Stony Plain Records artist: Eric Bibb - Jericho Road - New Release Review

I just received the newest release, Jericho Road, from Eric Bibb and it's masterful. Opening with Drinkin' Gourd, a quiet but powerful track Bibb crafts a beautiful track complimented by African drums and woodwind. Freedom Train has a broad expression of openness and unconstrained feelings. Let The Mothers Step Up steps up the jazz feel with feelings of the best of Joni Mitchell jazz rock or Steely Dan. Have A Heart is a terrific song with the strong jazz fusion sound crafted by Meshell Ndegeocello. Vocals floating lightly on a bed of musicianship makes this a delightful track. Guest vocals by Ruthie Foster add a a textural warmth as well. The Right Thing is more of a musical chant featuring Victor Wooten on bass and lush vocal backing by Paris Renita and Glen Scott. Can't Please Everybody is a really cool track with an irregular beat kind of a mix of blues, funk and jazz rhythms. I really like this track, crafted like a 3 dimensional song. A sonic sculpture. There is also a nice slide guitar solo on this track that meets up with the tight drumming by Glen Scott. Excellent! The Lord's Work has a much more straight forward blues rock sound with reverb on light guitar work adding significant interest. Session Horns Sweden add cool horn interweaving and guest vocalist Cyndee Peters is nicely featured. With My Maker I Am One has the simplicity of Mali blues but overlaid with contemporary American sounds. Cool. They Know is a cleanly finger picked acoustic number with only Bibb on vocals. Very nice. She Got Mine has a lot of the sounds of country blues roots but with contemporary styling. Gospel like vocals give the track very strong highlights. Good Like You is another track with an unconventional rhythm pattern. Bibb's vocals are particularly solid on this track and the acoustic is forward in the mix over additions of backing vocals and sound effects by Glen Scott, Oscar Bibb, the harmonica of Jenny Bohman and Session Horns Sweden. Lastly, One Day At A Time is a predominitely vocal ballad with vocals by Glen Scott, Chinika Simon and featuring fretless gourd banjo by Michael Jerome Browne and Neville Malcolm on upright bass. This is one of the best Eric Bibb releases that I have heard and certainly the best one that I have had the opportunity to review.


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Eric Bibb Travels "Jericho Road" on New CD, Coming November 5 from Stony Plain Records

Eric Bibb Travels Jericho Road on New CD, Coming

November 5 from Stony Plain Records

Latest Album from Multi-Award Winning Singer/Songwriter Is a Masterful Journey of Blues, Folk and World Music

EDMONTON, AB – Stony Plain Records announces a November 5 release date for Jericho Road, the new CD from multi-award winning singer/songwriter Eric Bibb. The latest album from Bibb is a masterful collection of 13 songs and two bonus tracks that solidifies his journey as a true story-teller, where blues, folk and world music intersect at a musical crossroads.

“The new record is an ambitious studio project that’s been a few years in the making,” says Eric Bibb about Jericho Road.  “It was produced by Glen Scott, a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer, arranger and producer, who I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with on several earlier albums.  This record reflects many of the musical influences that have informed my writing throughout my career.  World music sounds, blues, folk and soul all find their way into these songs.

“The title refers to the road between Jerusalem and Jericho where the Good Samaritan, a traveler of a despised race, stopped to help a stranger in need after better-off religious leaders had passed by and done nothing. On April 3, 1968, the night before his death, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King urged us to follow the example of the Good Samaritan, saying:  ‘Ultimately, you cannot save yourself without saving others.’  If this record has a theme, that’s it in a nutshell: have a heart.”

The all original tunes that comprise Jericho Road feature a number of songs co-written by Eric Bibb and Glen Scott, who also contributed musical backing on several instruments throughout the sessions. The two bonus tracks are “Now,” co-written by Bibb and Ernie McNally, and “Nanibali,” written and performed on vocal and kora by Solo Cissokho.

“My dear friend Ernie McNally gifted the world with these beautiful lyrics that inspired this call for a new world,” writes Bibb in the liner notes about “Now.” “Stylistically, this song stuck out from the others on the album, but the divine vocals from the wonderful Linda Tillery and Tammi Brown, Glen’s rhapsodic, churchy piano and the soulful trumpet sounds from Goran Kajfes compelled me to include it as a bonus track.

“Composed, sung and played by Solo Cissokho, ‘Nanibali’ is, for me, the perfect ending of the Jericho Road journey,” Bibb adds. “This thrilling performance by a modern West African griot celebrates unity, understanding and love between all members of the global community.”

Jericho Road is Eric Bibb’s fourth album for Stony Plain and follows Deeper in the Well, which was nominated for two Blues Music Awards (winning him the 2013 honor for “Acoustic Artist”); and Brothers in Bamako, the critically-acclaimed pairing of Bibb and West African singer/guitarist Habib Koité (pronounced “Ha-beeb Kwa-tay”). His first label release came in 2006, when Eric and his legendary father, Leon Bibb, collaborated on the album, Praising Peace: A Tribute to Paul Robeson.

“Travelling over land and sea, playing and singing to audiences large and small, has blessed me with countless opportunities to observe and befriend people from all over the world,” observes Bibb in the new album’s liner notes. “Through the years I’ve discovered that while the human tribe is wonderfully diverse, we are not all that different from one another.

“Given all this exposure to so many cultures, I’m amazed, over and over again, at the prejudiced attitudes and the tendency to judge that linger in my own thinking. Making assumptions about people based on appearance is what we’ve all been conditioned to do, and falling into that trap is surely a big part of what keeps us in conflict with each other. Every time I catch myself going there I shake my head and hope that I’ve learned my lesson. Sometimes, the experience will lead to a new song.

“Musically, the songs that we’ve written for this record reflect many of the influences that have inspired us throughout our careers,” he continues. “World music sounds, blues, folk, soul and jazz flavors all find their way into the grooves.”

For more information, visit www.stonyplainrecords.com