Bobby Kimmel

I Hear Voices! released their self-titled CD in the summer of 2013 during their appearance at the Tucson Folk Festival where they had a featured spot. In July 2013 the group traveled to Santa Monica, CA to play McCabe's Guitar Shop, the club Bobby opened in 1969, and had become one of the premier acoustic venues in the country.

At the beginning of 2012, Bobby retired BK Special after almost ten years together to focus on a lifelong dream of forming a quartet with a purely vocal concept and almost no instrumental presence. Bobby joined with Tucson musicians Kathy Harris, Bobby Ronstadt and Suzy Ronstadt to form I Hear Voices! and realize that dream.

In 2010, BK Special released their second CD Hope Spring, containing eight original songs by Bobby Kimmel. Both BK Special CDs remain in print and available.

4 Corners sang together for 3 1/2 years and released two CDs before Jo left the group in the summer of 2006.

Although BK Special only formed in the summer of 2006, by the end of that year, they were already talking about recording their first CD. They followed through, and in March 2007 the trio went into Duncan Stitt's A Writer's Room studio to begin recording. They recorded 12 songs live in the studio over the next couple of weeks.

Bobby moved back to Tucson in 2001 and connected with his friend Jo Wilkinson, a powerful lead singer and songwriter from LA who also moved there. Since Jo and Bobby had played together at parties in LA, they got the idea of forming an acoustic singing band here. They went to the 2002 Tucson Folk Festival together, and on the second day they heard Stefan George and Lavinia White. Bobby immediately approached Stefan and Lavinia and proposed that the four of them get together to play music. Stefan and Lavinia were cautious at first, but after a while and a number of casual living room sessions at Bobby's house, they warmed to the idea and finally 4 Corners was formed. At the beginning of 2003, the quartet began rehearsing seriously.

In the mid-1970s, Bobby also teamed up with Shep Cooke (also from Tucson and who was on the final Stone Poneys tour) and LA musician Kit Alderson. They formed The Floating House Band, an acoustic singing trio. They recorded an album for Takoma Records, which was owned by folk guitarist John Fahey.

The Stone Poneys recorded three albums for Capitol in the mid-60s and had a major hit in 1967 with "Different Drum", written by soon-to-be Monkees member Michael Nesmith. Different Drum peaked at #12 on the Cashbox Top 100 chart on February 12, 1968. The first two Stone Poney albums mostly featured Bobby's original songs.

In 1963, Bobby left Tucson for Los Angeles to further his music career. Quickly he called Linda to join him in LA.

At that point, Kimmel fully turned his attention toward folk music. He began playing both bass and guitar in the folk music clubs around Tucson in the early 1960s. He started performing with his friend Linda Ronstadt. During that period he played bass in a folk group with Linda and her older brother and sister Peter and Suzie.

Bobby Kimmel (born September 1, 1940) is an American musician and songwriter who currently performs with the acoustic folk group I Hear Voices. He has been recording and performing in concert for over 50 years and was a founding member of the Stone Poneys, along with Linda Ronstadt and the late Kenny Edwards.