Western historian Bobby Bridger to be honored Saturday on NELA Music Trail

A renowned western historian with roots in Caldwell Parish will be honored in his hometown for his career in the arts which spans six decades.

Bobby Bridger will be honored with a marker on the Northeast Louisiana Music Trail and a concert at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Schepis Museum, 106 Main Street, Columbia.

He has recorded nine albums of original songs on Monument, RCA and his own Golden Egg label. He has authored four books, has sold over 300 paintings, and has written, produced and starred in one-man shows and full-company dramatic musical productions of his epic trilogy “A Ballad of the West.”

Bridger was also featured as an actor in productions of Dale Wasserman’s “Shakespeare and the Indians,” and Chris Sergel’s stage adaptation of John Neihardt’s “Black Elk Speaks.” He has also appeared on “Austin City Limits,” a long-running annual musical festival held in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas, and “American Experience” on PBS, as well as other media.

His song, “Heal in the Wisdom,” has been the official anthem of the Kerryville Folk Festival, a music festival held for 18 consecutive days in the late spring/early summer at Quiet Valley Ranch near Kerrville, Texas, for over 40 years. Bridger performed the song at the close of the 1988’s “Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival” sponsored by the United Nations at Oxford University.