Bhi Bhiman

Born to Sri Lankan immigrant parents, the singular folksinger and songwriter Bhi Bhiman—named for a figure in the Mahabharata—grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and picked up the guitar at age nine. Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains shaped his teenage listening, yet once he began composing his own pieces laced with playful language and pointed wit, his voice gravitated toward Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie. From that shift emerged his wholly distinctive Americana-driven approach, anchored by a striking vocal timbre akin to Nina Simone’s. After settling in the Bay Area he built a following on the regional circuit and issued his first album, Cookbook, in 2007. His writing, which moved fluidly between political and personal subjects, kept maturing, and the early-2012 arrival of his second album, Bhiman, announced a fully realized artist whose work invited comparisons to Randy Newman, Dylan, John Prine, and Phil Ochs—though the acuity of his observations, puns, characters, and overall method remained entirely his own.