Imagine growing up loving the widely varying music of Doc Watson, Leo Kottke, Jimmy Page, and Greg Ginn in a small Minnesota town that's "the sociological equivalent of the color brown" -- according to the man himself -- and you might understand how singer/songwriter/guitarist Robert Skoro came to create his own enigmatic indie pop. While many of his idols were guitar legends, Skoro found songwriting was his strength instead of heavy riffage. When he was 17, a chance meeting with the like-minded Mason Jennings resulted in Skoro playing on Jennings' sophomore release, Birds Flying Away, co-producing his third album, Century Spring, and spending four years on the road in Jennings' touring band. He broke out on his own in 2002 with the album Proof, released by the Merciful label. The album did well critically with most writers focusing on the Wilco-esque side of Skoro's sound. Three years later he returned with That These Things Could Be Ours, this time on the Yep Roc label. ~ David Jeffries