2007
In December Bridger delivered the final draft of his memoir Bridger: An Autobiography to the University of Texas Press. In November Roundup Magazine asked Bridger to review an anthology of poetry titled Open Range. September and October of 2007 were devoted to a tour that began at Mike Blakely's Fandango in Luckenbach, Texas, and then moved to Lone Pine, California for the annual film festival there; the tour continued in Appalachian regions that culminated in a return performance of Seekers of the Fleece at the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music at the University of Kentucky, and a performance of Lakota on Americana Crossroads that was later broadcast on 30 NPR affiliates around the country. Bridger also was on tour throughout April, 2007 beginning with a performance/lecture of Seekers of the Fleece at Rice University's Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, and ended with Bridger as a principle speaker at the 26th Annual Neihardt Conference in Bancroft, Nebraska with noted Lakota author, Joseph Marshall. Much of February and March were devoted to editing the forthcoming DVD boxed set of A Ballad of the West, work on the final draft of the autobiography, and working with the team creating the rules and regulations for the Western Writers of America's first Silver Spur Award for "Best Song". Bridger also served as a judge for the Silver Spur "Audio Book" award for the Western Writers of America. In January, 2007 a first draft of Becoming Indigenous: Essays and Interviews 1989-2007 was submitted to University of Texas Press.
2006
In January Bridger performs at the Houston Museum of Arts and Crafts to initiate their exhibit of cowboy arts and crafts. In April Bridger marks his second appearance on the Houston International Festival. In June Bridger creates www.myspace.com/bobbybridger to augment the August launching of the newly-designed www.bobbybridger.com. Also in June, to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the Kerrville Folk Festival, Bridger performs Heal In The Wisdom with members of the Austin Symphony conducted by Maestro David Amram. In June Bridger also attends in the Western Writers of America convention in Cody, Wyoming and participates in two symposium panels: Mountain Men of the Upper Rockies, and Writing About Buffalo Bill. Also in June Bridger performs for the University of Michigan's History and English Department's summer programs on the university's Wyoming campus in Jackson. On July 4 Bridger performs Seekers of the Fleece for the dedication of the newly-designed museum at Fort Bridger Historical Site. In October Bridger headlines the Louisiana Art and Folk Festival, and appears on the cover of Western Writers of America's monthly periodical, Roundup. Also in October Bridger is interviewed on camera for the PBS series American Experience documentary film about Wm. F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. In November Bridger submits his autobiography, Seeking History's Heartsong, to University of Texas Press. In December Bridger performs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as part of the touring exhibition The Modern West.
2005
Bridger performs Seekers of the Fleece at the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music at the University of Kentucky; Bridger performs on the syndicated radio program, Red Barn Radio; Bridger interviews with documentary film producer, Ed Commons film, The Bighorn Project; Bridger performs Lakota at Galveston’s 1894 Grand Opera House.
2004
British film producer, Peter Wilson, intiates production of an hour-long documentary, Quest Of An Epic Balladeer, based on Bridger’s life and work: Fred Carter, Jr. Dale Wasserman, Vine DeLoria, Jr., Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Max Evans, Rod Kennedy, Cactus Pryor, Joe Sears, John Inmon, Bob Livingston and John T. Davis were among the people interviewed; Bridger, Peter Wilson and Nick Meagher produce a digital video production of A Ballad of the West at Meagher’s T-Bone Ranch in Antonito, Colorado. The shoot features founding Lost Gonzo Band memebers, John Inmon and Bob Livingston; Bridger plays Nick Meagher’s Wild West in Denver with Cowboy poet, Baxter Black and Blackfeet balladeer, Jack Gladstone; Bridger performs for Wyoming Historical Associations annual ‘trek’ at Ft. Bridger; Bridger returns to perform at the Ft. Bridger Rendezvous (his 14th appearance there); Bridger performs for Wyoming State Parks Association; Wild West Magazine publishes Bridger’s essay, “The Showman and the Shaman” as it’s December issue cover story. An interview with Candy Moulton is also featured in the issue.
2003
Bridger completes a 7,000 mile, 9 state, sixteen city tour in support of Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing The Wild West; Verio Records releases Mahatma Ghandi and Sitting Bull, by Bob Livingston. Bridger and Livingston co-wrote the title song and “Cowboys and Indians” as part of Livingston’s “Ragabilly Opera”, “Cowboys and Indians”; Bridger is invited to speak at the 31st Annual Symposium of the Native American in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The topic: Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing The Wild West; Bridger reads and performs at the South Texas Book Fair in Beeville, Texas; Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing the Wild West wins Forward Magazine’s Gold Award as the Best Biography of 2002; Bridger’s one man shows of A Ballad of the West completes a fourth consecutive season in repertory in Cody, Wyoming; Bridger is the principle speaker at the John G. Neihardt Center in Bancroft, Nebraska. The theme: Neihardt, Buffalo Bill and the Mythology of the Trans-Missouri; Bridger is the featured presenter on CSpan/Booknotes reading from his award-winning book; Bridger is a featured performer on the Louisiana Folklife Festival in Monroe, Louisiana.
