diff --git a/bin/swift b/bin/swift
index 4d11baea..0de5fbee 100755
--- a/bin/swift
+++ b/bin/swift
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ from swiftclient import Connection, HTTPException
 from swiftclient.utils import config_true_value
 from swiftclient.multithreading import MultiThreadingManager
 from swiftclient.exceptions import ClientException
-from swiftclient.version import version_info
+from swiftclient import __version__ as client_version
 
 
 def get_conn(options):
@@ -1262,7 +1262,7 @@ adding "-V 2" is necessary for this.'''.strip('\n'))
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
-    version = version_info.version_string()
+    version = client_version
     parser = OptionParser(version='%%prog %s' % version,
                           usage='''
 usage: %%prog [--version] [--help] [--snet] [--verbose]
diff --git a/doc/source/conf.py b/doc/source/conf.py
index 356b89e5..19bc85cf 100644
--- a/doc/source/conf.py
+++ b/doc/source/conf.py
@@ -57,9 +57,9 @@ copyright = u'2013 OpenStack, LLC.'
 # |version| and |release|, also used in various other places throughout the
 # built documents.
 #
-from swiftclient.version import version_info as swiftclient_version
-release = swiftclient_version.version_string()
-version = swiftclient_version.version_string()
+import swiftclient.version
+release = swiftclient.version.version_string
+version = swiftclient.version.version_string
 
 # The language for content autogenerated by Sphinx. Refer to documentation
 # for a list of supported languages.
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 42104ecd..519b0481 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,2 +1 @@
-pbr>=0.5.21,<1.0
 simplejson>=2.0.9
diff --git a/swiftclient/__init__.py b/swiftclient/__init__.py
index 1d742494..c4b7d45d 100644
--- a/swiftclient/__init__.py
+++ b/swiftclient/__init__.py
@@ -27,6 +27,6 @@ from .client import *
 try:
     from swiftclient import version
 
-    __version__ = version.version_info.cached_version_string()
+    __version__ = version.version_string
 except Exception:
     pass
diff --git a/swiftclient/version.py b/swiftclient/version.py
index 7bb5d18e..494d6ecc 100644
--- a/swiftclient/version.py
+++ b/swiftclient/version.py
@@ -14,6 +14,17 @@
 #    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
 #    under the License.
 
-from pbr import version as pbr_version
+import pkg_resources
 
-version_info = pbr_version.VersionInfo('python-swiftclient')
+try:
+    # First, try to get our version out of PKG-INFO. If we're installed,
+    # this'll let us find our version without pulling in pbr. After all, if
+    # we're installed on a system, we're not in a Git-managed source tree, so
+    # pbr doesn't really buy us anything.
+    version_string = pkg_resources.get_provider(
+        pkg_resources.Requirement.parse('python-swiftclient')).version
+except pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound:
+    # No PKG-INFO? We're probably running from a checkout, then. Let pbr do
+    # its thing to figure out a version number.
+    import pbr.version
+    version_string = str(pbr.version.VersionInfo('python-swiftclient'))