Troubadour<\/em>, brought him significant exposure in the US, and also earned him a nomination from the Blues Foundation. But never one to stay still, Bibb is hard at work on his upcoming release, and fortunately he gave me the scoop, as well as a preview of one of the tracks! Take a read to see what’s next for one of blues’ finest singer\/songwriters and guitarists.<\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> What have you been up to this year?<\/em><\/p>\nEB:<\/strong> I\u2019m actually release a new CD in March that was recorded in Louisiana with some wonderful musicians. It\u2019s called \u201cDeeper in the Well\u201d, and I\u2019m really looking forward to sharing that for sure. I had a chance to work with some wonderful musicians some from Louisiana, and a few from other parts. Information about it that will be posted to my website soon, but it will be released in North America on Stony Plain Records.<\/em><\/p>\nOther than that, I\u2019ve actually just returned from a trip to Bali in Bamako, where I had the chance to record some music with a lovely musician from there named Habib Koite, who is very well known in world music circles.<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> That sounds like a very exciting time.<\/em><\/p>\nEB:<\/strong> Yes, it was eight days of an amazing experience. I\u2019ve never been to [inaudible] before, so I felt at home in some ways.<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> I know you tour all over the world. Do you have any particular favorite place to play?<\/em><\/p>\nEB:<\/strong> That\u2019s a question that I get quite a lot, and it\u2019s funny. I find that I\u2019m meeting similar music lovers that seem to belong to a world tribe, and I\u2019m meeting them wherever I go. Doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s Scandinavia or Australia or Canada; there are similar people in some way everywhere. It\u2019s hard to pick a favorite place because I meet my kind of folks basically everywhere I go, and I think it\u2019s the music that glues people together that are of a certain mindset or heart-set. It\u2019s nice. Traveling so much can be a little disorienting, but meeting so many friendly people makes the whole thing easier.<\/em><\/p>\nI really enjoy Australia. I\u2019m getting ready to go back there next month. That\u2019s one of my favorite places to play.<\/em><\/p>\nI actually also particularly like the Southwest of the United States. My mother is from Albuquerque, and I know the area. It\u2019s a place that I really enjoy as well as the Pacific Northwest. Those are two of my favorite zones in the United States.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> I can\u2019t disagree. Albuquerque is an absolutely incredible place. I\u2019ll never forget driving through it on my way out to California.<\/em><\/p>\nEB:<\/strong> Yeah. If you could just fluctuate between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, you\u2019d be alright (laughs).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> (Laughs) Absolutely. There\u2019s nothing quite like it.<\/em><\/p>\nEB:<\/strong> Very true.<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> I\u2019m curious about your writing process. How do you usually start?<\/em><\/p>\nEB:<\/strong> It\u2019s very difficult to really analyze it because I don\u2019t have a set way of writing songs. Very often, just sitting around with the guitar will spark an idea. A phrase on the guitar or a chord progression will lead to a lyric idea, and then the melody will follow. It\u2019s very difficult to say what comes first, but I\u2019m certainly not one of those writers who can come up with a finished set of lyrics and then set it to music. That happens very rarely. Usually there\u2019s some kind of simultaneous arrival of words and music. I really can\u2019t decipher the mysterious process that it still is, but I do know that a lyrical idea can be sparked by something I\u2019ve read in a book. And if it\u2019s a rich idea, it\u2019ll spurn a whole song\u2014 just one sentence. Coming across that one sentence or having that sentence pop up in your head, that\u2019s what I wait for. It\u2019s hard to say why they arrive and why they don\u2019t arrive.<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> It sure is. Working on this latest record, \u201cDeeper In the Well\u201d, what sparked that for you?<\/em><\/p>\nEB:<\/strong> It actually started with a desire to make a certain kind of music in a certain kind of environment. I was looking for an acoustic ensemble of players who were familiar with various strands of the American roots tapestry. I was pointed in the direction of a wonderful musician, Dirk Powell, a multi-instrumentalist who lives in Louisiana and plays any number of instruments very well as well as sings. That worked out. I met him first in Scotland at a BBC sponsored project called \u201cCeltic Connection,\u201d and I discovered a musician who I was very compatible with right off the bat. I brought along a harmonica player who I\u2019ve been working with for some time, Grant Dermody, from Seattle, Washington. Other people who joined the project were Michael Jerome Brown from Montreal, Canada, and a Creole fiddler from Louisiana named Cedric Watson, who\u2019s also a wonderful singer as well.<\/em><\/p>\nThe songs that ended up fitting that ensemble\u2019s playing came to me, and they\u2019re mixed with traditional songs, a Bob Dylan cover, and they all kind of speak to deeper issues, social issues. They speak to things that are challenging a lot of people right now\u2014 topics like homelessness and other serious world issues. I wanted to do it without beating it over the head. I wanted to do a little bit more than entertain, and that became this latest collection.<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> Sounds really fantastic.<\/em><\/p>\nEB:<\/strong> Thank you. Definitely keep an eye out on the website; we\u2019ll be shouting pretty loudly about it. Already, I believe on Youtube, a video from one of the songs called \u201cBayou Belle\u201d is on there.<\/em><\/p>\n
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<\/a>Modern day troubadour Eric Bibb has certainly had a great 2011. His last release, a live album titled Troubadour<\/em>, brought him significant exposure in the US, and also earned him a nomination from the Blues Foundation. But never one to stay still, Bibb is hard at work on his upcoming release, and fortunately he gave me the scoop, as well as a preview of one of the tracks! Take a read to see what’s next for one of blues’ finest singer\/songwriters and guitarists.<\/p>\n