After junior high school in New York, Bob attended the Windsor Mountain School in Lenox, Massachusetts. The music teacher at the school was Sushil Mukerjee, a world renown Bengali bamboo flute player and painter who was awarded a Fulbright scholarship. Shushill introduced Bob to a whole range of musical styles including Classical Indian Music and the poetry of Rabinranath Tagore. Bob was a member of the Sushill’s  Improvisational Jazz Group. Bob used to sneak out of his dormitory window on the weekends, woith the complicit knowledge of his dorm father, banjo player Mac Benford,  where he had a cab waiting to take him to the coffee house in Pittsfield where Bob was a regular performer. It wasn’t long before Bob ran into Arlo Guthrie who was enrolled at another local prep school, The Stockbridge School, in Stockbridge, MA. Bob joined Arlo in forming the Berkshire Bluegrass Band. Bob played guitar and Arlo played fiddle. The group attended the 1965 Newport Folk festival and had the opportunity to mingle with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mississippi John Hurt and many other folk legends. Bob had the opportunity to meet the legendary piper Seamus Ennis who preceded the group on stage. This was Bob’s introduction to the Uillian Pipes and planted a seed which resulted in a one way trip to the British Isles some five years later. Roger Sprung had taught Bob how to be a solid rhythm or back up player. Although Bob always considered himself primarily a backup player, he also excelled at lead, winning a ribbon at the “World Championships” in Asheville, NC in 1966.   While attending Clark University in Worcester, MA, Bob formed The Swampy Creek Boys with Mark Shultz and Lee Kassen and became one of the few bluegrass bands in Massachusetts at the time. Bob also played at the local Worcester and Boston area coffee houses and eventually teamed up with Steve Martin, and Howie Hersch, formerly of Orpheus. They formed Arcadia, named for the apartment complex in Amherest where they stayed. Arcadia was  a Folk-Rock band and well ahead of it’s time. Steve Martin was lead singer, guitar, Bob played electric mandolin, and Howie Hersh played Bass.  Arcadia performed throughout Central and Western Massachusetts with occasional tours which included Saratoga and Ann Arbor. Bob introduced some Irish mandolin tunes to the sets. These tunes always elicited a great response from the audience.

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