Bucky Halker

Roots rocker/folk artist Bucky Halker is a solo artist of some renown and the former leader of the Remainders. He also has a Ph.D. in American History, has written a book (American Labor Protest Songs 1865-1900), and served as a professor of American History. Halker was born in Beaver Dam, WI, in 1954 to working-class parents. He played in a rock band while growing up and headed to college in Idaho upon graduation. In 1976, Halker headed to graduate school at the University of Minnesota, focusing his studies on working-class history — labor protest songs in particular. Meanwhile, he was writing songs and playing gigs in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Halker went on to teach college in Idaho, then headed to Chicago in the early '80s and on to Ashland, WI, for a time. He continued to play music, and in 1984, he released his debut LP, A Sense of Place. His sophomore effort, Step n' Blue, a collection of blues and folk songs, followed in 1986. Halker soon landed the lead guitar and singer role in the popular Chicago group the Remainders, who released their only album, the Remainders, in 1993. The '90s also found Halker authoring a scholarly book on labor protest songs and recording a companion cassette, American Labor Songs. He released a solo acoustic CD, Human Geography, in 1993, and Passion, Politics, Love followed in 1997, receiving rave reviews and some radio airplay. Halker put out Don't Want Your Millions in the U.S. in 2001. The record, partly funded by the Illinois Arts Council, is a historic document of union songs, featuring such ephemera as Studs Terkel reading "The Scab's Lament" and songs originally popularized by folks such as Woody Guthrie, the Carter Family, Hazel Dickens, and Lead Belly.