BOB LINSENMEYER

SONG: Litter Makes Me Bitter

Bob Linsenmeyer's music career can be traced, with some interruption, back to ground zero for the modern American folk scene - San Francisco in the late 1950s and early '60s. Although Mr. Linsenmeyer didn't achieve the fame of some of his contemporaries, such as the Kingston Trio and the Smothers Brothers, he said the lessons learned in the coffeehouses and taverns all those years ago still resonate.

"It was all about peace and working for the little guy, and that does still influence me," he said. "When I play schools, I'm still talking about those things. It's where the litter song came from."

Mr. Linsenmeyer's Singer-Songwriter entry, Litter Makes Me Bitter, is an acoustic folk tune tailored for the young audiences he now plays for on a regular basis. The song was inspired by a Second City comedy number that utilized the words "liver" and "quiver."

Although Mr. Linsenmeyer quit music in the mid-1960s to marry, have children and work in the export trade, he said he always enjoyed performing for his own captive audience. "At night I would tell my kids stories and sing them songs," he said. "That's how I started playing for kids."

Whether singing about peace in a Bay Area tavern or litter in a Martinez elementary school, the one constant for Mr. Linsenmeyer is that a great song always has a great message.

"It can be about littering, or buckling your seat belt or being polite," he said. "It's all about getting the message out. It's important."