from Facebook 17 October 2018
with Bob at The Station Inn
Sometimes surprises can happen right under your nose. Since my early days of engineering at Jack Clement’s I had occasionally been forced to work with a character named Bob White. Every scene has someone like Bob. A person with no visible means of support, who is always ready to party, who has some mysterious attraction for women.
Sometimes Bob would disappear and in his place was a suave, debonair Continental named Roberto Bianco, “The Romantic Voice Of Our Time.” Roberto had a voice like Julio Iglesias, only slightly more unctuous. Jack “Stack-A-Track” Grochmal had started a recording project with Roberto and his lifelong friend, the saxophonist Jay Patten, and they had recorded a couple of incredible tracks–“My Soon To Be Former Wife (Wants 50% Of My Life)” and “Quando Condo.” Barry Manilow eat your heart out! It fell to me to record some of Roberto’s more standard fare, including a synth-laden “Cara Mia,” which positively dripped olive oil. Sadly, Roberto’s management absconded with the tickets for his world tour, and he became a rather pathetic figure haunting places like Brown’s Diner and The Gold Rush cadging drinks and hors d’oeuvres, surrounded by adoring women!
One night Roberto did a set with Michael Johnson as part of one of my birthday parties at the Station Inn. Michael had had a pop hit with “Bluer Than Blue” in the ’70’s and some wonderful Country Hits like “Give Me Wings” and “The Moon Is Still Over Her Shoulder” in the ’80’s. I loved those records and his voice and liked him as a person. Almost unnoticed by me was the fact that he was an extraordinary guitarist. He
played a Spanish style, gut string guitar and actually studied guitar in Spain for a period.
On this night at my birthday party Michael played beautiful accompaniment to Roberto’s “Moonlight In Vermont,” which he did for my wife Carol (married women were especially susceptible to Roberto’s “charms”). Afterwards I suggested that Roberto and Michael should work up some standards and record them–just the two of them. They took me up on my suggestion and started seriously working on some songs. Mark Miller offered to record them at Jack’s Tracks any time they wanted, so they eventually got to the point where they were ready.
By then I was in Ireland, but they went ahead without me. I had learned the art of producing from afar from Jack Clement. They would send me a CD with the day’s results and I would either say, “Yes.” Or “Do it again.” I wanted everything to be “live.” I didn’t want any fixes or splices, so it wasn’t easy, but, by God, they kept at it until they had a flawless collection of great songs, with beautifully subtle, intricate, and elegant guitar accompaniment surrounding Roberto’s velvety rich and true vocals. I was so proud of him for doing this. This was no joke. He and Michael had surprised me and lots of other people with a rare and wonderful work, appropriately titled: “Always.”
Comment by Jay Patten (saxophonist, longtime band leader for Crystal Gayle)
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I got you to engineer and record “Cara Mia “ ,” Love Me With All Your Heart” and “Speak Softly Love” . The band was Charles Cochran, Chris Leuzinger, Toni Sehulster, and Tommy Wells. Pebble Daniel, Marsha Wood, and Vickie Carrico put some great vocals on the tracks.
Before then Bob and I had Thanksgiving Dinner with my parents in Clearwater ,Florida .
My family loved Bob Biles [ed. – Roberto’s legal name] since our high school days. I said to my beautiful Italian mother
“You know mom, Bob has changed his name to Bob White .”
She said “ you know in Italian, that’s Roberto Bianco .”
Bob and I looked at each other …and I thought a TV album! Bob had a glorious voice and thought Cowboy would love the idea and would let us use his studio.
There was an ad for some movie with a quote like “the most important film of our time.” On the car ride from Florida to Nashville, Bob became Roberto Bianco “The Romantic Voice Of Our Time and he couldn’t wait to tell everybody in town.
Within days he had all of his many many friends calling him Roberto.
I booked some studio time and I went back on the road with Crystal . While I was away a wonderful thing happened. Jack Stack a Track, David Ferguson, Toni , Lanny Boles , Ralph Vitello recorded an amazingly huge funny track on “Soon To Be Former Wife.” The project turned into a really creative comedy musical projectwith some great ballad tracks included.
Bob Biles, Bob White and Roberto Bianco was the most naturally funny and delightful person I’ve ever known. I will miss him.