2002
Bridger continues producing his one man show of A Ballad of the West at Old Trail Town in Cody, Wyoming; Bridger begins teaching A Ballad of the West at the University of Texas. The course, Manifest Destiny and Environment: Fur Trade to Globalization. The University of Texas Press publishes Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing The Wild West; Bridger is invited to participate in a panel (Men, Mountains and Mayhem) and perform on the Texas Book Fair. The panel is broadcast numerous times nationally on CSpan/Booknotes; Bridger is a featured performer on Nick Meagher's Wild West in Antonito, Colorado; Bridger joins an illustrious panel at the Western History Association's national convention in Ft. Worth. The theme: "Buffalo Bill: A Work in Progress"; Golden Egg Records releases Songs From A Ballad of the West.
2001 aballadofthewest.com is launched to accompany
the four-disc CD set; Bridger/ Golden Egg Records joins the National Academy
of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS); Bridger is mentioned in a feature
on Buffalo Bill in USA TODAY. A Ballad of the West receives a wonderful
review in Texas Monthly Magazine; A Ballad of the West receives a wonderful
feature/review in the Houston Press; A Ballad of the West opens its second
season in repertory at Old Trail Town in Cody, Wyoming.
2000 Bridger returns to Old Trail Town in Cody, Wyoming
and runs A Ballad of the West in repertory from June-August; shoots
digital video of all three parts of A Ballad of the West at various historic
locations in Wyoming; A & E Cable Network films Bridger's performance
of Seekers of the Fleece at Fort Bridger Rendezvous; A & E interview
airs. A four-disc CD set of A Ballad of the West is released the last week
of December 2000.
1999 National Public Radio's River City Folk features
Bridger in an hour-long special of interview and performance; Bridger begins
recording Pahaska and Lakota; Bridger performs in the Black Hills at the
High Plains Heritage Center and a encore performance on the Heritage of
the High Plains radio program; Bridger completes his biography on
Buffalo Bill; Bridger begins plans to return to Cody, Wyoming with a Y2K
summer-long run of the trilogy A Ballad of the West in repertory; Golden
Egg Records lays groundwork to begin global digital distribution of products
via the Internet; Golden Egg Records prepares for a May 2000 simultaneous
release of Seekers of the Fleece, Pahaska and Lakota on compact disc.
1998 Bridger enters "cyberspace" with the creation
of the website, www.bbridger.com; the Kerrville Folk Festival celebrates
the 20th Anniversary of Bridger's song Heal In
The Wisdom being its anthem; Golden Egg Records releases its first
compact disc, Heal In The Wisdom; Bridger performs on the radio program,
Heritage of the High Plains, which is broadcast over a five-state region
of the upper Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.
1997 Bridger returns to the Buffalo Bill Historical
Center in Cody, WY to perform his one-man show of Pahaska.
1996 Bridger completes the epic ballad, Pahaska, and
debuts the work as a one-man show at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center
as part of festivities surrounding the Sesquicentennial of William F. "Buffalo
Bill" Cody's birth and the Centennial celebration of the town of Cody;
Bridger begins work on the historical manuscript to accompany his epic
ballad Pahaska.
1995 Bridger and his family re-locate from Austin
to Houston, Texas; Bridger returns to Green River to run his one-man show
of A Ballad of the West; Bridger begins writing Pahaska, Part Two of A
Ballad of the West.
1994 Bridger assumes control of production of the
outdoor musical production of Seekers of the Fleece and moves the
show to Green River, Wyoming; Bridger licenses the Wyoming production rights
of Seekers of the Fleece to the city of Green River, Wyoming for three
years and begins a summer run of his one-man show of A Ballad of the West
in that city.
1993 St. Augustine Press publishes a paperback edition
of Parts One and Three of A Ballad of the West; Seekers of the Fleece returns
to Cody, WY for its sixth summer season. The season is divided between
the cities of Cody and Green River, WY as the company prepares to move
its base of operation in Wyoming to Green River; Bridger participates
on his first "Period 1880s" cattle drive at High Island Ranch and Cattle
Company in Hamilton Dome, Wyoming. The drive is filmed by ABC Television's
Good Morning America; Bridger's essay, Frank Waters: Becoming Indigenous,
is included in the anthology, Frank Waters: Man and Mystic, published
by the University of Ohio's, Swallow
Press.
