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Bob Mehr

Bob Mehr

Bob Mehr has been a reporter and critic covering music for The Commercial Appeal since 2006. His byline has also appeared in numerous national and international music magazines including SPIN, MOJO in the U.K. and German Rolling Stone, and his essays are regularly featured as part of CD reissues for labels like Rhino Records.

16 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Ryan Adams: At Home, Kinda, With Ryan Adams

Retrospective and Interview by Bob Mehr, Buzzfeed, 7 September 2014

An alt-country wunderkind who hates country music, a restlessly prolific songwriter stifled by his label, a reformed hell-raiser determined to maintain privacy in a celebrity ...

Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty: John Fogerty

Interview by Bob Mehr, MOJO, June 2013

The prime mover behind Creedence Clearwater Revival, he crafted blazing pop songs of soul and protest until band strife and label hell undid him. But ...

Jim Dickinson: "I'm Just Dead: I'm Not Gone"

Memoir by Bob Mehr, MOJO, November 2009

A Sun Records artist who played with Dylan, the Stones and Aretha and produced key albums by Big Star and Ry Cooder, Jim Dickinson was ...

The Dixie Chicks: Dixie Chicks: United Centre, Chicago

Live Review by Bob Mehr, MOJO, November 2006

President-baiting Texans gain new fans but lose musical momentum. ...

Robert Finley: At 63, Louisiana bluesman Robert Finley living musical dream

Profile and Interview by Bob Mehr, The Commercial Appeal, 29 September 2016

Sixty-three year old singer Robert Finley marks the release of his debut album with a show at Lafayette's Music Room on Oct. 6. ...

Steve Forbert: Roots artist Forbert saw commercial flashes early on

Profile and Interview by Bob Mehr, The Commercial Appeal, 19 January 2007

EVEN AT THE lowest point of his travails within the music industry, when he was stuck in legal limbo with labels and his star was ...

Guided By Voices: Metro, Chicago

Live Review by Bob Mehr, MOJO, March 2005

TONGUE PLANTED only partly in cheek, Guided By Voices' leader Bob Pollard has dubbed his group's farewell tour "Mission Accomplished: The Electrifying Conclusion", and by ...

Rickie Lee Jones: Bohemian Rhapsody

Interview by Bob Mehr, MOJO, July 2011

Fuelled by a bitter split with lover Tom Waits, scarred by spiraling addictions and underwritten by her traumatic childhood, Rickie Lee Jones' Pirates album took ...

Laura Mvula: South by Southwest, Austin, Texas

Live Review by Bob Mehr, MOJO, June 2013

Brummie nu-soul darling beats fast food hand-outs and industry hype at US debut in Lone Star state. ...

Liz Phair: Is All Phair In Rock 'N' Roll?

Interview by Bob Mehr, Harp, November 2005

THE PENINSULA HOTEL is an elegant, bordering on ostentatious, spot in the heart of Chicago's Magnificent Mile. As the concierge and desk staff scurry about ...

The Replacements: The World's Most Unsatisfied Band

Retrospective and Interview by Bob Mehr, Spin, May 2008

Nearly two decades after the Replacements' strangely quiet demise, the gloriously ramshackle catalogue of one of American underground rock's defining bands gets a proper makeover. ...

The Rolling Stones: United Center, Chicago

Live Review by Bob Mehr, MOJO, April 2006

SINCE THEIR ESCAPE from UK tax laws in the early '70s, the Rolling Stones have been a band with no fixed abode. ...

Kelley Stoltz: Below The Branches

Review by Bob Mehr, MOJO, March 2006

Third LP and second consecutive corker from Bay Area-based cosmic troubadour. ...

Paul Westerberg: Folk Art

Interview by Bob Mehr, Harp, November 2004

Paul Westerberg on his infamous past, fatherhood and his most personal solo offering to date, Folker. ...

Warren Zevon: Warren Zevon

Sleeve notes by Bob Mehr, Rhino Records, 2008

THIS STORY BEGINS like one of Warren Zevon's own songs – with a few pleading lines scribbled on a postcard sent to some far-off locale. ...

List of genre pieces

Arrow Brown: The Godfather of King Drive

Retrospective by Bob Mehr, Chicago Reader, 22 April 2005

Arrow Brown wanted badly to be a player-he wore a black hat, packed heat even in church, and exploited a houseful of wives and concubines ...

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