Bob Wiseman is a Canadian singer-songwriter and filmmaker. Raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, his outsider music blends folk, rock jazz and very often contains explicitly political themes.
He was a member of Blue Rodeo from that band's inception (1984) but left the band after their 1992 album Lost Together. His first solo album was Bob Wiseman Sings Wrench Tuttle: In Her Dream in 1989. The first pressing (2000 copies) was destroyed by Warner Music Canada because the song "Rock and Tree" (about the murder of Salvador Allende) was deemed libelous. "Wrench Tuttle", the credited songwriter, was in fact simply a pseudonym for Wiseman himself. This record yielded the video "We Got Time", a minor hit on Much Music.
His best-known songs include "Have a Nice Day" (from 1993's City of Wood), a harsh attack on controversial Canadian lawyer and Western Canada Concept founder Doug Christie, who often defends racist and neo-Nazi clients, and "What the Astronaut Noticed and Then Suggested" (from 1991's Presented By Lake Michigan Soda), an existential zydeco ditty which was later used as the theme song to the CBC Television series Material World.
Since 2000 he has made super 8 films and videos which he accompanies live on accordion, guitar or piano. His he travelled extensively with this unique performing style, recently travelling as far as New Zealand, which he toured in early 2009.