“My old buddy, Robert Charles Guidry, was better known as Bobby Charles, and he was more successful as a songwriter than a singer, and it's a sin 'cause he's a hell of a singer. He's got one of the most melodious voices ever transferred to a piece of vinyl. The boy could sing like a bird. He still does as a matter of fact." --Bob Dylan “American treasure:" As the term increasingly permeates the vernacular of musicology, one hesitates to use it -- unless it applies unequivocally. It is all but impossible to imagine the evolution of modern American roots music, without acknowledging the quintessential contribution of singer/ songwriter Bobby Charles. What better definition, then, of a true American treasure? His road has been ground-breaking, bumpy, exhilarating, tender, and a path to personal freedom. The anecdotes are priceless. “I was 15 before I ever heard the word 'motherf***ker,'" Bobby recalls with the glee of having just experienced the moment. “I got off the plane in Chicago from the Louisiana bayou, to meet Phil Chess, the brother and associate of my new employer, Leonard Chess. That was Phil's first word when he saw me! 'Man, I didn't know you were white,' he said, and I knew it was the first time he met a full-blooded Cajun." Bobby joined brothers Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley and Willie Dixon, and sister Etta James, on the historic Chess Records roster. Out of the gate, he wrote and recorded a little ditty called “See You Later Alligator,