BBQ Bob & The Spareribs

Style: Country, Harmonica, Rockabilly

Musicians: BBQ Bob (guitar, harmonica, lead vocals) And a host of greats that are too many to list.

The first Barbecue Bob & the Spareribs show took place at the Furnald Folk Festival at Columbia University in 1981, followed by shows at the Postcrypt coffee house. A long residency at Dan Lynch’s blues bar (booked by blues artist Bill Dicey) followed. Looking for a neighborhood bar, the band settled in at the Blue Rose Lounge at 106th St. & Broadway (NYC). Bob stocked the jukebox with his favorites and began booking acts as diverse as The Holmes Brothers, The Raunch Hands, Bobby Radcliff, and The Dogmatics (from Boston). During this period, the band released two 45’s on their own label, Rib records, (“Linda Lu” b/w “Shake Your Money Maker” and “My Barbecue Baby” b/w “Oedipus Rex”), acquired drummer/pianist Howie Wyeth, and began a series of shows opening for national acts at the original Lone Star Café (13th & 5th Ave. NYC). The Spareribs were still playing the Blue Rose and Dan Lynch’s, and had expanded to Philadelphia, doing frequent shows at Taker’s Café (Germantown) and Bacchanal (13th & South St.). The Ribs released two full-length cassettes (“The Best So Far”, and “Shut up and Play”) and began a long relationship with the Rodeo Bar (27th & 3rd Ave. NYC) around 1987.

The Spareribs had by this time begun playing in New Jersey clubs such as Wallace’s (East Orange), Tierney’s (Montclair), and opening for nationally touring acts at the Stanhope House (Stanhope). Two more full-length cassettes followed (“Four on the Floor”, with Simon Chardiet on guitar, and “Wages of Sin”, with Dan Hovey and Ira Spinrad on guitars).

At this point (1992), the Spareribs became an all New Jersey outfit, based out of New Brunswick, and hooked up with DaDa Records, a D.I.Y. label, releasing two 7”mono records “Snack Time”(’96) and “Side Order” (’97) .

They included the “A” sides on their first full-length CD “After School Special”, and have been touring the South and Midwest in support of these releases, building a small but loyal following as far as Chicago and New Orleans.

With their latest CD “Pass the Biscuits!”, Barbecue Bob and the Spareribs are poised to conquer the world, or at the very least, make it to California (and all points in between).

The Rodeo Bar NYC NY 2008