The song starts with the strum of a guitar, the plucking of banjo strings. Somewhere in the middle, a fiddle picks up the melody. And Bob Perilla, his voice thick with nostalgia, sings of his childhood home in Howard County.

Below the sky above so blue

’Tween mountains and the sea

Just beside a singing stream

A cabin home for me

There’s something a little sad about listening to Perilla sing “Tenor of the Dove,” an original song he released with his bluegrass band in 2005, said his daughter, Celeste Perilla. It’s sad because Bob Perilla is no longer here; it’s sadder yet because the studio recording “just pales in comparison” to seeing him perform live.

“When an artist passes, we mourn not only the fact that they are gone from this life, but we also mourn what they could have created and the things that they would have performed and the things that we’re not going to be able to experience because they’re gone,” she said. “And I think that is a particular type of sadness that only comes when somebody has made an indelible mark on the world.”

Norman Wright, Dick Smith, and Bob Perilla performing at Madam's Organ in Washington, D.C., in 1999.
Norman Wright, Dick Smith and Bob Perilla performing at Madam’s Organ in Washington in 1999. (Courtesy of Jeromie B. Stephens)

Perilla, a Baltimore-area bluegrass singer and guitarist who played for audiences all over the world through State Department tours, died Dec. 11. He was 71.

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Perilla was born in Baltimore on June 26, 1953, the eldest child and only son in a house with five sisters. When he was a young boy, his family moved to a farm in Woodbine. His neighbors were sheep, horses and peacocks, Celeste Perilla said.

He was an avid reader from an early age, a hobby that continued throughout his life. For Bob Perilla, books opened a new reality. He often recounted the story of reading a book about dinosaurs when he was 4 or 5 years old and getting so scared of the creatures that he refused to leave the house.

Music was also an early calling, though Perilla didn’t really grow up around it, family said. He was taken with the British invasion, and he was fascinated by the banjo. As a child, he was given a drum set — and “if we were caught around his drum set, he would have a fit,” said his sister, Sarah Kiernan.

Bob Perilla, Mike Munford, Tad Marks, and Mike Marceau in 1999.
Bob Perilla, Mike Munford, Tad Marks and Mike Marceau in 1999. (Courtesy of Jeromie B. Stephens)

“Bobby just was super gifted, super smart,” Kiernan said. “He decided that maybe the drums weren’t enough.” His daughter said that was because they couldn’t carry a tune and he couldn’t carry them anywhere.

Perilla first heard bluegrass music on a record in his youth, and he was later greatly influenced by 1970s folk artists, his sister said. He started frequenting Jim’s Barber Shop in Sykesville, where, in addition to a haircut, patrons would pick up instruments and jam together.

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Perilla went to Georgetown Preparatory School and later Georgetown University, where he entered the D.C. music scene. He spent most nights at a local tavern listening to bluegrass music and realized that was his true calling, Perilla told the Washington Post in 2008.

“I learned that bluegrass music is almost like a tribe,” Perilla told the Post. “You don’t have to be born into it; you can volunteer and you belong.”

Perilla dropped out of college, but he continued dating Patricia Coppola, whom he’d met at Georgetown University. She was drawn to his charisma, and they married in 1979. They had two children, Celeste and Frank Robert. Celeste Perilla recalled spending many days playing under tables with her brother at bars or restaurants while her father sang.

Mary Naden and Bob Perilla in Alexandria, Va., in 2014.
Mary Naden and Bob Perilla in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2014. (Courtesy of Jeromie B. Stephens)

While Perilla shined on stage, he was also very “complicated,” family and friends said. His musician lifestyle didn’t make him a great family man, and he was divorced after about two decades of marriage. He was estranged from various family members throughout his life.

Perilla was known for his wit and pithy commentary — but sometimes his sharp tongue could cut a little too deep, loved ones said. He was ardently liberal and championed Democratic causes, never backing down from a political argument. He was an expert storyteller with an encyclopedic vocabulary, Celeste Perilla said.

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But, for all his complex relationships, he was still always the person to call someone with a joke or to burst out in song on their birthday.

“He was different things to different people,” Celeste Perilla said.

“He did have a complicated side, and it’s not good or bad,” said Tad Marks, who played the fiddle alongside Perilla. “It’s just the way things are.”

Bob Perilla in the loft at Madam's Organ in Washington, D.C., in 2000.
Bob Perilla in the loft at Madam’s Organ in 2000. (Courtesy of Jeromie B. Stephens)

But Perilla was widely beloved in the bluegrass community. He formed a band, Bob Perilla’s Big Hillbilly Bluegrass, that had a decadeslong regular gig at Madam’s Organ, the D.C. bar known for its live music offerings. Mike Munford, who played the banjo, said Perilla was skilled at bringing together diverse groups of people and pulling from a broad repertoire of songs.

“You could just call a tune that he probably hadn’t done in quite some time, and instead of brushing it off, he would go for it and usually get it,” Munford said. “That’s not easy to do, to recall three or four verses of a tune you haven’t sung in months or maybe a year.”

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It was at Madam’s Organ that a government employee one day asked Perilla and his bandmates if they would be interested in traveling with the State Department as cultural ambassadors, the Post reported. The crew said yes, and they brought bluegrass across the world: Armenia, Tajikistan, Oman, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia.

Traveling and sharing bluegrass music with the world, in many languages, was especially meaningful to Perilla, Marks said. “I think he realized that it was really a special thing back then,” he said.

Bob Perilla
Bob Perilla was an expert storyteller with an encyclopedic vocabulary. (Courtesy of Celeste Perilla)

After Perilla’s death, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken sent a letter to his family expressing his condolences.

“Bob was a remarkable musician and proud American who dedicated much of his life to representing our country through the universal language of music,” Blinken wrote. “His work reflected his unwavering dedication to justice, human rights and advocacy. He helped lay the groundwork for the music diplomacy efforts at the Department today.”

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