Bob's Country Bunker

Drunk-ass hillbilly garage ROCK. Kinda like if George Jones was in Crazyhorse. Formed at the intersection in time when Joe Shelby learned how to sing by way of old country songs and The Sadies came to Youngstown for the first time in 1998. Previous to this, younger brother Matt was honing chops on the drums after encouragement from Joe insisting they could have a family band. In 2001, after writing songs and experimenting with a couple of different bass players, the Bunker solidified it's line-up to include cousin Chris Shelby on bass and brother Pete on Hammond organ. By 2002, the Hammond proved too delicate and heavy for live use and the line-up shortened to the core 3-piece that most people know. At this time the set list expanded to include surf tunes and obscure garage rock classics that were just fun to play. The three piece line-up continued until 2005 when family responsibilities and a fair amount of growing up reduced the Bunker back to the original 2-piece of Joe And Matt. This continued until Matt Anderson replaced Chris on the bass in 2006. Since then the line-up has morphed to include Anderson and occasionally original members Chris and Pete when afforded. The Bunker has shared the stage with many notable acts since 2001 and include the likes of The Sadies, The Bottlerockets, Bare Jr., Dick Dale, The Legendary Shack Shakers, Okkervil River, Scott H. Biram and The Black Keys.