As mentioned elsewhere, the Gibson Brothers’ Ring the Bell hit the street this week (5/5).

The first album that the Gibson Brothers have done for their new label, Compass Records, is now available. (Catalogue # 4506)

The collection of a dozen songs features six original pieces (including a co-write with Bob DiPiero); new songs by Shawn Camp/Paul Kennerly, Chet O’Keefe, Joe Newberry and Marshall Warwick; and a relatively obscure Tom Petty song, Angel Dream. Staying true to their farm boy roots, the Gibson Brothers recorded two agricultural-themed songs for this record, one written by Leigh (Bottomland) and one by Eric (Farm Of Yesterday). The latter was written as a tribute to their parents and the family dairy farm that belonged to the Gibson family from 1865 through to 2000.

Of the album as a whole says Eric Gibson …

“I think everything about it – from the album cover to the songs – is an attention getter and I hope folks will notice. Brother bluegrass acts are almost as old bluegrass itself, but I feel like we’ve carved out a special niche for ourselves. We’ve hung in there and toughed it out – we’re still in our 30’s but I feel like we’re bluegrass lifers.”

Produced by the two brothers plus bassist Mike Barber, Ring the Bell has an elated intensity. Eric agrees …

“There is a lot of joy in the music. I think you can tell in listening that we poured our hearts out – not that you can’t tell on our other records – but the joy in our playing and singing. At the same time, it feels like our most hard-driving bluegrass album; there’s more thump on it, a bigger sounding record than we’ve ever had.”

That bigger sound comes from having the whole band – Mike Barber (upright bass), Clayton Campbell (fiddles) and Joe Walsh (mandolin and guitar) – playing on every track. Guest Mike Witcher, from Missy Raines & The New Hip (resonator guitar), is added on a few tracks.

Audio samples are available on the Compass Records web site and in iTunes.

This post is part of our occasional feature, Songwriter Profiles. If you have a suggestion for a bluegrass songwriter we might want to consider, please contact us.

The Gibson Brothers – Eric on banjo, Leigh on guitar – began their musical journey at the age of 11 and 10 respectively. Eric began playing saxophone in the 5th grade, as did Leigh. A year later they started taking banjo and guitar lessons at Dick’s Country Store in Churubusco, New York.

They were raised on a dairy farm – a farm that had been in their family since 1865 – in the most north-eastern section of New York, in the foothills of the Adirondacks in the Champlain Valley two miles from the Canadian border.

Their parents listened to bluegrass on the radio on Saturdays. They also liked Irish music and the brothers heard a lot of the Chieftains, Ryan’s Fancy, the Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, and the Irish Rovers. They listened to lots of different stuff and still do. This variety is something that shapes both their writing and performing.

Eric and Leigh listened to country radio a lot in the 1970s and early 1980s. Their favorites were Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Don Williams, Tom T. Hall, Ricky Skaggs. Their cosmopolitan tastes meant that they heard Tom Petty, Credence Clearwater Revival, the Eagles, the Everly Brothers and Willie Nelson as well as folks like Gordon Lightfoot.

Eric Gibson was really ‚Äòturned on’ to bluegrass when their teacher, Eric O’Hara, gave him a tape of Flatt and Scruggs at Carnegie Hall.

Their education was further enhanced by listening to a tape of Ricky Skaggs’ Sweet Temptation, and then the brothers became familiar with some of the great duo singers of the past; firstly great favourites Buck Owens and Don Rich, and then the sibling harmonies of the Louvin Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, the Blue Sky Boys, the Everly Brothers and the Stanley Brothers. After the prompting of their minister, the Gibson brothers began singing themselves. With their singing of songs like Lonely Me, Lonely You, Satan’s Jewelled Crown and Gone Home, one of the many Gospel songs that they used to sing in church, the Gibson Brothers have joined that glorious pantheon.

In the early 1990s, they formed a bluegrass band with Junior Barber on resonator guitar, and Junior’s son, Mike, on bass. The quartet recorded three albums for Hay Holler Records and earned the recognition of their peers when they won the 1998 IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year award. (more…)

The Gibson Brothers visited WAMU’s Bluegrass Country studios on Friday afternoon (February 27) to introduce their new mandolin player, Joe Walsh and to talk about their upcoming CD, Ring the Bell.

A recording of their studio performance, during which they sang Ring the Bell and Bottomland, both on their new CD, will be broadcast on Tuesday, March 3, at 9am ET during Katy Daley’s Morning Show. Ring The Bell will be released by Compass Records on May 5.

In addition they played some of their standards and a couple of gospel songs, Satan’s Jeweled Crown and When God Comes and Gather His Jewels. The show, which Katy Daley says provides “The Best Seat in the House,” is available live on the Internet also at bluegrasscountry.org.

If you miss the Tuesday morning programme, the show will air again in the Special Programming slot starting March 21. Special Programming details are as follows; Sunday. 6pm. ET, Tuesday 6am. ET, Wednesday 12pm. ET, Thursday 5am. ET, and Friday 3am. ET.

WAMU transmits on 88.5 FM and 105.5 FM from Reston, Virginia.

While talking of The Gibson Brothers, the band played to a 200-strong audience in Hughsville, Maryland, on Saturday. The general view of their show was very positive, with one reviewer indicating that they seemed "tighter than ever.”

The Gibson Brothers are scheduled to feature on Tennessee Shines this evening (2/25). The show is broadcast from Knoxville, TN on WDVX 89.9 FM, and via live audio streaming online.

Tennessee Shines is a monthly live broadcast from the Bijou Theatre, Knoxville, Tennessee, on the last Wednesday of the month. It is hosted by country/bluegrass singer Jim Lauderdale. The program, which commences at 8:00 p.m. (EST), showcases both local and national artists, with some of the latter including Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Marty Stuart and Joe Ely.

The Gibson Brothers will perform during this evening’s show along with Pinetop Perkins, Erick Baker and Megan McCormick.

Tennessee Shines is a project of the Knoxville Americana Music Foundation, produced by AC Entertainment and broadcast on WDVX.

The program Blue Plate Special airs on WDVX on weekdays at noon also.

Thanks are due to Katy Daley for the tip off.