2007 Obit: Bob Dyer of Boonville, Missouri + songs

Subject: Obit: Bob Dyer of Boonville, Missouri
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 11 Apr 07 - 01:25 PM

I learned from Cathy Barton and Dave Para that Bob Dyer passed away this morning (Apr 11). Bob was an historian of Missouri and river lore, often serving on board the Delta Queen in that capacity. He toured with the Discovery String Band along with Cathy, Dave, et al, doing programs about the Lewis and Clark expidition. He wrote many fine songs and performed them on various stages around the mid-west. He was one of the organizers of the Big Muddy Folk Festival in Boonville, and he will be memorialized at that festival on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (this weekend) April 13, 14 and 15. Bob was a gentleman, tolerant and encouraging of the efforts of others, and forever the student of the folklore of his beloved Missouri. He conducted in-school teaching sessions in a number of Missouri school systems, passing on his knowledge and enthusiasm for the past to elementary students around the state. His personality, his knowledge, his performing, and his good humor will be missed for a long time to come. Missouri has lost one of its treasures.
             Jim Hickam

Subject: RE: Obit: Bob Dyer of Boonville, Missouri
From: Scoville
Date: 11 Apr 07 - 01:32 PM

Oh, no! My Missouri friends talk about him all the time!

That's a really cool part of the country; I'm headed up there in two weeks. Too bad.

Subject: RE: Obit: Bob Dyer of Boonville, Missouri
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 11 Apr 07 - 02:20 PM

Thanks for the e-mail notice, Jim. I was afraid to open it. I sensed that something was seriously wrong. It turned out even worse.

I'd always been a great admirer of JHim and his songwriting, but that turned out to be only part of the picture. I felt a kinship with Bob, long before I met him. The first time that I performed at the Big Muddy Festival, Dave and Cathy took me to find Bob as soon as I pulled into town. We'd been looking forward to meeting each other, Even though Bob was busy (as were Dave and Cathy) doing final preparations for the festival, Bob drove me around the area, taking me to historic sites, indian mounds, old buildings and a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. He had a way about him. He could breathe life into every rock and stream, and I felt like I knew Boonville by the time we headed back to the festival. I took a slew of photographs that I still tresure, from that first trip. Better yet, Bob and I shared a songwriting workshop together, which was one of the highlghts of the festival.

The folk music community suffers from a severe case of Holleritis. Many gifted musicians never become known beyond their local Hollow.
I appreciated that Dave and Cathy recorded some of Bob's songs, because they were my introduction to his music. Bob leaves a rich body of songs about central Missouri. Hopefully, people will keep them alive by performing them His was a gift too great to be forgotten.

And his heart was as big as his talent.

He'll be sorely missed by all who knew him.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Obit: Bob Dyer of Boonville, Missouri
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 Apr 07 - 03:24 PM

I'm sorry to hear that. Bob Dyer was a wonderful man. He wrote one of the most beautiful of modern songs

ON A DAY LIKE TODAY (Copyright: Bob Dyer, Songwright Pub. Inc.)

On a day like today, in the heat of this late summer weather,
There's a haze in the trees and the sound of the bees in the clover;
There's a hawk in the sky, there's a shine on the wide river's water,
And I feel deep inside something wanting to stay here forever.



But the seasons keep changing,
And the days just keep running away,
And forever's a gift you're forever giving away.


On a day like today, in the last golden days of October,
There's a chill in the air and a light haze of frost on the clover;
There's a fire in the trees, there's a sound in the breeze like a whisper,
And I feel deep inside something wanting to stay here forever.

On a day like today, in the heart of a long, bitter winter,
With the light from the moon making stars on the snow in the clover,
I sit down by the fire in the heat of its slow, dying embers,
And I feel deep inside something wanting to stay here forever.


It's a morning in spring, and the dew on the jewel weed still glistens,
And I almost can hear new life being born as I listen;
I walk down by the spring and I drink from its clear flowing water,
And I feel deep inside something wanting to stay here forever.

Subject: RE: Obit: Bob Dyer of Boonville, Missouri
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 11 Apr 07 - 04:08 PM

Bob was always a gentleman. RIP, Bob.

