BBlues, Ballads and Work Songs
Blues, Ballads & Work Songs is an album I have been working on for most of my life. Its release co-incides with my 60th birthday and it celebrates the music that first inspired me to become a guitar-playing singer.
My father, Leon Bibb, was part of a wonderful folk music scene in New York City during the 1950’s & 60’s and his world became my world when I was very young. I still treasure a copy of one of his early LP’s on the Vanguard label, “Tol’ My Captain”, that included the work song “Take This Hammer”.
Most of the songs on B, B & WS were “standards”
of the folk/blues scene I was exposed to as a child. I heard them performed on
countless occasions by my father’s friends and colleagues. I often think of this
music as part of my DNA. It has a lot to do with who I am today.
A few years ago, Jan-Eric Persson, of Opus 3
Records in Sweden, suggested that I make a solo album with the kind of bluesy,
traditional songs that have always been in my repertoire.
I’ve known Jan-Eric for thirty-five years. This
new collaboration with him is also a celebration of our friendship and combined
experience recording music that makes our world go ‘round. If I had heard this
record as a child, I reckon it would have been one of my favorites.
Eric Bibb (on a flight to New York) July 1, 2011
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