Country legends Bobby Bare reflects how “Things Change”

Country Music Hall of Famer and GRAMMY® award-winning legend Bobby Bare will release “Things Change” on May 26 featuring a collaboration with Chris Stapleton. The album is Bare’s first studio project in five years and is available for pre-sale now at BobbyBare.com and all CD’s purchased through Bare’s website will be autographed.

“Things Change” features 10 tracks written by Bare, Mary Gauthier, Guy Clark and the producer of the project, hit singer/songwriter Max T. Barnes. “Things Change” will be released by Hypermedia Nashville and BFD through RED Distribution. The album will include “Things Change,” which will be the first video by the 82-year old. Bare will also return to the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, where he was once a member from 1964-1974, on May 27.

The album features a special collaboration on Bare’s iconic hit, “Detroit City” with Chris Stapleton adding vocals. The 1963 song was written by Mel Tillis and Danny Dill. It became Bare’s most highly requested songs and won a GRAMMY® in 1964 for Best Country/Western Recording.

Stapleton, the two-time reigning CMA Male Vocalist of the Year, says working with Bare was too good of an offer to pass up.

“I think it’s important to show up and do things like that. Plus….it’s ‘Detroit City.’ Man, why wouldn’t you do that. I just served as a background singer to Bobby,” he said. “That was my goal. You get to be a kid again in those moments. That was a song that I heard on the jukebox when I was a kid. My dad and granddad liked this song. Those are cool things. That kind of stuff is as cool to me as anything that I get to do.”

Bare said he is excited about the collection of songs he has assembled.

“This is a special collection of songs to me, not just another record,” he said. “Great songs from Mary Gauthier, a song I co-wrote with Guy Clark that turned out to be his last and a song that my buddy Hoyt Axton inspired me to write called ‘Things Change.’ That’s the title of the album and the first single. Things do change but my love for songwriters and the fans never, ever will!”

Bare knows what he’s talking about when he talks about great songs, having recorded compositions from fellow legends as Tom T. Hall (“Margie’s At The Lincoln Park Inn”), Ian Tyson (“Four Strong Winds”), Kris Kristofferson (“Please Don’t Tell Me How The Story Ends”), and several compositions from the late Shel Silverstein – including his 1974 chart-topper “Marie Laveau.”

“I hit the road as a lead guitar player with Bobby Bare when I was 20 years old, ,” said Max T. Barnes, President of HYPERMEDIA Nashville. “To imagine I would produce my hero all these years later is a dream come true. We had so much fun touring the world in the 1980s. We laughed until we hurt! That’s what it was like in the studio with Bare on this album. He has a wicked smart song sense, and a delivery that will cut you to the bone. Bare is a true giant.”

For more information on Bobby Bare visit www.bobbybare.com.