Happy Halloween!
All right, now that’s out of the way let me say that there are different kinds of blues musicians. There are blues rockers who make their reputations with searing guitar solos and there are blues bar bands who may be great musicians but whose focus is making sure you have a good time. There’s nothing wrong with all of that. But then there are artists who drive the blues forward as an art form. Eric Bibb is one of the those.
Bibb’s songwriting is heartfelt, with themes ranging from civil rights to his own personal journey, to historical themes (including “Stealin’ Home,” his personal homage to Jackie Robinson stealing home for the Dodgers against the Yankees in the 1955 World Series and what it meant to African Americans at the time, a timely entry given this year’s series).
Readers may remember I reviewed another Bibb album, Live at the Scale Theatre, earlier this year. That was no accident. Bibb is in great artistic form. Now, with his new offering, recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios near Bath, England (you can get a sense of the studio’s ambience in the video below), his personal songwriting skills are on full display.
I’ve written multiple times before about Bibb’s background, how he was born into a musical family, with his father a prominent folk singer in New York, and his uncle, John Lewis, a jazz composer and pianist with the prestigious Modern Jazz Quartet. How Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Odetta and Paul Robeson were houseguests, and Robeson was Bibb’s godfather. How Bibb chose the surprising path to pursue a career in blues music, though he forged much of his early career in Europe, especially Sweden.
After a couple of isolated early recordings, Bibb began recording in earnest in the 1990s, and his back catalogue already includes more than 20 albums. He has also garnered three Grammy nominations (maybe one more coming up?) and numerous Blues Music Awards nominations, winning four times. And Bibb is no mere country blues mimic. His music includes many influences. Highlights include 2001’s Painting Signs, 2004’s Friends, 2012’s Brothers in Bamako (a collaboration with Malian Habib Koite), 2013’s Jericho Road, 2017’s Migration Blues, 2018’s Global Griot, Dear America from 2021, and last year’s Ridin’.
But again, In the Real World shows Bibb at the height of his songwriting powers, which, combined with producer Glen Scott’s sweeping arrangements, makes the album a listening feast. Every song reveals something about Bibb’s personal journey and passions. Among my favorites are the metaphorical “Walk Steady On,” the proudly defiant “Everybody’s Got a Right,” the inspirational “Make a Change” {“If you wanna see a change in the world, make a change in you”}, and “Dear Mavis” (for Mavis Staples, who famously sang the lead in the Staples Singers’ iconic “I’ll Take You There,” and has had a long solo career).
About the author: Bill Wilcox is a roots music enthusiast recently relocated from the Washington, DC area to Philadelphia, PA and back again.