CASA - The Contemporary A Capella Society

 The other current Bobs are co-founder Matthew "Bob" Stull, Amy "Bob" Engelhardt and Dan "Bob"Schumacher.

The Grammy-nominated Bobs are certainly not afraid to test the waters as songwriters. Engelhardt, the lone female Bob, has penned a new song called "Sandwich Man."

The group has also revisited one of its classic cover tunes with a new arrangement of Cream's "White Room," from Schumacher, the newest and tallest Bob.

"He's an interesting fellow because he has opera training but a sort of complete, anti-opera sensibility," Greene said.

The Bobs formed as a trio with Greene, Stull and Gunnar Madsen 25 years ago in San Francisco. At the time, Madsen and Stull worked for a singing telegram company. You may have heard of it. Western Union.

"We got together kind of on a lark. We thought, 'A cappella group. That would be a fun idea.'So we made up all the rules ourselves,"Greene said.

From the beginning, the Bobs wanted to do something different from barbershop quartets, glee clubs and doo-wop singers.

"We focused on cover tunes just to get started," Greene recalled. "The first thing we did was 'Helter Skelter,' which got nominated for a Grammy. We wanted to have the sense that you weren't hearing a street-corner doo-wop group. We wanted people to get the sense that they were listening to a band. It was just coincidental that the songs were all being sung rather than being played."

A year later, Janie "Bob" Scott became the original fourth Bob.

"If we went to a gig in a rental car, there was always one empty seat before," Greene joked.

Greene and Madsen soon began to write songs.

"Gunnar and I wrote together,"Greene said. "He had a degree in composition from the University of California and I had been doing a lot of writing and arranging for an eight-piece jazz group."

Early songs included "Through the Wall,""Cowboy Lips," and "Art for Art's Sake."

The Bobs began collaborating with dance companies in 1987.

"That happened quite by accident. We had done a radio interview and we left an actual vinyl record behind on the turntable. The next interview was with a dance company. They heard it and contacted us. It seemed like a good marriage of their liberal visual and choreographic sensibility with our liberal musical sensibility,"Greene said.

In recent years, the Bobs have released recordings such as "20 Years/20 Songs: The Best of The Bobs"and "Rhapsody in Bob."

The Bobs embarked on their 25th anniversary year in January with a reunion concert featuring the current and many former Bobs in San Francisco. The concert was filmed and will be released on DVD later in 2006.

Reprinted with permission from the Dailyrecord.com: http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060426/ENT01/604260358/1082/LIFE