Former Moisture frontman Bob Gentry emerges from setbacks with promising solo career
By K. Michelle Moran
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Singer/songwriter Bob Gentry’s former bandmates in the rock outfit Moisture used to kid him that some of the songs he’d bring for band consideration should be saved for Gentry’s solo career.
It’s advice Gentry is now taking.
The self-taught pianist and guitarist, who’ll play his first Detroit show in seven years with a June 13 concert at 313.jac (inside Jacoby’s in Greektown), has embarked on a solo career, and recently completed his first record, “www.BobGentry.com.”
“These are songs that really didn’t quite make the Moisture rocked-out thing,” Gentry admitted with a laugh. “I’m more of a love songs … kind of guy in some ways. I’m a huge Beatles fan. I love singer/songwriter-type things, which is kind of like a lost art nowadays.”
He misses the moral and artistic support of having a band behind him — “It’s a little lonely, [and] I feel a little naked onstage sometimes,” Gentry said — but being a solo artist gives him greater freedom to play and tour, and make a career out of his lifelong passion for music.
Born in Detroit, Gentry lived in various cities around the area with his mother and older sister. He didn’t meet his biological father until he was around 15 or 16, and has yet to meet the five half-siblings that his father raised in metro Detroit. The absence of his father has been a sore spot for Gentry (who took the surname of his stepfather), and the source of considerable creative material (including the title of Moisture’s debut album, “Bastard,” on eastside Detroit label Static Records).
“It was all part of my reason for writing music,” said Gentry, who started playing at the age of 7. “It was a good way to express myself and get some things out.”
Static Records head Sue Summers remembers Moisture as “a fun pop-rock band at the time.”
“Their shows were always a lot of fun and high-energy, which was quite a contrast to their emotionally struggling lyrics,” Summers continued.
In the late-1990s, after the Detroit Moisture lineup dissolved, Gentry left his last Michigan residence in Grosse Pointe Shores for a job in Dallas, and later Hollywood, where he’s spent roughly the last five years.
His career there quickly took off, but Gentry is proof that even signing a record deal doesn’t mean an artist has made it.
After a California version of Moisture caught the ear of a record industry professional, the group was offered a contract and appeared on the Farm Club label television show on the USA network. Shortly after the show aired, however, the label went out of business.
Even if the fairytale didn’t come true that time, Gentry said the experience did give him valuable contacts within the recording industry.
Of late, Gentry’s been writing songs and performing with Grammy-winning songwriter and poet Rod McKuen (whose “Seasons in the Sun” was frequently covered by Moisture in concert) and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter David Tyson (author of the Alannah Myles hit, “Black Velvet”). He’s also producing for other artists.
The change has aided his artistic development as well.
“Bob has definitely grown as a songwriter, and musically, his talents have progressed from years of experience,” Summers said. “I think having to start over from scratch, and the location change, also had a lot to do with that. Leaving friends behind and going across the country is never an easy thing to do, and his later music reflected that.”
Gentry will reunite with some of his Detroit Moisture bandmates for the Detroit gig, and he’ll be joined by other musician friends as well, including St. Clair Shores bass player Kevin Pruett of the band Annie Richards and Jester.
“It’s going to be a real laid-back show, but yet kind of fun,” Gentry predicted.
Through all the upheaval, Gentry still considers himself lucky, and believes that “big things are coming.”
“I’d much rather be on this roller coaster than be on the merry-go-round,” he said.
Bob Gentry will perform with friends and former Moisture bandmates during a concert June 13 at 313.jac/Jacoby’s, 624 Brush in Greektown, (313) 962-7067. Red September will open the show. For more about the show, call Static Records at (313) 886-7860. For more on Gentry, visit www.bobgentry.com.