Subject: RE: Obit: Bob Dyer of Boonville, Missouri
From: Rex
Date: 11 Apr 07 - 04:40 PM

Bob wrote a great song about Mike Fink. Sorry to hear of
his passing. May he be find the banjo section in heaven.

Rex

Subject: RE: Obit: Bob Dyer of Boonville, Missouri April 2007
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 11 Apr 07 - 07:48 PM

I only knew of Bob through Dave and Cathy and had hoped to meet him. He gave us some fine songs. I am sorry he left us so soon but he did leave a wonderful legacy thorugh his music.

Subject: RE: Obit: Bob Dyer of Boonville, Missouri April 2007
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 11:22 AM

The folk community is a vast interlocking entity. We can't all be acquainted, but we each have our circle of special members. In scanning down today's list of threads I encountered other obituary notices. They were all people I didn't know---to my loss. There are so many wonderful people, each doing his or her share to pass on the heritage of songs and performing, who will achieve limited fame within their circle of friends. The rest of us will not know them, but we are all the poorer for that.
I feel privileged to have know Bob Dyer, to have seen him perform, to have heard his talks on song writing, and on the history of the region he lived in. He was a guest on my radio show, and I had the opportunity to jam with him.
May you treasure those within your circle, and may you be treasured by them. We each are unique and bring unique abilities to the circle. Bob was one of my circle's unique members, and I treasure his memory and am saddened by his passing. Raise a glass in his honor, as I do to those I don't know but wish I did.

Subject: ADD: Huckleberry Finn (Bob Dyer)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Aug 18 - 08:27 PM

Here's a Bob Dyer favorite that's been recorded by a variety of people:

HUCKLEBERRY FINN
(Bob Dyer)

There's a moon on the Mississippi River tonight,
A side-wheel steamboat making up time.
A raft drifting by with a bunch of drunk men,
I'm catfishing with my old friend, Jim.
They call me Huckleberry Finn, Finn, Huckleberry Finn,
Finn, Huckleberry Finn.

Well, I lived for a while up in Hannibal town,
But daddy was a drunkard, and he beat me around.
I left my friends, Joe, Tom Sawyer and Ben,
And went off a-rafting with Jim.
They call me…

Well, we run by nights, and we tied up days.
Dawn turned the river to a smoky haze.
Lazin' in the shallows doing just as we please,
Me and Jim layin' there a-dreaming.
They call me…

Well, life slides by when you're living on a raft.
You never rightly know just what's gonna pass:
Sometimes danger, sometimes fun,
Sometimes, it's just a piece of driftwood.
They call me…

Well, I never much cared for the civilized life.
I'd rather be out on the river at night,
Laying on my back and looking up at the stars,
Smoking on my pipe and just drifting.
They call me...

Steamboat chimbley's a'spewin' out sparks,
Fiddle music drifting by in the dark,
There's a hoot owl calling from a cottonwood tree.
This lonesome old river keeps a' rollin'.
They call me…

[repeat first verse]

Transcribed from the Bob Dyer Songteller album

On the Bok-Muir-Trickett album Language of the Heart

and the Cathy Barton & Dave Para album Living on the River (click for sound sample)

Subject: Track List: Songteller, by Bob Dyer
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Aug 18 - 09:43 PM

Songteller (Bob Dyer)

1. Mike Fink
2. When the Rains Come Down
3. Jesse James
4. Dry Waltz
5. River of the Big Canoes
6. Ballad of the Boonslick
7. Phantom Black Carriage
8. Guinea Sam
9. The Last Man to Hang in Missouri
10. Treasure in the River
11. Huckleberry Finn
12. The Santa Fe Trail
13. Marais des Cygne
14. The Jim Johnson
15. Jim, the Wonder Dog
16. After He Painted These Walls
17. Bingham's Dog
18. The Ballad of Dr. Keil
19. On a Day Like Today

Subject: RE: 2007 Obit: Bob Dyer of Boonville, Missouri + songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Aug 18 - 09:50 PM

Cathy Barton and Dave Para did a whole CD of Bob Dyer songs. It's called The Wandering Fool (click). Follow the link for lyrics, notes, and sound samples.
-Joe-