Bob Blackman hosts "The Folk Tradition," airing on 90.5 WKAR-FM every Sunday at 6:00 p.m. Bob Blackman is best known as host of "The Folk Tradition" on WKAR-FM 90.5, every Sunday at 6:00 p.m., but he has channeled his passion for folk music into many other activities as well.
A lifelong resident of the East Lansing area, Bob started doing radio as part of the "DJ Club" at East Lansing High School, playing records over the PA system during lunch hours. After doing some college radio, Bob came to WKAR, where his first series, "The American Tradition," debuted on WKAR-AM in May 1974. Over the years Bob has produced several programs for the station, including a nationally-distributed series of concerts recorded at the Ten Pound Fiddle coffeehouse. His current Sunday evening show debuted in March 1984.
Bob was co-founder of the Ten Pound Fiddle coffeehouse in East Lansing, which has presented weekly folk music concerts since January 1975, and served as the booking manager for several early seasons. He booked and scheduled the performers for four days of concerts on the "Coffeehouse" stage at the 1988 Michigan Festival in East Lansing. Bob served on the Music Selection Committee for the National Folk Festival's three-year run in East Lansing (1999-2001) and has continued to be a music advisor for its successor, the Great Lakes Folk Festival. For his work with those local festivals, the MSU Museum has named him a Research Associate in the Folk Arts Division.
Bob has contributed close to two hundred articles, reviews, and columns to various music publications. Most of his work has been in "Sing Out!" magazine, where he wrote the "Songfinder" column from 1977 to 1984, later served as a regular record reviewer, and authored a major article on the Copper Family (a family of traditional singers from Sussex, England). Bob also wrote regular columns for "Folkscene" and "Come For To Sing" magazines. He has written liner notes for albums by Stan Rogers, Joel Mabus, and Sara Grey, and even composed a song that has been recorded by the Short Sisters.
Bob has frequently been an on-stage emcee at the Ten Pound Fiddle, the National Folk Festival, the Great Lakes Folk Festival, the Mid-Winter Singing Festival, the Michigan Festival, and concerts at Wharton Center, Hannah Community Center, and other venues. He has introduced Ralph Stanley, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Doc Watson, Cherish the Ladies, Natalie MacMaster, Riders in the Sky, Eileen Ivers, Tom Paxton, and scores of other performers.
A longtime theater enthusiast, Bob has enjoyed serving as musical consultant for several local productions, including "Philadelphia, Here I Come" at BoarsHead Theater (2003) and "Miss Evers' Boys" at Riverwalk Theater (2008).
Bob is also a respected member of the national folk music community. He is a founding member of the Folk Alliance, and has chaired sessions or been a panelist at four of their national conferences. Bob serves as one of the administrators of folkdj-l, a listserv for folk radio hosts all over the world.
In recent years Bob has been invited to give several presentations about folk and bluegrass music at local libraries. He has also emceed several concerts in the "WKAR Night at Creole Gallery" series.
Although Bob juggles many folk music activities, he is a computer programmer/analyst by profession. Since 1993 he has been the Computer Systems Administrator at Elderly Instruments, an internationally-known music store based in Lansing.
published: September 19, 2007
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