04/11/08
BOB GIBSON LEGACY
BOB GIBSON/Funky in the Country: With the entire folk music era being reduced to either what you can take away from “A Mighty Wind” or PBS specials with old, fat, bald guys talking about Eisenhower and McCarthy, it can be a challenge to put Bob Gibson in perspective. He was one of the prime movers of the folk era but hounded by his own demons, you don’t think of him in the same thought as Kingston Trio, Peter Paul & Mary and several others unless you were incredibly precocious or are well into your retirement years. Gibson gave us Judy Collins and Joan Baez, wrote most of the songs on the best Chad Mitchell Trio album, had the nascent Eagles back him up on his last major label release for quite a while and was in on a string of woulda/coulda/shouldas that hinges on unbelievable if it wasn’t really so. When this DIY album was released in 1974, Chicago was the last bastion of folk music. It would take disco to kill it off in ways that even the British Invasion couldn’t. But disco was a few years off and SoCal singer/singerwriters picked up the folk/acoustic music mantle and were trudging forward. Into all that, Gibson hit us between the eyes with “Living Legend” on this record. If you were a snotty college kid, you knew it was a great song and performance but you didn’t realize it hit you so hard because the lyrics were painfully truthful and autobiographical. You knew him as an amiable folkie that had a cup of coffee in the show, not as someone that almost ran the show. Just like he had 20 years before, Gibson picked up his 12 string, sang his heart out and gave you what you came for. Reprising his hit, kicking it on some Shel Silverstein co-writes and serving up something that was not only right for the times but stands the test of time, this is one of the lost gems of the 70s. You had to have missed this first time around and this is a great time to catch up on what you missed. This is one cat that always had it.
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BOB GIBSON/The Living Legend Years: A best of collection culled from the 4 albums Gibson did in the 70s and 80s with some added tracks from the vaults. Eventually, all the albums represented here will be individually released but until they are, this is contemporary folkie delight.
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(www.bobgibsonlegacy.com)
JAZZ PROMO SERVICES
SYLVIA BENNETT/Songs from the Heart: Nice and simple. A singer that knows her way around an atmospheric love song hooks up with three great sax players of different stripes that know how to deliver, puts some real jazzbos in the background and comes out with a killer little date that does the trick. There’s probably a million years of first call musical experience on board here and their chops are delightful throughout. Everything is working and this is right on adult listening. Check it out.
2025 (Out of Sight Music)
Volume 31/Number 163
April 11, 2008
MIDWEST RECORD
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Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
©2008 Midwest Record