For more than 40 years Rob Carlson has created words and music for the mind, the heart and the funny bone.

From the 1974 classic Peaceable Kingdom through his syndicated parodies and “Ramblin’ Bob” songs to his award winning work with - Rob has delivered a remarkable body of work as a singer, writer, comedian and producer.

After graduating from Brown University in 1970 Rob led the band “Benefit Street” and later teamed up with singer Jon Gailmor and manager Tommy Mottola to record the critically acclaimed Peaceable Kingdom album, released internationally on Polydor Records in 1974.

After the breakup of the duo in ‘76, he continued to perform solo, playing concerts and clubs in the Northeast and Caribbean and founding recording studios in Fairfield and Norwalk, CT.

In 1986 he went to work in radio, writing and producing literally thousands of radio commercials.  This led in 1990 to “The Producers,” Rob’s own production company.  For the next fifteen years he created “jingles,” records, and “industrial” music, lyrics and scripts for a host of commercial clients, winning multiple awards.  His song parodies and comedy bits for the American Comedy Network and the ABC Radio Networks led to a five year stint as “Ramblin’ Bob” for ACN, producing a topical/satirical song each week in the style of Bob Dylan.  He also published “The Palatine Ship.” a non-fiction account of Block Island’s famous ghost ship legend.

In 1998 he joined singer/songwriters David Buskin and George Wurzbach to become  Together they went on to release three albums and play concerts and festivals all over the US and Canada for the next ten years.  In 2008 they received the New York Nightlife Award for best comedy group in New York.

Today Rob lives in Fairfield, Ct. and continues to perform, now fronting a new incarnation of “Benefit Street” with multi-instrumentalist Vin Pasternak and keyboard wizard Paul Payton.  “ was great fun and opened a lot of doors,” says Rob, “but it was almost entirely comedy.  With Benefit Street we can still be funny, but there’s an outlet for my serious songs as well.  It’s the band I always wanted to do.”

A solo album Pieces of Paradise was released in January of 2010. His first album with Benefit Street was released in 2011 and his novel, “Long Kate” has just been published.

For bookings and more information call 203-256-0580 or email Rob at Ramblinrob48@aol.com.

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Photo:Elizabeth Pasternak
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Photo:Elizabeth Pasternak
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