Bob Nelson As I Know Him – Don Firth:

I first met Bob Nelson and shared a stage with him in 1953. He was sixteen, I was twenty-two. We’d probably been actively interested in folk music for about the same amount of time: both relative beginners. As young as he was, Bob’s singing voice was a rich, mature-sounding baritone. His guitar accompaniments were tastefully straightforward, and his performances in general were rock-solid.

For the next few years, we kept running into each other. In 1959, I was singing at The Place Next Door. Bob dropped in occasionally and sang a guest set. One evening, we tried a couple of duets. The audience response was so enthusiastic that we decided to form a duo, and we sang there for several months. This exposure led to a television appearance and our being asked to do a number of concerts.

At The Place, rather than retiring to the back room between sets, Bob would “tablehop,” chat for a moment or two, then move on to another table. Easygoing and friendly, he was an expert “schmoozer.” Following his example, I stayed out front as well. The audiences seemed to like this kind of accessibility. This wasn’t Bob putting on any kind of front, he’s just that way. He likes people. (Well . . . most people.)

We kept hearing that fame and fortune awaited us in the San Francisco Bay area. So in fall of 1959, we packed up our guitars and headed there. We sang in a lot of places, made some wonderful friends, and had a lot of fun. We also learned that many of the famous places we’d heard about were really holes compared to where we’d been singing, and that the two most famous clubs in the area were more interested in comedy acts than featuring folk singers. We decided we were better off in Seattle, so we came home. The exigencies of making a living intruded, so we dissolved the duo. Bob took a “day job” working for his father and I began teaching guitar. But we both continued singing, following our separate paths, in coffeehouses, concerts, television, at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962, at the Seattle Center Hootenannies, and at folk festivals. But we also sang together often.

One thing that has always impressed me about Bob’s singing is that I am never in doubt as to the words he sings. He doesn’t use “stage English” or seem to make any noticeable effort at diction, but the words are always crisp and clear. Would that the same could be said of more singers, some nationally famous!

Gifted with an occasionally wacky sense of humor (a mutual friend once referred him as “a bit of a scamp”) and the forthrightness to be outspoken on matters he cares deeply about, he is also a very caring person. I recall how, when a friend was dying of cancer, Bob took a ferry across Puget Sound every Sunday to visit him at his bedside, to chat and joke with him.

For nearly sixty years now, Bob Nelson has been—and still is—one of this area’s finest singers of folk songs and ballads. He is also an old and dear friend.