Listening to Drew Gibson’s new album, Letterbox, I thought, “This sounds nothing like Lyle Lovett’s new disc.” Why in the hell I thought that I have no idea. But I did. Then I thought, “Gibson’s disc sounds just as much like Lovett’s new disc as I sound like Lucinda Williams.” And folks, just for the record, I sound nothing like Lucinda Williams. But, enough with the vague and meaningless references, lets get to the point at hand.
Gibson is a DC fellow and specializes in acoustic fingerpicking and smooth lyrics giving this new release an overall laid back atmosphere. He looks a bit like Dave Matthews and some of his tunes aren’t that far from Dave’s earlier releases minus the fiddle and sax. While the instrumentation is often sparse, Gibson still comes across very powerfully and his voice grabs your attention. From the lazy whisper of the title track to the rustic horse-ness (no, that’s not a real word) of the upbeat “Music Chair” his vocals are definitely a strong point, and the focus, of this recording. Overall Gibson and producer Marco-Delmar (who also plays guitar and piano on a few of the tracks) have put out a beautiful Sunday morning record. No, it’s not groundbreaking and there aren’t any risks taken here, but sometimes that’s just what’s called for. I’m thinking the ladies will come a runnin’…and hopefully for Drew, they have pockets full of cash.
