Bobby lost his battle with cancer in November 2020 as the finishing touches were being put on his album Just Before I Fall. His many talented friends helped celebrate his life and music at The Lost Highway Lounge in Huntsville, AL, on Thursday, August 26, 2021. Many thanks to all who came and shared stories of Bobby's life and to the musicians who presented his music so beautifully. He is dearly missed, but his music lives on.

The debut album from singer/songwriter Bobby Blount has a smooth, easygoing flow, much like the current of the Mississippi River, on whose banks he first found his rhythm. Just Before I Fall is a collection of tunes that blend the musical elements of rock, country and Americana with personal, reflective, often wistful, lyrics. His vocals are bright in tone but with a rasp and an edge that connect emotionally to his words.

Blount lived in Huntsville, but grew up in Natchez, a quintessential small Southern town that straddles the border between Mississippi and Louisiana. His father played piano, organ and guitar in a handful of bands, and Blount caught the bug early, learning to play guitar at age 9. His Southern upbringing stayed with him and influenced many of the tracks on the album, which is a reckoning of sorts of the complicated relationship we often have with our hometowns.

Blount’s sound is the distillation of a wide musical palate that includes Paul Westerberg, ELO, Tom Petty and many others. The country-tinged rock refrains are easy to sway to, but listen closely and you’ll catch a slight wince in those nostalgic lyrics about riverbanks and good times past. The track “New Year’s Eve” bemoans the burnout we all feel during the non-stop holiday season, but also hints at something a little darker behind those midnight toasts. “It’s about being on the edge, not knowing if you’re going to make it to the next day,” he said. “It’s one night of the year (and I hate champagne) and everyone’s drunk at 9 p.m. and cover is high and I just want to be by myself a little bit. It’s one of my diary songs.”

“Mahalia” has a more pronounced rock groove, with a title Blount chose out of love for charming old Southern names and the stories they imply. The opening lyric calls out a piano man in Natchez who really knows how to play – a nod to his father. “Smiles” is a more stripped down, slow rocker about waiting for the better times that you hope are coming.

Blount often used his music as a sort of therapy to tell stories and work through feelings. “Despite trying, I’m not very good at meditation,” he said. But creating and performing music offers the same release. “It’s the camaraderie, it’s the language you speak with other people. I just love that feeling.”

Bobby also appeared (playing organ) on the Startlingly Fresh Records release of Hunter Copeland's The Boom Boom Room.

• Photography by Mike Matthews
• Cover and packaging design by Karen Kilpatrick

Album Personnel:

• Bobby Blount - lead vocal, guitars, organ
• Kira Hughes - guitar, drums, harmony vocal
• Mike Dendy - drums
• Jim Cavender - guitar, bass, harmony vocal
• Shelly Williams - saxophone
• Quentin Roddie - vibraphone
• Alan Little - suitcase drums
• Newt Johnson - accordion
• Marge Loveday - electric piano, harmony vocal
• Neeve Weinberger - harmony vocal
• Kirsta Channell - harmony vocal
• Alli Johnson - harmony vocal
• Claire Johnson - harmony vocal

What are people saying?

"From pop stuff like Britney Spears to music-snob fare like Tom Waits, Bobby Blount could hear the beauty in all of it. This made Blount an uncommonly nuanced fan... It also made him a quietly talented singer, tunesmith and musician." - Matt Wake, "He knew he was dying. This Alabama musician still finished his debut album and it’s a good one", al.com