1992 Seekers of the Fleece returns to Cody, WY for
a fifth summer season which ends at Fort Bridger Rendezvous.
1991 Seekers of the Fleece returns to Cody, WY for
a fourth summer season. The company tours Yellowstone National Park again
and ends the season at the Fort Bridger Rendezvous.
1990 Seekers of the Fleece returns to Cody, Wyoming
for a third season. The cast swells to 26 actors, singers musicians and
dancers and becomes the very first professional theater presented in Yellowstone
National Park in the park's history. The touring company performs at Grand
Teton National Park, the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyoming,
Wyoming's Centennial Mountain Man Rendezvous in Jackson, Wyoming
and Fort Bridger Rendezvous, Fort Bridger, Wyoming.
1989 Seekers of the Fleece returns to Cody, Wyoming
for a second season; Bridger and Melissa Tatum marry at the Kerrville
Folk Festival; Bridger performs at the PAHA SAPA FESTIVAL in Rapid
City, South Dakota. Featuring Willie Nelson, Jackson Browne, Neil
Young, John Denver, Kris Kristofferson, Bruce Coburn, Floyd
Westerman, Timbuck 3, and others the show becomes known as the Woodstock
of Indian Country. Bridger performs his Lakota ballad with the famous Lakota
Porcupine Singers; Bridger returns to perform at the famous annual Fort
Bridger Rendezvous in Fort Bridger, Wyoming; October 7th, Melissa
and Bobby's son, Gabriel, is born.
1988 Bridger tours the England and the Netherlands;
after a brief return to America, Bridger returns to Oxford, England to
perform Heal In The Wisdom for the first annual Global Forum of Spiritual
and Parliamentary Leaders of Human Survival. The conference featured
the Dali Lama, The Arch Bishop of Canterbury and the heads of state of
many countries; Bridger Productions creates a full-company production of
Part One of A Ballad of the West, Seekers of the Fleece, and debuts the
show in Cody, Wyoming. The historic Yellowstone Fires cause the show to
suffer terrific loses in spite of the sterling company of Joe Sears (of
Greater Tuna fame), Indian actor, Wes
Studie (Dances With Wolves, Last of the Mochicians, Geronimo), Texas music
legend, Steve Fromholz, and Grammy-nominated arranger, Bill Ginn (Jennefer
Warnes, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell); Golden Egg Records releases a
cassette of Part One of A Ballad of the West, Seekers of the Fleece; Bridger
and Melissa Tatum return to England for yet another tour of the island.
1987 Bridger writes Coyote Dreamtime (The Journey
of an American balladeer into the Australian Outback); Bridger begins a
series of 105 paintings in the Papunya Tula, or "dot-painting" technique
he learned from Pitjantjara Aboriginals of the Central and Western Australian
deserts. (Bridger sells 95 of these paintings over a six-year period.);
The Austin American-Statesman runs a five-part series of essays excerpted
from Coyote Dreamtime; Bridger receives an invitation to create a production
of Aldebaran and The Falling Star at New York's Cathedral of St. John the
Divine; Bridger performs A Ballad of the West at the Joslyn Museum in Omaha as part of a major exhibition of
the paintings of Alfred Jacob Miller; Bridger, Butch Hancock and
a company of 15 selected musicians tour the Soviet Union as part
of glasnost. Performing as "citizen diplomats" in Leningrad, Kiev and Moscow
the Texas/USSR Music Exchange encouraged
communication between the countries in the days immediately before
the fall of the Soviet Union; Bridger is selected as the keynote speaker
for the Third Annual New Vision Conference held in Houston, TX, featuring
John and Jan Price (The Superbeings) and Ken Keys (The Hundredth Monkey);
performs on Cowboys For Indians, a benefit concert to raise money and awareness
for Native American causes. The concert features David Crosby, Steven Stills,
Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Floyd
Westerman and many others; Bridger sells 33 paintings to collector Billie
Lee Mommer.
