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Bare’s 1963 debut studio album, “500 Miles From Home”

Country Music Hall of Fame member and Pedro native Bobby Bare is seen in a 1960s publicity image from RCA Records.

Country Music Hall of Fame member and Pedro native Bobby Bare is seen in a vintage publicity image from RCA Records.

“Bobby Bare Sings Legends, Lullabys and Lies,” a 1973 collaboration with Shel Silverstein and the album Bare picks as his favorite of his career.

Country musician Bobby Bare, who attended Rock Hill schools, welcomed the Rock Hill Middle School cheerleaders to Nashville, Tennessee, where they competed in the Cheerleaders of America National Championship in April 1989. (Ironton Tribune | File photo)

Bobby Bare performs at the Ro-Na Theater in Ironton in 2014. Bare, a Pedro native and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, will celebrate his 90th birthday in Nashville on Monday. (Jessica St. James | The Ironton Tribune)

Bobby Bare performs at the Ro-Na Theater in Ironton in 2014. Bare, a Pedro native and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, will celebrate his 90th birthday in Nashville on Monday. (Jessica St. James | The Ironton Tribune)

Bobby Bare is seen in a 2017 publicity photo for his most recent studio album, “Things Change”

Pedro native and County Music Hall of Fame member Bobby Bare performs at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth in 2018, as part of a concert to benefit the floodwall mural project in Portsmouth. (The Ironton Tribune | Heath Harrison)

Jacob Tolliver, Rick Ferrell and Bobby Bare perform at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth in 2018, as part of a concert to benefit the floodwall mural project in Portsmouth.

Pedro native and County Music Hall of Fame member Bobby Bare performs at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth in 2018, as part of a concert to benefit the floodwall mural project in Portsmouth. (The Ironton Tribune | Heath Harrison)

The Ironton Tribune would like to wish a happy 90th birthday to Bobby Bare, who reaches the milestone date today.

A native of Pedro and arguably the most famous person to ever come from Lawrence County, Bare’s career spans more than six decades and is rivaled only by his friend, Willie Nelson, as the longest running in country music.

Within a year of releasing his 1962 debut single, “Shame On Me,” Bare scored a top 10 country hit with “Detroit City,” one of his signature songs, which earned him a Grammy Award.

Over the following decades hits included “500 Miles From Home,” “The Winner,” “Marie Laveau,” “Drop Kick Me Jesus” and arguable the definitive rendition of the classic “Four Strong Winds.”

Bare has twice been a member of the Grand Ole Opry and is an inductee of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

While some say there are no second acts, Bare has successfully rebooted his career twice.

First, in the late 1990s, when he was part of the supergroup, Old Dogs, with Mel Tillis, Waylon Jennings and his “fishing buddy,” Jerry Reed. 

And then, in 2005, when, at the urging of his son, Bobby Bare Jr. (who served as producer), he returned, after two decades, to making solo studio albums with the release of the highly acclaimed “The Moon Was Blue,” the first of a trio of albums of well-received new Bare material over the next several years.

While Bare may have left Lawrence County in the 1950s to pursue his music, he has never been a stranger, keeping close ties with home and returning often, whether to perform at locations like the Ro-Na Theater, and the Lawrence County Fair or to take part in events, such as appearing in the Ironton-Lawrence County Memorial Day Parade or a fundraising concert at Portsmouth’s Vern Riffe Center to benefit the city’s floodwall mural project.

And it has always been our pleasure to hear from Bare here at The Tribune, when he has called in to talk about his latest project, and always works in a few good stories of growing up in Lawrence County.

Several events are planned in Nashville for Bobby Bare Week to mark his 90th, with, most notably a sold-out concert tonight, featuring Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Todd Snider, Buddy Miller, Bare Jr. and more.

We hope the milestone week is a joyous one for the singer (who also marked 60 years of marriage to his wife, Jeannie, in December) and want him to know that his hometown and county send their well wishes. 

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