Over the years, music has been more than a creative outlet for Bob—it has been a way of remembering, exploring, questioning, and making sense of the world around him. His recordings reflect the different places he has been, the people who have mattered to him, the music that shaped him, and the changing perspectives that come with a life spent listening, playing, writing, and wondering what might come next.

At the center of that journey is the guitar. Bob’s relationship with the instrument has taken him through jazz, blues, rock, folk, Americana, the Great American Songbook, and jazz fusion. Rather than settling into one musical identity, he has allowed each period of his life to lead him somewhere different. The result is a discography that is remarkably varied, but also deeply personal.

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His earlier recordings grew out of his love for jazz and instrumental guitar. Projects such as Secret Obsession, In Your Dreams, Songs for Low-Light Conditions, and Subtle Moments gave him the opportunity to explore improvisation, harmony, and the expressive possibilities of the guitar. These albums established a musical voice that was rooted in jazz but never confined by it.

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The Great American Songbook became another important part of Bob’s musical life. With albums including That Old Feeling, Now & Then, and These Few Moments, he returned to songs that had been part of the soundtrack of earlier generations. Recording them was not simply an exercise in nostalgia. For Bob, these songs provided a connection to an extraordinary tradition of songwriting and an opportunity to discover something personal within music that had already been interpreted countless times.

As life moved forward, so did the music.

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With Sixty, Bob began to put more of his own stories and experiences directly into his songwriting. The album marked an important transition toward Americana, folk, and singer-songwriter music. Its songs deal with subjects that become increasingly meaningful with age—love, memory, family, disappointment, humor, mortality, and the sometimes uncomfortable business of looking honestly at oneself.

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Outside the Music Box continued that journey. The title itself captures something fundamental about Bob's approach to music: a willingness to step outside expectations and follow his curiosity. The songs became increasingly personal, drawing on experiences and observations accumulated over a lifetime.

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That willingness to explore has remained a defining characteristic of his work. Songs for Emily grew from Bob’s fascination with the poetry of Emily Dickinson, turning her words into new musical settings. Ordinary Man allowed him to reconnect with his love of rock and pop songwriting, while Sad But True moved toward a more intimate and reflective collection of songs. With Love Notes, he returned to the Great American Songbook in a deliberately understated guitar-and-vocal setting, letting the songs speak with very little between the listener and the performance.

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There is also a quieter, more atmospheric side to Bob's musical personality. Enigmatic brought him back into the world of instrumental jazz and fusion, while Landscapes drew inspiration from memories of Scotland, including the coastal scenery around Dunoon and the Firth of Clyde. In these recordings, the music becomes less about telling a literal story and more about creating a place—a mood, a memory, or a landscape that the listener can enter.

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Looking across the discography, what emerges is not a straight musical progression but a collection of chapters. Some are energetic; some are reflective. Some look backward, while others seem to be searching for something new. There are familiar songs and completely original ones, intimate performances and expansive instrumental pieces.

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And perhaps that is the most personal thing about Bob McCarroll's music: he has never felt the need to choose just one version of himself.

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The albums document a continuing conversation between the musician he was, the person he has become, and the music he still wants to discover. They are records of curiosity as much as records of performance.

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For Bob, making music has never been solely about producing another album. It has been about capturing a moment, preserving a memory, giving a poem a new voice, revisiting a song he has loved for years, or simply seeing where a guitar and a melody might take him.

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The discography is therefore best understood not as a list of recordings, but as a collection of musical snapshots—a life lived with a guitar in hand, always listening for the next song.

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Discography:

• Secret Obsession (11 original jazz instrumentals and 1 cover - 2003)

• In Your Dreams (10 original jazz instrumentals - 2008)

• That Old Feeling (11 Great American Songbook / jazz vocal covers / standards - 2010)

• Now & Then (6 original jazz vocal songs and 7 Great American Songbook covers - 2011)

• Songs for Low-Light Conditions  (5 original jazz instrumentals and one traditional - 2012)

• These Few Moments (10 original jazz vocal songs in the style of the Great American Songbook - 2011)

• Sixty (9 original songs in the style of Americana, Singer, Songwriter, and Alternative Folk - 2017)

• Vehicles (11 original songs in the style of Jazz, Blues, and Alternative Folk and 1 Cover - June 30th, 2018)

• Down in the City (5 original alternative/rock styled songs - 2019)

• Nicole Pesce Plays the Songs of Bob McCarroll - (10 original songs / Solo Piano - 2019)

• Outside the Music Box (13 original Americana / Folk genre songs - 2020)

• Songs for Emily (A collection of 13 original songs composed to Emily Dickinson poems - 2020-21) 

• Subtle Moments (12 original jazz compositions - 2021 - 2022)

• Ordinary Man (14 original "rock" compositions - 2022 - 2023)

• Sad But True (11 original ballad-styled songs and 1 Beatles cover song - 2023)

• Love Notes (10 American Songbook covers and 2 original songs - vocals & guitar)

• Just Me & My Melodies (​13 original songs / instrumentals selected from my previous projects - guitar)

• Enigmatic (12 new, original and easy-listening jazz fusion compositions - 2025)

• Landscapes (9 new original ethereal jazz instrument compositions and one traditional - 2026)

• Contemplation (4 cover and 5 original songs - acoustic-based guitar and vocals - coming soon)

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