Eric Bibb: Happy Music Find of the Summer!!!

My favorite instrument has always been the acoustic guitar played in just about any style. But, blues is one of my favorites. Now, you mix that with some nice wine, and that's a great combination there!

Last month I made one of my best music discoveries! I'm probably a Johnny-Come-Lately; but, I thought I would share this just in case you haven't heard of this fabulous singer, songwriter, and musician. He's Eric Bibb, and here's a bit of background information from his official website :

Eric was born In New York into a musical family. Eric's father, Leon Bibb, is a trained singer who sang in musical theatre and made a name for himself as part of the 1960's New York folk scene. His uncle was the world famous jazz pianist and composer John Lewis, of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Family friends included Pete Seeger, Odetta and actor/singer/activist Paul Robeson, Eric's godfather.

Eric was given his first steel-string guitar aged seven. By Junior High School, Eric was consumed by music. "I would cut school and claim I was sick" said Bibb. "When everyone would leave the house I would whip out all the records and do my own personal DJ thing all day long, playing Odetta, Joan Baez, The New Lost City Ramblers, Josh White."

At 16 years old, Eric's father invited him to play guitar in the house band for his TV talent show "Someone New". Eric's early musical heroes were from his father's band, and included Bill Lee, (father of director Spike) who appeared on Eric's album Me To You, years later.

In 1969, Bibb played guitar for the Negro Ensemble Company at St. Mark's place in New York and went on to study Psychology and Russian at Colombia University. "After a while it just didn't make much sense at all. I didn't understand why I was at this Ivy League School with all these kids who didn't know anything about what I knew about." Aged 19, Eric left for Paris, where a meeting with guitarist Mickey Baker focused his interest in blues guitar.

You wouldn't believe how I found him! One day last month I was in Target looking at radio/speaker systems. All the display systems on the shelves had red buttons in front that allowed the customer to push and listen to a sample of music and compare the sound among the candidates. I was considering one from Bose that I could use with my iPod. When I pushed the red button, I was impressed with the quality of the sound; but, my attention was drawn to the music. I thought: "Who is this guy they have playing here? This sounds great!" And, on the screen of the Bose display appeared Bibb's name and face. So, I went home and checked him out on iTunes. I was so thrilled with his music that I downloaded FOUR albums! (I've promised myself to not buy anymore until I've listened enough to these first four to have them about memorized!)

Check out his website and MySpace page. You can listen to a lot of his songs and decide for yourself. You can also find some videos of his on YouTube. Here's one for you to sample ... Enjoy!!

"In My Father's House"


"Spirit I Am"