When legendary folk music performer Bill Staines died in early December, it was 45 years since he’d first appeared on WVBR’s Bound for Glory, the long-running live folk concert radio series. “Starting back in December of 1976, Bill had been a Bound for Glory audience favorite, performing live 28 times on our stage,” says BFG organizer Jim Harper.

Like many public events, live concerts on WVBR’s Bound for Glory have had to be canceled since March 2020, with longtime host Phil Shapiro hosting the show playing recorded music, or “albums from the studio.” Phil has been mixing in recordings of past live concerts, and this Sunday night will feature a 2018 performance by Bill Staines.

For more than forty years, Bill Staines traveled back and forth across North America, singing his songs and delighting audiences at festivals, folksong societies, colleges, concerts, clubs, and coffeehouses. A New England native, Bill became involved with the Boston-Cambridge folk scene in the early 1960s. From the time in 1971 when a reviewer from the Boston Phoenix stated that he was “simply Boston’s best performer,” Bill continually appeared on folk music radio listener polls as one of the top all-time favorite folk artists. After more than four decades he had a well deserved international reputation as a gifted songwriter and performer.

“Singing mostly his own songs, he became one of the most popular and durable singers on the folk music scene, performing nearly 200 concerts a year and driving over 65,000 miles annually,” according to the Bound for Glory team.

Bill Staines performing at WVBVR’s Bound for Glory. Photo provided.

“I have always wanted to bring something of value to people with my songs,” Staines himself said. “I think that is important, to try to write beyond myself, to write to the great things that we all experience in our lives.” His songs have been recorded by many artists including Peter, Paul, and Mary, Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy, The Highwaymen, Mason Williams, Grandpa Jones, Jerry Jeff Walker, Nanci Griffith, and Glen Yarborough.

Other featured concerts from the past coming up on Bound for Glory, in its 54th season on WVBR, include Leslie Lee and Steve Gretz from February, 2020 on January 23rd, Y’All, recorded in 2002, on January 30th, and Four Shillings Short, from 2016, on February 6th.

This Sunday night from 8-11pm will feature a Bound for Glory show that includes album sets with an assortment of recorded music, and the three half-hour sets featuring Bill Staines recorded live on April 15th, 2018. The live sets start at 8:30, 9:30, and 10:30, locally at 93.5FM and worldwide at wvbr.com.

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