Bearfoot's Doors and Windows debuts at #1
on the Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums Chart
(May 6th Soundscan chart / May 15th issue date)
Available from Compass Records (Cat #4504)
Summer 09 tour highlights:
Pagosa Folk N Bluegrass Festival, Snowbird Mountain Music
Festival, California WorldFest, Rockygrass Academy, Podunk
Bluegrass, Bethlehem Musikfest, Grand Targhee Festival,
Strawberry Music Festival
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Doors and Windows press highlights:
"...the future of bluegrass?" - TimeOut New York
"Old time, roots, Americana, folk, bluegrass - whatever...it's just
plain old pleasure."
- The Boston Globe
An exclusive review was featured in TimeOut New York's music
blog week of street and
click here to see them perform on NBC Philadelphia's the 10! Show
Upcoming feature on The Bluegrass Blog
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Doors and Windows radio highlights:
Currently the #4 most added album on the Americana radio chart
Key radio adds: WUMB (Boston), KCSN (Los Angeles), WGWG
(Charlotte), WNCW (Asheville), KCBS (Seattle)
Upcoming full concert stream on Folk Alley
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Dale Ann Bradley, two-time and current International Bluegrass
Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year, to release new
album, Don't Turn Your Back, on May 19th
Special guests include Dailey and Vincent,
Claire Lynch, and Steve Gulley
Nashville CD Release Party at The Station Inn
Sat, May 16 @ 9pm / $10
**Featuring new band member
Terry Baucom on banjo**
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The Gibson Brothers' new album,
Ring the Bell, in stores today
Ring the Bell going for adds now at
Bluegrass and Americana radio
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Upcoming tour dates:
5/15 - Gettysburg Festival - Gettysburg, PA
5/29 - Strawberry Park Festival - Preston, CT
6/10 - The Station Inn - Nashville, TN
6/12 - Dumplin Valley BG Festival - Kodak, TN
6/14 - Wind Gap BG Festival - Wind Gap, PA
6/19 - Smoked Country Jam BG Fest - Loganton, PA
6/20 - Jenny Brook BG Festival - Tunbridge, VT
"The Gibson Brothers lead a bluegrass quintet that can pull off
traditional Bill Monroe-style picking and sweet, Louvin Brothers-like
harmony singing."
- The Washington Post
Bluegrass duo The Gibson Brothers' talk about the "feel" of their
new album, Ring the Bell. "It makes me think of being young and
growing up in our small farming community in New York," explains
Leigh. "It evokes memories of fellowship with the men who knew
my Grandfather Gibson at church on Sunday mornings. We'd see
folks at the hardware store or the bank during the week and then
see them all again at church each Sunday."
Eric agrees that there is an elated intensity to the album. "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 guitar), and guest Mike Witcher from Missy Raines & The
New Hip (resonator guitar) - playing on every track. "I'm very proud of
how the band served each song," agrees Eric. "There's not a lot of
'look at me' acrobatic playing. It's more 'let's support the vocals,
let's support the message of the song, the feel of the song'."
While Eric admits to loving all of the songs on the album, he cites
the title track as one of his favorites. "It feels so uplifting to me," he
says "and I love my brother's harmony on it." Leigh adds, "This song
is a call to action for coming together in a world that sometimes
seems intent on tearing itself apart. More than just nostalgia, it's a
song about love of fellow man."
Produced by the two brothers plus bassist Mike Barber, Ring the
Bell features six originals (including a co-write with Bob DiPiero)
and 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 upstate New York
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"). "Bottomland",
originally recorded for an unreleased Skaggs record, is given an
old-timey treatment here and touches on the lives of sharecroppers.
"Farm of Yesterday" was written as a tribute to their parents and the
family dairy farm that belonged to the Gibson family from
1865-2000. Eric showed the song to Leigh who was moved but
said, "it might be too personal to put on the record." Eric replied,
"Laying it out there could be the difference between a good record
and a great record." "Farm Of Yesterday" is Leigh's favorite song on
the album: "I told Eric he'd now written one Haggard would sing."
Of the album as a whole says Eric "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."
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