Bob Coltman

Who is Bob Coltman?

Bob Coltman is an American singer of traditional songs, songwriter, guitarist and banjoist, and author.

Coltman is the author of the detailed scholarly biography, Paul Clayton and the Folksong Revival and Across the Chasm: How the Depression Changed Country Music, Old Time Music 23.

He became a performer in his early teens, playing 5-string banjo, guitar and other instruments. In 1954 and 1955 he traveled in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky, meeting traditional singers and collecting songs. In 1959 Bob traveled in the US west, southwest, and Mexico with skier-climber-singer Bill Briggs, influencing a number of singers who would take part in the folk song revival of the 1960s.

While in Baltimore in 1962, Coltman accompanied country, blues and jazz singer Joe Bussard. A vivid account of one of their record-finding trips appears in Marshall Wyatt, “A Visit with Joseph E. Bussard, Jr." Old-Time Herald. He recorded 78 rpm solo and group singles under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms for Bussard’s Fonotone Records label. From these masters were later made two LP albums and portions of a CD compilation.