KSUT Four Corners Public Radio's Blog

Eric Bibb will join us live on KSUT this Wednesday, around 1 p.m., for live music and conversation with host Ron Fundingsland. Bibb plays Wednesday night at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. He’s touring to promote his new album “Booker’s Guitar”,  a work that reinterprets the original Delta blues of the early 20^th century for a new era.

Bibb, a native New Yorker with deep roots in the American blues and folk tradition, has enjoyed tremendous success throughout Europe – though he now is becoming a familiar face and voice on the U.S. acoustic folk-blues scene.

Born into a musical family, Bibb received his first steel stringed guitar at age seven, and by 16 his father, Leon Bibb, had invited him to play with the house band for his television talent show “Someone New.” At 18 he played guitar for the Negro Ensemble Company at St. Mark’s Place in New York, and went on to study psychology and Russian at Columbia University – though he left early, moving to Europe to refocus on blues guitar.

Today, with more than a dozen releases under his belt, Bibb is, according to Taj Mahal, “… one of the new, young singers that has appeared on the scene that, much to my delight, has a great voice, is an excellent performer and has a great knowledge about the roots of this music.”

With his latest release “Booker’s Guitar,” Bibb has, in effect, channeled guitar master Booker White, a journey that began one night in a London hotel. Following a gig, he was approached by a fan carrying a guitar case that held a relic from the past: a 1930s vintage Resophonic National steel-body guitar that had belonged to the Delta blues legend White. Bibb found himself holding White’s guitar, and catching a brief but revealing glimpse of the stories locked within it. The encounter inspired a song, and the song became an entire album.

Stated Bibb in a press release, “Holding the guitar that Booker White had played for so many years, seeing his actual handwriting on a set list that had been taped to the side of the guitar – it all made me feel like the time was finally upon me to make a statement about my relationship with the Delta blues tradition. It was like a rite of passage, an initiation. I felt like this guitar finding its way to me was a signal that I had journeyed far enough to be able to make an honest tribute to the music of my heroes.”

Show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at durangoconcerts.com.