A tall man with a big voice and big songs delivered with truth, character, and conviction. Born 1954, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin and raised in Ashland, WI, a worn-down iron-ore and lumbering town. Took piano lessons and listened to polkas, country, and early rock and roll as a kid. At age 8 he was already on the airwaves of the family’s 1000 watt AM radio station, WATW.  “I worked with Santa Claus on the air from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve.  He talked and I read the letters to Santa from the kids. I loved it.  I was Santa’s helper.  Way cooler than the livestock reports and the polkas!”

Started playing guitar and gigging locally. “Girls were a big incentive! I wanted to be like Elvis or John Lennon, but I liked the way Dylan smoked.” Hit 16, discovered cigarettes, black coffee, Woody Guthrie and folk music, Lightnin’ Hopkins and acoustic blues. ”Along with a democratic vision, America’s greatest gift to the world is the blues and the jazz and rock that grew out of it.” Got a BA in history (1976), followed by MA and PhD. Continued to do solo acoustic gigs and front rock bands and released first album A Sense of Place in 1984, a collection of his acoustic originals.

Nine albums have followed, all of which draw heavily on country, rockabilly, folk, blues, bluegrass, and rock and roll. Alt-country and Americana long before any marketing director or trendy ‘zine used the term. Welcome To Labor Land, (2002 USA and Europe) features Bucky’s interpretations of Illinois labor and working-class protest songs from 1865-1955.  

Bucky’s new CDs Wisconsin, 2-13-63, volumes 1 and 2, feature all originals and guest performances from some of Chicago’s best musicians.  Volume 1 received glowing reviews in the US and Europe and made the Americana record charts as well. 

A prominent scholar of working-class history, Bucky wrote For Democracy, Workers, and God: Labor Song-Poems and Labor Protest 1865-1895 (University of Illinois Press, 1991).  He was also the producer of Folksongs of Illinois, a three-CD series that documented the rich and diverse heritage of Illinois folk music.  The series utilized archival, 78, LP, and contemporary studio recordings and was released in 2007 as a project of the Illinois Humanities Council distributed University of Illinois Press.   The recording made the folksong record charts and drew praise for being a pathbreaking project and the model for documenting regional folksong music.

Bucky Halker is also well known for his music-history programs on Woody Guthrie and the Great Depression and working-class protest music from 1865-1950.   In the last two decades, Bucky has presented hundreds of these programs at museums, historical societies, universities, union gatherings, and cultural centers in the USA, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.   Bucky currently serves on the board of directors of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives in New York City.