chairman of the Board, Sundance Institute

“...his songs cannot be measured in terms of money, because America is in desperate need of sunlight.”
Hyemeyohsts Storm, Author  Seven Arrows, The Song of Heyoehkah

“A Ballad of the West leaves me breathless -scope, imagination, heart, and above all the daring to reach for everything and seize it.”
Win Blevins, Author,  Stone Song, and Give Your Heart To The Hawks

“...a stunning realization!” 
Marlon Brando

www.bobbybridger.com