Bob Bingham
Bob Bingham began his musical career 45 years ago in Detroit, when he bought his first guitar at age 15. He started out performing Surf Music in High School and then moved into rock music after the Beatles Invasion.
His first musical foray into the blues world occurred at age 21, when he became one of the founding members of the now legendary, Minnesota based, Lamont Cranston Band. This decision was to take him on a journey into the heart of the electric blues revival of the late 1960’s and 70’s. During that period, Bob played and performed as a sideman with many of the blues greats that he had grown up admiring as a teenager - Luther Allison, Bo Diddley, Luther Tucker, Pee Wee Crayton, Margi Evens, Lucille Spann, and Lowell Fulson to mention a few. He also performed with Detroit bluesman Baby Boy Warren at the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues Festival, whom he had met while working in Detroit in the late 1960’s. 1974 and '75 found Bob playing in two different bands with harmonica virtuoso Kim Wilson, who then went on to fame in The Fabulous Thunderbirds.
At the age of forty, having become disenchanted with the electric band oriented music scene, Bob switched gears and proceeded to teach himself how to play acoustic finger-style guitar, as well as vocals. He recorded several solo albums during this period, and toured and performed in Europe as well as the U.S. as a solo act.
In 1995 Gordon Thorne showed up unannounced on the front porch of Bob's remote Northern Minnesota log home. They quickly became friends, which soon led to the musical collaboration which exists to this day.
In 1996 Bob and Gordon were hired individually as solo acts at The Blues On The Range Festival in Chisholm, Minnesota. After they had both performed individually, promoter Chris Mackie informed them that a band had cancelled and he needed an act to replace them immediately. Bob and Gordy proceeded to go backstage and draw up a song list, and within 15 minutes were out onstage playing for the first time as a fingerstyle duo. The crowd responded enthusiastically, which inspired them to record their first album, "Out Of The Desert And Into The Blues", in Phoenix, Arizona soon after.
Although Bob still performs periodically as an electric guitarist, his main musical focus at the present is his musical partnership with Gordon Thorne. They have recorded two albums of guitar duets together, and are now working on a third.
As well as working as a professional musician, Bob has held jobs as a logcrafter, professional cook, wrangler, and ditch digger. Today he divides his time between homes in North Florida and a log house which he constructed himself on a remote lake in Northeastern Minnesota.
Gordon Thorne
A long time ago Gordon Thorne cashed a paycheck, walked into the Podium, the legendary guitar store in the Dinkytown section of Minneapolis, and plunked down enough cash to buy his first guitar. He never anticipated the effect that initial purchase would have on his life. At the time, knowing little or nothing about the instrument, Gordon sought out some of the acoustic guitar greats that the thriving Minneapolis folk blues scene was producing. He payed special attention to players like Dave Ray, John Koerner, Dave Hull, Tim Sparks, Bill Hinkley and Judy Larson. He would go out to watch them perform, then head home and attempt to recreate what he had heard. He was learning fast.
Over the next decade Gordon devoted himself to mastering the guitar styles that were an intrinsic part of the country blues and ragtime genre. He performed regularly in Minneapolis and St.Paul, and also at regional coffeehouses, bars and festivals, doing gigs with Dave Van Ronk, Paul Geremia, John Hammond, Yank Rachell, Dave Ray, Phil Heywood and many others. Along with his solo performances, Gordon also played in a rootsy trio called Hometown Skiffle with journeyman guitarist/pedal steel player Eric Heywood (Son Volt/ Pretenders) and pianist Karen Grotberg(Jayhawks). However, during this tenure Gordon became tired of city life and decided to relocate to the woods of Northeastern Minnesota. The call of the wild had beckoned him, and in response he threw his tools, guitars and dogs into the truck and headed North.
For the past 25 years Gordon has called the little town of Finland, Mn. home. Initially he built a primitive log cabin, which served as his residence for five or six years. Then marriage, kids, and responsibility made it apparent that a proper house was in order. He bought another piece of land, much closer to town, and built the house he lives in today. As well as raising two daughters, (with the help of his wife of 20 years, Barb) he has coached high school hockey, is an avid golfer, plays in an oldtimers hockey league, is learning to play the mandolin, and goes to work everyday building custom homes and cabins along the North shore of Lake Superior.
As for the guitar, Gordon plays whenever the opportunity presents itself, be it with longtime friend and musical cohort Bob Bingham, at home on the couch with the cat, or out on a solo gig. That first guitar is long gone, but the important lessons he learned from his earliest influences seem ever-present: to inject his heart and soul into the music and create a sound that is unmistakably his own.
Bingham & Thorne
A Bob Bingham and Gordon Thorne performance is as much about having fun as it is about playing the music well.
The songs are intermingled with stories, humorous anecdotes and wry, down home philosophical observations about their collective life experience. In addition to their songwriting and singing skills, these two veteran performers are both extremely accomplished six and twelve string guitarists. Gordon also plays mandolin. Their styles have been informed by such greats as Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Blake, Reverend Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt to name a few.
Bob and Gordon are not just a “club act”. They have been invited to perform at numerous concert venues over the years. The Bayfront Blues Festival, Ashland Folk Festival, Blues On The Range Festival, and the McMillan Library Concert Series have all featured Bingham and Thorne on multiple occasions.
Regardless of whether it’s on a big concert stage, in a nightclub, or at a small house party, Bingham & Thorne invariably deliver a compelling and entertaining show.