BOB NEUWIRTH SELF-TITLED DEBUT ASYLUM ALBUM TO BE REISSUED ON WATER RECORDS

Features Just a Few of his Friends including Stephen Bruton, Mama Cass, Don Everly, Chris Hillman, Booker T. Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Ian Matthews, Geoff Muldaur, Dusty Springfield and More

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10 2003

   LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The debut solo album by Bob Neuwirth, the singer/ songwriter/ producer/ performer/ painter/ poet/ /improviser/ instigator/ provocateur will again see the light of day as a reissue on Water Records, an independent label from San Francisco.

Originally issued on Asylum Records in 1974, Neuwirth was able to amass an impressive cast of SoCal guest musical figures including, Stephen Bruton, Rita Coolidge, Mama Cass Elliot, Don Everly, Donnie Fritts, Richie Furay, Chris Hillman, Booker T. Jones, Thomas Jefferson Kaye, Ben Keith, Clydie King, Kris Kristofferson, Bobbie Lichtig, Ian Matthews, Jerry McGee, Geoff Muldaur, Terry Paul, Fritz Richmond, Timothy Schmidt, Dusty Springfield, Mike Utley, Danny Weiss and Cory Wells; a list which included the Kris Kristofferson band with whom Neuwirth was touring at the time. He was also musically abetted by the towns best jazz horn players; Plas Johnson, Blue Mitchell, Clifford T. Scott, Clifford Salomon, Donald Cooke and Jerry Jumonville as he recorded during days free from a busy touring schedule.

Invited to make an album for Asylum Records by the legendary David Geffen, Neuwirth was generously given a no budget" green light to create; the resulting supporting cast reflects that freedom. The album was extravagant for its day. Ive never had so much fun in the studio in my life, I think, or, I dont remember," says Neuwirth now. Imagine the great Dusty Springfield and Don Everly singing on my album. Who says there is no such thing as abstract art." Whatever he may or may not recall the evidence is here for the examining.

Neuwirth, whos been described tongue in cheek" as a cultural zelig, has always made music wherever he happens to be: Patti Smiths bedroom in Detroit, Elliott Murphys living room in Paris and Bernie Leadons log cabin in Tennessee as well as innumerable bars, hotel rooms theaters and stages, both legitimate and impromptu. He has toured with John Cale, Warren Zevon, Geoff Muldaur, Howe Gelb and Bob Dylan among others. Most recently, he worked with Cuban composer, Jose Maria Vitier, with whom he recorded the acclaimed Havana Midnight.

While an art student, Neuwirth became part of the burgeoning Cambridge folk/blues scene where he learned first-hand from legends like Rev. Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt. Crisscrossing the country, he also spent time in Berkeley and San Francisco with Mance Lipscomb and various West Coast Country and Blues players. Having worked with Bob Dylan in the '60s (the tours documented by the films Dont Look Back and Eat The Document), he became part of the New York art and underground film scene. He filmed the Monterey and Toronto Pop Festivals with D. A. Pennebaker and toured with the then-struggling songwriter Kris Kristofferson. He taught Kris song Me & Bobby McGee" to his old friend Janis Joplin, with whom he had co-written Mercedes Benz."

In the '70s, Neuwirth helped Dylan assemble the Rolling Thunder Revue, which jump-started the careers of T Bone Burnett, David Mansfield and Steven Soles, among others. The next decade saw him write songs for artists like k.d. lang, Robert Earl Keen and Peter Case, and release two critically acclaimed records (Back To The Front and 99 Monkeys). He has produced records for the Alpha Band, T Bone Burnett and Vince Bell. In 1994, he wrote and recorded the song cycle/theater piece Last Day On Earth with John Cale and, two years later, released Look Up, which contained Patti Smiths first recording in more than a decade.

Of Havana Midnight, No Depression cited the albums elegant, elliptical, jazz-inflected performances which share little with the Buena Vista cottage industry, but frequently recall the classic neuva trova recordings of Pablo Milanés and Silvio Rodrigues." Pulse magazine added, One listen is enough for its subtle charm to creep under your skin and work its magic in mysterious ways."

More recently Neuwirth served as a producer of the D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, and Nick Doob documentary of Down from the Mountain. And he was back on the road as musical director of the Down from the Mountain" tour, the onstage companion to the Grammy winning, multi-platinum soundtrack of the movie O Brother Where Art Thou, leading a formidable troupe of Americana, country, bluegrass and blues artists through sold-out theaters across the U.S.