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valued artistic integrity above all else. It was a beautiful, inspiring message.

BiTS: Did you talk to him at all about his life or records or music or anything?

RB: No, I was not formally introduced. Nobody said: “Rory, this is Bob. Bob, this is Rory.” I was
very shy at the time—I was only about 12 or 13 years old. I wasn’t brave enough to interrupt a
conversation. In Greenwich Village famous people walked down the street all the time. People like
Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, John Sebastian, Phil Ochs, Dave Van Ronk and so many others. We
were all neighbors. We were used to that. Plus I was brought up to be respectful of people’s
privacy. You didn't treat famous people any differently. You didn’t embarrass them by making a
scene.

BiTS: Right. Now, I do have to say, I'll make a confession. I'm not a fan of Dylan, at least not as far
as his singing is concerned. I rather wish he sung a bit more like Woody Mann and a bit less like
Woody Guthrie, but I do appreciate, as you do, his lyrics and the inspiration for his songs. You said
in your note, that you saw an artistic honesty in him where he was not trying
to buck the system and certainly work with the system, and you say it was
an inspiration for you. In what way was it an inspiration?

RB: My background was in acoustic music, both blues and early country
music. Dylan sang in an authentic voice, rootsy and real, which I
understood and valued. In the day and time I started in the music
business “commercial music” was what the

big labels wanted—blues, roots old time
country was put on a back burner. It was a
curiosity. “You’ll never make it singing
blues,” they said. “You have to write music and
play rock n roll, not country blues.” So you had to be very
committed to your musical path and not get drawn
into selling out. Dylan was able to succeed
without compromise, and that’s something to
be admired.

My first record was for a tiny label—Blue Goose
records—founded by a friend of mine. It started
out as a reissue label, putting out old masters that
had been deleted from record company archives.
In the early 1960’s these blues enthusiasts traveled
through the south knocking on doors, asking people
if they had any old records, and if they knew any of
the early players and their whereabouts. At that
point you really couldn’t find roots music in
record stores, so dedicated music lovers started
their own labels to reissue the re-discovered masters that were no longer

available from record companies.

For me the acoustic country blues was the most beautiful form of music in the world. As the early
masters started to be rediscovered and brought up north to perform, I got to meet them one by
one. Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Skip James, Bukka White, Fred McDowell, and Reverend
Gary Davis. I got to spend time with these founding masters, and that just deepened my passion
for the music. In recent years I recorded tributes to each one that I list above, all of whom I met in
person, which I call “The Mentor Series.” After taking about a ten year break from music, I signed