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Bellevue Leader Have songs, will travel A few years ago, Bob Malone toured the country in a green "soccer mom" mini-van, as he described it. "Things have improved greatly since then," said Malone whose music combines blues, New Orleans ragtime and classic, piano-man pop. Malone will fly to Omaha this week for a string of metro area shows, including one Friday at Joslyn Art Museum, part of the First Friday JAM series. He'll also play Thursday night at the Zoo Bar in Lincoln, Saturday afternoon at the Homer's record store in Old Market, and Sunday at Mick's in Benson. Those are a handful of the more than 150 gigs Malone plays in a typical year, a grueling schedule he has maintained since 1995, when he left behind his band and hit the road solo. He has since released four solo albums, including the 2002 "Malone Alone" live album. Luckily, Malone said, the venues are nicer now than they were in 1995, because bouncing from show to show is still a bear - even when an airplane is involved. "I love the gigs - that never gets old," he said, speaking last week from New York City. "But the travel part long ago lost its luster." Malone began taking classical piano lessons at age 9. Then he was "corrupted by guitars," as he put it, and by 18 was knee-deep in the rock-club scene. He spent high school listening to Billy Joel, Paul Simon and fellow New Jersey boy Bruce Springsteen. After high school, he attended Berklee School of Music in Boston, where he was exposed to a wider variety of music, including the blues. The New Orleans "blues and stomp" of Dr. John made a particularly strong impression on the young Malone. "It's like it was just out there waiting for me to play," he said. Malone has since blended that blues influence with the sound of the classic singer-songwriters he grew up with to make his own, uniquely Americana sound. His four albums and high-energy live show have attracted a steadily growing audience, enough so that his 2002 live album actually sounds like a live album, as opposed to so many live albums, which sound like a guy pushing the "record" button and playing alone in a room. Malone culled those live tracks from concerts in Santa Cruz, Calif., Boston, Atlanta, Bethlehem, Penn., and New Paltz, N.Y, recorded during a three-year span. The shows were bare-bones - mostly just Malone and a piano - but they captured the raw energy of his performances. The live album also fulfilled a wish of many of his fans, who had been clamoring for a CD of only Malone and not the backing band of vocalists, guitarists and jazz musicians he sometimes plays with. "And I couldn't see making a studio album of me playing by myself," he said. Another sign of Malone’s growing success is the roster of big-time musicians he has opened for during the past six years. He's warmed the crowd for the Neville Brothers (including a 1998 Omaha show), Al Green, Boz Scaggs, Manhattan Transfer and Arlo Guthrie. The Guthrie show last year was a particular treat, Malone said, because it was in Oklahoma, where Arlo's legendary father, Woody, grew up. After the show he met members of the Guthrie extended family, including Woody's sister. "That was amazing," Malone said. His music also has been featured on numerous NPR shows, including "Car Talk" and "Acoustic Cafe," as well as on TV shows "JAG," "Young and the Restless" and "All My Children." He also has the dubious honor of being one of Music Connection Magazine's "Best Unsigned Artists in L.A." for five years in a row. A compliment, yes, but a reminder that Malone has yet to make the commercial breakthrough every bill-paying musician dreams of. Not that Malone’s complaining, of course. "What I do is work," he said, "but it's not really work." - Jason Keese
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