1986 With noted authors and teachers, Marilyn Ferguson
(The Aquarian Conspiracy), Fritjof Capra (The Tao of Physics), and George
Leonard (The Silent Pulse) and many other founders and leaders of the "New
Age Movement" Bridger is invited to be a featured speaker/performer in
the second annual New Visions Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska; Bridger
and Kris Kristofferson are named to the Board of Directors of the
World Peace Center in Lincoln, Nebraska; Bridger and author William Least
Heat Moon (Blue Highways) are featured speakers of the annual Neihardt
Spring Conference at the John Neihardt Foundation in Bancroft, Nebraska;
Bridger performs A Ballad of the West at New York City's Open Center; Bridger,
Academy Award-winner, Jennifer Warnes, and a band of six jazz musicians
create a six-song demo of songs from Aldebaran and The Falling Star; Bridger
tours 25 cities with the "Celebrate Texas Tour" commemorating the Texas
Sesquicentennial; Bridger is named to the Board of Directors of Black Elk-Neihardt
State Park in Blair, Nebraska; Bridger is invited to perform on Pete Seeger's
"Clearwater Slope" in New York City's fantastic celebration of the re-lighting
of the Statue of Liberty; Bridger tours Australia. Upon special invitation
of the South Australian Department of Education and the Cultural Outback Trust Association, Bridger becomes the first artist (Australian
or American) to tour and perform for the 100 communities of the Outback
Trust. A ten day experience living with and performing for the Pitjantjara
Aboriginal Tribe in the Central Australia
Desert completed the journey; Golden Egg Records releases Bobby Bridger:
Live At Kerrville, an outstanding set from the famous festival featuring
songs from Bridger's Aldebaran and The Falling Star.
1985 Bridger takes a "sabbatical" leave to develop
and consolidate Bridger Productions; begins to exhibit paintings around
the Austin area; Bridger creates a quarterly newspaper, Hoka Hey! With
a Native American theme, the newspaper runs for eight years, at it's
peak producing 20,000 papers each quarter and mailing to every state in
the union and to 52 foreign countries.
1984 Bridger performs Heal In The Wisdom at New York's
Town Hall celebration of Martin Luther King's Birthday. The evening featured
actress Collen Duhurst and David Amram and was the second time Bridger's
song had been used in New York City celebrations calling for a national
holiday for the martyred leader; Aldebaran and The Falling Star is workshopped
a second time at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Theater
Institute. Directed and choreographed by Lynn Britt, former Movement
Master of England's Old Vic, with movement directed by Peter Lobdell (Equus and Elephant Man) Bridger's musical is referred to by Ms. Britt
as " a futuristic myth...a powerful and highly exciting new theatrical
concept."; Bridger is featured in the roles of William Bent and John
Finnerty with David Carradine and Will Sampson in the American
Indian Theater Company production of Black Elk Speaks; Bridger is invited
by Lady Bird Johnson to the Johnson Ranch in Stonewall, Texas to
perform his song "Pedernales". The gathering was to support Mrs.
Johnson's National Wildflower Research Center and featured the legendary
actress Helen Hayes reading poetry; A Sender of Words: Essays in Memory
of John G. Neihardt is published by Howe Brothers (Salt Lake City
and Chicago). The anthology features
essays by such notable western authors as Vine DeLoria, Jr., Frank Waters
and Dee Brown as well as Bridger; Larry Willoughby's, Texas Rhythm, Texas
Rhyme features sections on Bridger.
1983 Bridger continues performing in Shakespeare and
The Indians; Bridger's first book, a lovely hardback, slip-cased, limited-edition
of Parts One and Three of A Ballad of the West, Seekers of the Fleece
and Lakota, is released by Wiyaka Press of Austin, Texas. The book wins
the National Printers Book Design Award of 1983; George C.
White, founder and president of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center of Waterford,
CT. names Bridger the first Balladeer-In-Residence of the prestigious theater
laboratory; Bridger's epic space ballad, Aldebaran and The Falling Star,
is accepted by the National Theater Institute as a workshop piece for the
Spring 1983 semester; Bridger joins the faculty of the National
Theater Institute; Bridger is named to the Board of Directors of the American
Indian Theater Company.
The demonstration proved to be the largest gathering in US history drawing
over 750,000 on to the great lawn of Central Park; Bridger is personally
invited by Robert Redford to perform his one-man show of "Seekers of the
Fleece" at Sundance Institute; The Institute of the American West invites
Bridger to Sun Valley, Idaho as part of the Fifth Annual Levi Strauss Arts
and Humanities Program. The theme of 1982's conference was "Inventing the
West"; Bridger performs Seekers of the Fleece in Kearney, Nebraska for
the 15th Annual International Gathering of 4-H Youth; the 5th Annual "Twelve
Great Hours at Kerrville is dedicated to
Bridger; Bridger performs the leading role in Wasserman's Shakespeare and
The Indians in Omaha, Nebraska; lyrics to Bridger's songs, Heal In The
Wisdom and Arrows Of Light are included in renowned psychologist Jackie
Small's book, Transformers; Robyn
Turner's, Austin Originals, features a chapter on Bridger.
