Edmonton, AB (Top40 Charts/ Mark Pucci Media) Stony Plain Records announces the signing of acclaimed folk blues singer/songwriter/guitarist Eric Bibb, and will release his debut CD for the label, Deeper in the Well, in March 2012. Deeper in the Well features Eric Bibb on vocals and guitar backed by multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, guitarist Cedric Watson, drummer
Danny Devillier and harmonica player Grant Dermody. Special guests on the CD include Michael
Jerome Browne, Jerry
Douglas and Christine Balfa.
Eric's last CD, Troubadour Live, recorded at a 2010 concert in Stockholm, Sweden, was released earlier this year and recently was voted fourth in the Downbeat magazine Readers Poll for blues albums. A prior album, Booker's Guitar (2010), paid tribute to blues artist Bukka White and featured Bibb playing the actual guitar of the blues icon.
Eric Bibb was born into a musical family and raised in New York City. His father is noted folk singer Leon Bibb, and his uncle was John Lewis, the world-famous jazz pianist and composer of the
Modern Jazz Quartet. Legendary actor/singer/activist Paul Robeson was Eric's godfather, and some of the musical friends who could be seen and heard around the Bibb household in those days included Pete Seeger, Odetta and Bob Dylan.
Eric got his first guitar at age seven and by 13 had entered New York City's famed High School of
Music and Art, studying several instruments, as well as vocals. When he was 16, his father asked him to play guitar in the house band for his local TV talent show.
In 1970, Eric left New York City's Columbia University for Paris, meeting legendary guitarist Mickey Baker, and began to focus on blues guitar. He later moved to Sweden and travelled extensively throughout Europe, writing and performing his own songs in festivals and clubs all around the Continent.
Over the course of many album releases in the intervening years, Eric Bibb has been nominated for multiple Blues
Music Awards in several categories. In addition to the Grammy-nominated Shakin' a Tailfeather children's album (which also featured Taj Mahal), some of his other noted albums during this period included A Family Affair, which teamed him up with his father for a series of duets and solo tunes; and Friends, which included special guests Taj Mahal, Odetta, Charlie Musselwhite and Guy Davis.
Eric Bibb will support the release of Deeper in the Well with extensive touring in the U.S. and around the world. For more information, visit www.ericbibb.com and www.stonyplainrecords.com.
