Compass Records has signed The Gibson Brothers, and plan to release the band’s next CD during Spring 2009.

As with previous albums from Eric and Leigh Gibson, this next one will be heavy on their original songs. In addition to six Gibsons compositions, the CD will include new songs from Shawn Camp, Paul Kennerly, Chet O’Keefe, Joe Newberry, and Marshall Warwick – and a grassed up cover of Angel Dream, a Tom Petty song from the mid-1990s.

This project was recorded with the Gibsons’ road band – Mike Barber on bass, Clayton Campbell on fiddle, and Joe Walsh on mandolin – with Leigh on guitar and Eric on banjo. Resonator guitarist Mike Witcher is also featured as a guest artist.

Compass tells us that the guys came in to cut at the label’s Nashville studios, and got all the tracking done during a single six-day visit. Eric and Leigh produced, with the assistance of long-time bassist Mike Barber.

Eric Gibson shared a few thoughts about the new album…

“I think this might be our hardest-driving record to date. We have not lost sight of the ‘brother duet thing’ at all, but I think this record has a lot of energy. It will fun to play these songs on stage, and we’ve already started doing some of them. We wrote half the songs (one a co-write with Nashville hit man’ Bob DiPiero) and new songs by Marshall Warwick, Chet O’Keefe, Shawn Camp, and Joe Newberry. We also cut Tom Petty’s Angel Dream, my wife’s favorite song on the record.

It would be hard for me to pick a favorite. I find myself listening to a great Joe Newberry song called I Know Whose Tears a lot. Leigh’s harmony makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. He does the same thing on Chet O’Keefe’s Ring The Bell. We also did a couple of songs that deal with farming. We grew up on a dairy farm, and I still dream about the farm all the time. One of the songs is called Farm Of Yesterday, and I think it pays tribute without being over-the-top sentimental.  I wrote it like it really was.”

More details, including a firm release date, should be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

Young mandolinist Joe Walsh has found himself mentioned several times of late on The Bluegrass Blog.

We posted a report in May 2006 when Joe was still a student at the Berklee College Of Music, and performed with other Berklee bluegrassers at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. When he joined up as a member of The Gibson Brothers this past November, we covered that as well.

In the meantime, Walsh has released his debut solo CD, Saturday Night Waltz, which showcases his mandolin playing and his skills as a composer and arranger. Joe has been a prominent picker in the Boston area, and throughout New England since he moved there from Minnesota to study, and it is from this pool of musicians that he draws his accompanists.

Not all of the names will be immediately familiar, but these are very talented young musicians who stand leave a mark on bluegrass and progressive string music before they are finished with them.

Joe shared some thoughts with us recently about Saturday Night Waltz, the songs and tunes included, and the people who performed on it with him.

“When I set out to make the record, I of course wanted to try and find material that wasn’t all worn out and overly familiar.  Obviously original tunes take care of that, and I tried to tried to write as many tunes as possible prior to starting that project.  A lot of them just didn’t seem to fit the scope of the project when it came together: as a whole it’s not a strictly bluegrass’ record, but it didn’t seem right to be tossing in tunes that at weren’t at least peripherally related to bluegrass.

Filling in the gaps with some of the other tunes was one of the funnest things about the whole project. Boston (and New England in general) is home to an amazing collection of acoustic musicians and singers, and in choosing tunes and songs like The Good Part, I’ll Go On Downtown, and Fall and I’m Not Falling, I got to share what I liked most about some of my friends writing, playing and singing. These were the folks that I worked with on any number of gigs, and these tunes were the ones I’d always try to get on the set list.  It’s a pleasure getting to share them. (more…)

Long time mandolinist with The Gibson Brothers, Rick Hayes, recently announced his intention to retire from the road to focus on Hayes Mandolins, his budding mandolin building endeavor.

Eric and Leigh Gibson are happy to welcome young mandolinist Joe Walsh in Rick’s stead. Joe is a recent graduate from The Berklee College Of Music and has been performing with several bluegrass and acoustic bands in the northeast, and teaching mandolin and guitar in Portland, ME.

Joe was Berklee’s first mandolin student and moved from Duluth, MN to Boston to study there. One of his professors at Berklee, David Hollender, shared a few thoughts.

“Joe has great time, beautiful tone and he really knows how to connect with other players and make a band groove. His playing has contemporary elements but retains a deeply rooted, down to earth quality that not that all young players have. When Joe is in the band you can be sure the music will just feel good.

I think everyone who knows Joe knew it was just a matter of time until he’d land a gig like the one he has now. It’s said that success comes mainly from motivation, determination and perseverance. Joe exemplified this when he was a student at Berklee. He had to struggle to stay in school. You’d see him on his bike on cold winter days with his mandolin on his back headed to class after getting up to drive a bread truck at 4:00 am every day. Later you’d see him at night heading off to jam. Nothing would stop him and it’s great to see all that work starting to pay off.”

He will do his first show with The Gibsons on January 2, 2009 at the New Year’s Bluegrass Festival in Jekyll Island, GA. Joe joins Eric (banjo and guitar), Leigh (guitar), Mike Barber (bass), and Clayton Campbell (fiddle) to make up the band’s new look.

MLB.com, the official site of Major League Baseball, has noticed the theme of The Gibson Brothers’ recent Sugar Hill release. The title track, Iron & Diamonds, tells an autobiographical story of where the brothers grew up in Lyon Mountain, NY where pretty much everyone was involved in mining – and town baseball.

In a story by staff writer Doug Miller, the Gibsons are interviewed about the album, and growing up in a baseball tradition.

Eric and Leigh both played for the Lyon Mountain Miners out of high school and witnessed a juggernaut of a team, a perennial league championship contender with some serious Major League ties.

The local Kowalowski family, for example, had several players on the team, including Tom, who was signed by the Yankees, although he never made it to the Major Leagues.

“He coached my team and had tons of stories,” Eric says. “Like getting to catch Whitey Ford and hitting a home run off Don Drysdale, who yelled at him and knocked him down the next time he was up.”

Eric says there’s a local legend that the Yankees tried to get in touch with a few other Kowalowski boys for tryouts, but the mining company got the letter and never gave it to them.

“I don’t know how true that is,” Eric says, “but it’s still a good story.”

The article also makes note of how Bill Monroe was a great baseball fan, and how Eric and Leigh make a point to catch as many major league games as they can during teh summer touring season.

You can read the full piece at MLB.com.