Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas

Bob Palmer was born in Little Rock (Pulaski County) to teacher/pianist Robert F. Palmer Sr. and award-winning poet and freelance writer Marguerite Bowers Palmer. Palmer was an author, music critic, musician, ethnomusicologist, lecturer, record producer, and documentary filmmaker (not to be confused with the British rock singer named Robert Palmer). Critic Greil Marcus called Palmer “one of the few distinguished pop music critics to come out of the South.” One of Palmer’s best-known books is Deep Blues. Published in 1981 and considered a definitive work on the subject, it traces the blues from its African roots to the Delta to post–World War II Chicago.