Eric Bibb: Blues, Ballads & Work Songs (180g)

Label: Opus 3, 2011

The sparrows have been whistling it from the rooftops for a long time: just in time for his 60th birthday, Eric Bibb is returning to his Swedish discovery and sponsor label OPUS 3 records
The 1977 OPUS 3 debut album Rainbow People put an artist on the map who celebrated his international breakthrough with the 1994 album Spirit & The Blues, also released by OPUS 3. With Good Stuff and Just Like Love, two more best-selling albums followed on OPUS 3 before Eric Bibb turned his back on the label
Blues, Ballads & Work Songs marks not only the return to Bibb's house label, but also to his musical roots

And what a gift all involved have given themselves!

With Blues, Ballads & Work Songs, Eric Bibb fulfills his long-cherished wish of a purist concept album
Eric Bibb writes in the liner notes
Blues, Ballads & Work Songs' is an album I have been working on for most of my life. Its release coincides with my 60th birthday and it celebrates the music that first inspired me to become a guitar-playing singer
Being as passionate about writing songs as I am about singing and playing traditional material, I couldn't resist including the self-penned tunes at the end of the record. These newer songs, are the 'children' of the older ones. In this album the basic concept is to cover the complete range of traditional folk / blues songs which were an inherent part of his childhood up to the present time with his own inimitable compositions

We experience a mature artist who breathes new life into legendary but also lesser known songs without any attitude and with extremely reduced means. Whether loud, quiet, angry or winking - Eric Bibb always hits the right note in his own way without compromising the character of the song or losing sight of its content
11 songs are solo recordings. Bibb's unmistakable voice and his dexterity on guitar, National Resophonic and electric baritone guitar give you goosebumps time and time again
The last 3 songs are recorded with a congenial band, which in the best tradition purely acoustic and with impressive understanding and stylistically confident arrangements Bibbs voice and guitar playing perfectly underpins, complements, amplifies and drives forward

All of this would be worth only half without the authentic OPUS 3 sound. In addition to using the exact same tube stereo microphone that was used to record Rainbow People in 1977, the recording captivates with extreme live character and naturalness

The OPUS 3 records label has stood for the best possible recording and sound quality since 1976. The burden of proof is so overwhelming in view of countless releases in the most diverse genres that it is difficult to avoid superlatives
Nevertheless, after listening to Blues, Ballads & Work Songs, I'm going to go out on a limb and humbly sum it up: this is the finest album Eric Bibb has recorded to date - and the best recording Jan-Eric Persson has ever made. Period!