Eric Bibb

As the son of Leon Bibb, a massively respected folk singer and on the legendary New York City folk scene of the 50’s and 60’s, Eric Bibb had a slightly more glamorous upbringing than most. In fact his family counted Pete Seeger among their close friends and Eric’s godfather was the singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson. When you’re surrounded by talent like that at such an early age, it’s going to rub off on you somehow, and after Eric was given his first steel-string acoustic guitar at the age of seven, he took to it like a duck to water. He spent most of his teenage years practising his guitar playing when he should have been at school, and by the age of 16, his father had drafted him into playing in a backing band for a TV talent show that he was the musical director for.

At the age of 19, Eric decided to strike out on his own, moving to Paris and studying blues guitar playing under the tuition of guitar icon Mickey Baker. Soon afterwards, he’d learnt enough to start writing his own songs, and moved to Stockholm, Sweden, the city that he still resides in to this day. There he immersed himself in pre-war music, as well as music from other cultures, and finally started to release his own solo albums, beginning with 1972’s “Ain’t It Grand”. Since then he’s never really stopped releasing albums, while also teaming up with artists like Cyndee Peters, Bert Deivert and Leon to release a number of collaborative albums as well. He kept up this prolific outlook for most of the 70’s and 80’s but it wasn’t until the mid 90’s that he started to pick up some mainstream recognition for his music.

It began with a slot at the London Blues Festival in 1996. By the following year, Eric’s profile had risen to the extent that the album that he recorded with Linda Tillery, Taj Mahal and the Cultural Heritage Choir, “Shakin’ A Tailfeather”, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Since then he’s collaborated with Jools Holland, Guy Davis and his own father Leon, and his astonishing touring schedule shows no sign of slowing up any time soon. He’s an artist in the truest sense of the word, and for that, Eric Bibb comes highly recommended.