Into the room walks a shaggy black-haired, mirrored sunglass-wearing, mysterious-looking man with a guitar thrown over his shoulder. Now don't let this rock-star image fool you. This is the mask of a passion-filled, story-telling soul named 'bob'.

'bob', not to be confused with Bob Dylan or anyone else for that matter, has his own style. A man of few words, he expresses everything he needs to share with people in his catchy tunes. 'bob' is known well for his solo work but can also be seen fronting a band. He is a diverse singer-songwriter, writing everything from hard-knocking, in-your-face rockers, to folksy ballads, to sad jazzy love songs, to up-beat classic R&B and blues, to hopeful pop songs.

This musical soul was born in the Bay Area of California. He grew up there and was introduced to music at the age of 11 when he beat the drum for the school marching band. Although he enjoyed the drums, after three years his interests had gravitated to a smaller, more mobile instrument.

In 1995 he found his mother's old right-handed guitar in the closet and spent the summer locked up in his room picking to the radio. He enjoyed it, but his hands didn't feel right. "One day I picked up my mother's acoustic and didn't put it down for months. It was a big awkward thing; right-handed, too. For the life of me I couldn't play the damn thing but couldn't put it down. Eventually I conned my mother into letting me switch it around; from then on it came fast and easy. I wrote my own songs because I didn't know what I was doing; I didn't know how to read music; for the longest time chords were a mystery to me, so I just did what felt right." Today he has over 200 songs copyrighted.

'bob' began playing live a few years after he started writing when he discovered a local open-mic. He instantly fell in love with the energy an audience could produce. Shortly after, he began accepting gigs at local coffee shops throughout the Bay Area. Between his shows and open-mics he was performing somewhere every night.

"I enjoyed the work; it was different every night. It was a good experience, and I learned a lot and found my voice, but quickly I got bored of the scene and couldn't stand all the driving I was doing. I'd rather walk or take a train; I'm a passenger type."

While the Bay Area is a lovely area to live, 'bob' knew there was more out there. "When I was 21 I went to New York. I've always been drawn there. I think it has to do with how everything's so close together, how people literally live on top of each other." He lived in New York City for 6 months making money playing coffee houses and bars. "Most Sundays, if the weather wasn't too bad, I'd play in Central Park, mostly at Strawberry Field. That was lots of fun; lots of tourists would come through and I'd play Beatle songs, as well as my own..."

Since NYC, 'bob' has lived all along the west coast gaining local praises wherever he goes. He is now a part of the California-based independent label, Yur Mother's Music, and is currently in Eugene, Oregon, recording his next album due out this summer.