Eric
Bibb and Habib Koité Join Forces on Brothers
in Bamako, New CD Coming November 6
from
Stony
Plain Records
American
and West African Guitarists Create a Scintillating Mix of Blues, Folk, Gospel
and World Music on New Album
EDMONTON, AB – Stony Plain Records, Canada’s premier
roots music label, announces a November 6 release date for Brothers in Bamako,
the new CD from American singer/guitarist Eric Bibb and West African
singer/guitarist Habib Koité
(pronounced “HA-beeb KWA-tea”). The album is an exciting
gumbo of the two artists’ influences of blues, folk, gospel and world music.
Bibb and Koité will tour together in support of the new release, with dates
scheduled for February and March, 2013, in both the U.S. and Canada. Stony Plain is distributed in
the U.S. by ADA, in Canada by Warner Music and in foreign
territories by a variety of well-established distribution companies.
The 13 songs on Brothers in Bamako
showcase songs penned by each artist, as well as several written together, plus
a fascinating cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and the traditional
blues, “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad.” The new CD represents a musical
crossroads of Bibb’s blues, folk and gospel influences, blended with Koité’s
contemporary West African folk/world roots into a unique mixture of voices and
guitars that is both passionate and ebullient.
“I watched my parents and it rubbed off on me,” says
Habib Koité in the album’s liner notes, as he traces the origins of his
profession and talent as a musician. Habib is the heir to an ancestral knowledge
set to song that places him among the most influential voices of contemporary
Africa. Eric Bibb has established his name in
the new generation of bluesmen without renouncing the legacy of folk and gospel.
The result is an organic meeting of Malian/African sounds and American
folk/blues/gospel traditional music, creating a unique blend of
world-folk-blues.
Habib and Eric first met 10 years ago, when both were
invited to play on the album Mali to Memphis
(Putumayo). They struck a chord, exchanged a
few notes, then a few songs. A connection was established, friendship followed.
Both recognized that blues has its roots in Africa. The dialogue continued and a follow-up meeting
launched the project that would become Brothers in
Bamako.
When Bibb and Koité sat down to begin recording the new
album, any geographical or cultural differences vanished, and what was left was
two artists with their own particular backgrounds, but with a similar vision
arriving at a common ground that joined their music as one. Leon Bibb, Eric’s
father, who associated just as much with Paul Robeson as Pete Seeger, celebrated
the popular origins of these songs. Habib balances the subtle nuances of West
African guitar playing and its abundant musical styles. He studied music at the
National Arts Institute in Bamako, which allowed him to fuse this musical
education into a unique approach where his cultural roots are just one element
in service of his ideas. Both men draw on the organic material of tradition and
the numerous world realities that demand their comment, to release a sung
vision, a musical cry of hope.
“We probably play the same role,” says Eric. A
relationship does exist between their individual approaches. An American singer
who evolves from blues and folk could be seen as the logical extension of an
African griot. But both men are contemporary singers, not copies of a tradition
that could become stagnant.
Habib sings about his era, his environment. He lives,
breathes and sings Africa, but an altered Africa, transformed by the rest of the world. Eric is
receptive to this approach. And without consciously deciding, songs with a
social message emerge. In the album’s opening track, “On My Way to Bamako,” Eric shares his feelings about his first visit to
Mali and Habib returns the
favor on the aptly-titled next song, “L.A.”; and
worries about what’s waiting in Timbuktu on “Tombouctou.” The two also create a
deft take on the global commercialism of today in “We Don’t Care.” (“We want the
gold, as long as we don’t have to mine it; Don’t care who suffers or who’s
behind it.”).
Throughout the rest of Brothers in
Bamako,
Eric Bibb and Habib Koité prove with great talent that the
simplest song is often the most effective and that singing as they do is a
universal necessity.
For more information, visit www.stonyplainrecords.com
