The word “guitar” seems to be inseparable from guitarist, songwriter, & producer Bob Minner. Having played guitar for 40 of his 46 years, you could say that it has imbedded itself in the very core of his being. “I have a picture of me at 20 months old with a plastic guitar in hand, so I guess it was inevitable. I have always heard it in my head though, for as long as I can remember” Bob says.

  And for good reason. Bob was raised in a household with a broad musical variety, from Barbara Streisand and Herb Albert, to mountain banjo guru Wade Ward and various string bands, to the more sophisticated Osborne Brothers bluegrass. Bob’s first instrument wasn’t guitar, but banjo, in the clawhammer mountain style. When Bob was about 5, Bob’s dad was taking clawhammer banjo lessons from a field recorder for the Smithsonian named Jim Olin. “I remember this hippie looking guy sitting with my dad, and I would watch this hypnotic right hand motion of Jim’s, and I guess it really spoke to me.”

  But the turning point to guitar was solidified when Bob’s dad took him to see Doc & Merle Watson at Sheldon Hall in St. Louis. “I was probably about 6 or so at the time my dad took me to see Doc & Merle. I remember Doc being led onto stage by Merle (I didn’t understand his blindness at that time). Although I don’t remember a lot of details, I do remember we had a lot of Doc Watson music at the house soon after”, says Bob. “It was with the iconic record “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” that I started to try to pick out bits and pieces of the tunes I was hearing Doc play.”

  When Bob was 10 his family relocated to the rural town of Desoto, MO. It was there that Bob’s musicality started to really blossom. “I opened a little home improvement center called “Smitty’s” when I was 10 on the local AM station KHAD. I played some banjo and guitar tunes, and didn’t answer too many questions beyond a yes or no”. But that gig brought Bob to the attention of a local bluegrass gospel band – Fiddling Willie Key and the Ozark Gospel Singers. Bob went on to play banjo on the weekly radio show, pre-recording it on 1’2” taper in Willie’s garage. “My first “road trip” was from DeSoto, MO to Kansas City, MO on an old Bluebird school bus that was converted to a band bus, more or less. I just thought that was what these men did for a living, playing music. Little did I know they had day jobs and this was their hobby”. But by then, Bob had the road bug, and all through high school, he was playing weekend bluegrass festivals and other country functions, coming back to school with money in his pockets. Not bad for a young teenager in rural Missouri.

  As a flatpicking guitarist, Bob has won 3rd place twice (1986-1987) in the prestigious National Flatpicking Championships held every September in Winfield Kansas, as well as many other regional contests for fiddle, banjo, and guitar.

  Another formative experience was the weekly jam sessions at the DeSoto Café. “The De Soto Café was on Main Street, and at about 7 pm on Wednesdays they would just pack this place out with locals, musicians and listeners alike. They would set up a few microphones in the front of the café and various clusters of people would just play music, while the listeners indulged on coffee and pie., Bob says. And that’s where I met one of the best old time fiddlers I ever knew – Doug Drury, who was also the great uncle to Bob’s future wife Ginger. “Doug started me on fiddle in the back room of the café, and from there we just hit it off. He was the one who gave me the telephone number to my future wife, Ginger. She was a great singer as well, and although we occasionally ran into each other at the De Soto Café, we didn’t really hit it off until later” recalls Bob.

  After Bob and Ginger became an “item” they toured about 40 weeks a year with their own band, playing Holiday Inns and various country clubs. And they did this until they had their 1st son Zachary (who also played drums on Bob’s solo CD). And it was a drummer from that band, Randy Davis, who introduced Bob to his future employer, Tim McGraw. Bob recalls “When we met Tim for the first time, he had just moved to Nashville, and was a room mate with Randy. He was just trying to make a break like everybody else. There was a gig at Skull’s Rainbow Room for a multi-instrumentalist up for grabs, and Randy turned me on to the audition, so Ginger and I drove from Missouri to Nashville to try out. We slept on the floor of Tim and Randy’s apartment” Bob recounts. “After the audition that night, we all went back to Tim and Randy’s apartment, and had a guitar pull, passing the guitar around and singing songs. Ginger told me, speaking of Tim, that if he ever got the break, he’d be huge, because he had the “IT” factor. I guess she was right”, Bob jokingly states.

  After moving to Nashville in 1993, leaving a job retreading airplane tires, and with Ginger and a 3 year-old son, Bob relocated to Nashville, where Ginger also pursued her aspirations as an artist and writer. “Tim had promised me the job with him before we moved, so it was a move of faith, and he sure stuck by his word”, Bob says. “Ginger had some backers for her career, so that helped get us here, so the timing of everything was perfect”.

  Currently, Bob has been a Dancehall Doctor for 18 years, and has been laying down the rhythm guitar and resophonic guitar for Tim at every show. Bob has played on four of Tim’s records (Tim McGraw & The Dancehall Doctors, Live Like You Were Dying, Let It Go, Southern Voice); contributing his acoustic guitar to over 7 #1 hits as well as many other chart songs by McGraw. Bob has appeared on every major award show and television show as well, including The Tonight Show, David Letterman, Ellen DeGeneres Show, Oprah, Jimmy Fallon, American Music Awards, The Grammy’s, ACM Awards, CMA Awards, and many others.

  As a songwriter, Bob has had songs cut by Dailey & Vincent, Blue Highway, Special Consensus, and Ronnie Bowman, Volume Five and others.

  Bob’s solo work is far reaching and covers a lot of ground in his influences. He currently has 2 CDs released and they can be found at www.minnerguitar.com.

   “All in all, I find it amazing that the Lord has allowed me to play guitar and provide a living for my family. I am humbled by this daily, and I appreciate everyone’s support for what I dearly love to do, play guitar”.