1982 Bridger creates Bridger Productions to manage
his career; prestigious academic journal, Science Magazine, uses Bridger's
lyrics, "Lighten Up and Let It Go" to illustrate a painting on its
cover; multiple Grammy and Academy Award winner, Christopher Cross personally
invites Bridger to perform at a Austin concert congratulating the artist
on his unprecedented success; Bridger is personally selected and
invited to the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center by Dale Wasserman, the
playwright of Man of LaMancha and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, to create
the role of "The Drifter" in his musical, Shakespeare and the Indians;
Bridger is commissioned by Lady Bird Johnson, the Lyndon Johnson Foundation
and the LBJ Presidential Library to
write and perform a "hill country song" for the opening of a new wing of
the LBJ Library in Austin. Bridger's song Pedernales was debuted on June
4 at the opening festivities in concert with Carol Channing and Leontyne
Price. Bridger is invited by the International Nuclear Disarmament Movement
to perform his song "Heal In The Wisdom" as part of the 2nd Annual Nuclear
Disarmament Gathering at the United Nations.
1981 Produces and records Heal In The Wisdom in Nashville
and Austin; creates the Golden Egg Record label to distribute his
work independently; Four Winds Magazine serializes Seekers of the Fleece
in two installments, with introductions by noted Indian author, Vine DeLoria,
Jr. and western legend, Frank Waters; Denver's Rocky Mountain Magazine
runs a feature story on troubadour Bobby Bridger and his "living room concerts"
throughout the west.
1979 Returns to Chihuahua for a second thirty-day
canyoneering expedition. Writes the songs for the album, Heal In The Wisdom;
continues painting.
1978 Takes up rock climbing and departs into Mexico's
Chihuahuan Desert on a thirty-day expedition called Desert Dance; tours
the west honing the one-man show of A Ballad of the West; begins painting
again.
1977 Appointed first Poet/Balladeer-In-Residence of
the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; appointed to
the Board of Directors of the Kerrville Folk Festival. (Bridger was the
first winner of the New Folk contest of the famous festival and has
performed at every Kerrville Folk Festival.); appeared on the third
season of the PBS series, Austin City Limits in a special one-hour encore
performance; Bridger is invited to perform Seekers of the Fleece at the
John G. Neihardt Center in Bancroft, Nebraska; meets playwright/ theatrical
publisher, Christopher Sergel and joins the
team assembling a dramatic production of Black Elk Speaks; Bridger
is appointed the first Balladeer-In-Residence of the John G. Neihardt Center.
1974-1980 Produced and scored 41 documentary films, dozens
of commercials (winning numerous "Addie" awards) and three feature films
(The Wheel, Keep Trucking, and Breakaway).
1976 Appeared on the first season (the third show
of the series) of the PBS series, Austin City Limits.
1975 Bridger, Slim Pickens, The Lost Gonzo Band, Ramblin'
Jack Elliot, and Timberjack Joe the mountain man, record Part One of A
Ballad of the West, Seekers of the Fleece, in Denver, Colorado.
1974 A chapter is devoted to Bridger and his work
in the definitive work on the "progressive country" movement in country
music, The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock by Jan Reid. (Heidelberg Publishers).
1973 Produced and recorded And I Wanted To Sing For
The People (RCA APL0182) in Hollywood; completes Part Three of A
Ballad of the West, Lakota; debuts the one-man show, A Ballad of the West
at Austin's Creek Theater (The show runs 15 weeks SRO).
1972 Bridger spends the summer in Grand Teton National
Park performing A Ballad of the West.
1971 Signed with RCA Records and Edwin H. Morris Publishing
Company in Hollywood.
1970 Moved to Austin, Texas; completes Part One of
A Ballad of the West, Seekers of the Fleece.
1969 Produced and recorded Merging Of Our Minds (RCA
LSP 4792) in Nashville. The release earned glowing reviews in Billboard,
Cashbox and Record World Magazines.
1968-69 Records and released two singles with Nugget
Records in Nashville (both out of print). One of the singles, The World
Is Turning On, charts in England.
1968 Graduated Northeast Louisiana University, BA
Art Education; teaches Art at West Monroe High School. West Monroe, LA.
1967 Signed with Monument Records in Nashville; recorded
three singles (all out of print). All the releases earn glowing reviews
in Billboard, Cashbox and Record World Magazines.
1964 Bridger begins a three-year, twice-a-week run on
"McCall Comes Calling", a live television program on station KNOE in Monroe,
Louisiana.
1963 Bridger began performing professionally. Begins
research on A Ballad of the West.
