ERIC BIBB

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Jericho Road

With this new effort, Eric Bibb gives a personal vision of today ’s world in his own poetic and contemporary way

Born and raised in New York, Bibb has travelled the planet extensively. He describes the people of this earth at length here, conjuring their conﬂicts and hardships, as well as their compassion, tolerance and empathy.

Jericho Road was produced by Glen Scott, a young Englishman originally from Jamaica endowed with outstanding talent and creativity Scott ’s lavish musical arrangements and attention to sound make this new recording an exceptionally ﬁne production Eric gives a whole new meaning to the blues of the 21st Century, proving that the genre remains as lively and relevant as ever.

Jericho Road is an event in itself, and a superlative album.

We lost all the greats we learnt everything from. John Lee, Big Mama Thornton, Muddy, Wolf, Walter I could go on till tomorrow naming those great blues players who have helped create the blues that we’re still trying to keep alive.

When I do a show, I simply come out and try to let people know where I got it from. I’m not an original. I learnt to play by listening to Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins and all those people like that.

Yes sir. Hey, you play bass on the SuperSuperBlues Band album with Bo,MuddyandWolf!

Oh yeah. Like I said, my education came from those people. I didn’t learn it from a book, I don’t read music.

If it wasn’t for them I don’t know if you’d be talking to me this morning, so I owe them all the credit in the world for what I learned. I learned by listening to those ‘78s, ‘45s and I still listen to them. But the youngsters, well...

I’ll tell you what happens. I play a lot of live shows and young kids will come up to me after we’ve done, say Let Me Love You. Did you write that last one?’

I go “Hell no! That’s from Willie Dixon, or Buddy Guy, or McKinley Morganfield.”They write it down and off they go. Kim Simmonds told me about Albert Collins when I was a kid!

That’s the history of the music.

Even Hip-Hop, my youngest daughter is into Hip-Hop and she said ‘Daddy it’s your music, we’re just doing it a different way.’ Muddy Waters came into Chicago and they amplified the harmonica with Little Walter and the people were like ‘What IS this?’ buddy guy’s rhythm & blues Album is out now on rcA. for the lAtest news on buddy, check out his website: www.buddyguy.com w hen most people think About hotbeds for the blues, i srAel probAbly is somewhAt down towArds the bottom of the list. thAt might just be About to chAnge due in no smAll meAsure to A gifted 25-yeAr-old guitArist cAlled o ri nAftAly And his bAnd he band includes a wonderful singer, Eleanor Tsaig and are already getting rave reviews in the US following a semi final spot in 2012’s International Blues Competition and tour. The new album Happy For Good has firmly cemented their place as ‘new band to watch’. Ori made time to talk to us just prior to embarking on another eagerly anticipated US tour.

Anyhow thank you very much Pete and I need all the support I can get.

Whatever you can do, you can always contact me through Annie and I’d be more than happy cos’ whatever can help the blues, my ears and eyes are open for anything you wanna ask!

I’m in your corner. You be well. Special Thanks to Annie, Jordan, Betsie, Al and Glenn.

BM: Ori, thanks for fitting us into your hectic schedule. The last year or so has been a bit of a whirlwind, has it taken you and the band a bit by surprise or is it all part of your master plan?

ON: Hi, Master plan? Not really. It is more about working hard, as much as I can, and at the same time not giving up knowing that every musician who works hard enough gets their turn. The last year or so has been simply amazing. We toured Holland twice and USA twice and now we just started our third ‘Fall Tour’. We feel blessed to be able to do what we love and live from it.

To even take part in IBC in Memphis meant winning the Israeli Blues Competition, and to then reach the semi final from 200 bands is an awesome achievement. How much do you think that has helped raise the band’s profile in world blues circles? Oh, it helped a lot. But many bands who play at the IBC do not get the same amount of exposure, I think it’s all about timing and luck, not just talent. We gave it all at the International Showcase, a day before the challenge started, and since that we had a huge following throughout the challenge. The New Daisy was packed with so many blues VIPs but we just didn’t care. For us it was the finals – just by landing in Memphis with my band was the real victory for me. We were blessed, and received amazing support from our fans through crowd funding, and the journey became a historic one for us. We are now in Denver starting our Fall Tour. How cool is that?

Eleanor Tsaig is a gifted vocalist. How long have you two been performing together, how did you meet? Eleanor is truly a gifted singer, a beautiful person and a true musician that also plays the Piano, Guitar and Cello. We have been performing together since 2001! We grew up together, and I believe our first ‘show’ was in middle school at the end of the year during the big event they had. We know each other for a long time. When I founded ONB about three years ago she was there as my first option. I believe she is one of the best singers out there, with an attitude that will take her far in her career. Our job on stage is to make sure she is feeling free enough to bring it all, night after night.

Tell us a little about the other guys in the band too. You have a great blend of sounds including harp and Hammond Organ.

When I founded the band, Yam and Eran were my first option for rhythm section. Me and Yam are good friends for more than eight years now. It feels great touring and making music with your best friend. In the past three years we had several extremely talented Hammond players and harmonica players. f or the l Atest news on o ri, check out: www.orin A ftA ly.com ynsley gigs a lot, but we find an evening where we’re both home and able to talk about Home. Home is the latest in a series of releases from the perma-touring bluesman.

Above all, Ofir and Willem stayed, and if it was up to me they would tour with us all the time. Happy For Good our second album had Niv Hovav playing Hammond and he nailed it. I simply love the Hammond. We are now a trio with special guests on Hammond and harmonica. My dream: have a James Brown style big band behind me, maybe, who knows!

You’ve toured in Holland, Germany and India extensively too. Indeed, the debut album was voted best blues album in a prestigious Dutch music magazine. More European and hopefully UK shows coming up?

We are now focused on USA. We received many offers from venues and festivals in Memphis so we came back a few months later with a new album. Summer Tour was a huge success so after two months we are now back here again. We have festivals booked for June and August in the USA, so I believe Europe will happen sometime in 2014–2015, but it’s all about timing.

I love the HappyForGood album, but its quite difficult to categorize I feel. How would you best describe the blues you play?

I can’t and I can understand why you can’t either. Each song has a different style and that was what we intended to do in the first place. We wanted to show our skills, show what we are based from. This is our first album as a band and we wanted it to be a classic not an experimental project. Eventually it ended up as something we are very proud of.

What’s the music scene like in Israel ? In many ways it must be a difficult place for youngsters growing up with the political tension on the borders always there?

Yes it is! We are very focused on our career and jobs, and to do everything without screwing up. We try to stay away from politics as we simply do not understand enough and not keep track of things. Praying for world peace is something I grew up on.

As a performer growing up, who were, or are, the artists you most admired who had an influence on your music?

A lot. Let me point out Skip James, Buddy Guy, John McLaughlin and Warren Haynes. Yes, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, too.

I believe that the hectic workload is due to continue with plans already in place for the next album? Anything you are able to share with us yet? Yeah we are now planning the production of our next release. We wrote some new songs but we are waiting for the right timing. We want to write and record as much as we can.who knows what tomorrow brings. We want to invest in our US fans and make sure that we can keep on doing what we do.

In 2013 there are way more logistics and administrative work than it used to be I guess. We are thankful for all the experiences we had so far and the people we met along the way.

Thanks Ori, good luck with the tour and all the future plans. Thank you for supporting us.

BM: Where are you at the moment?

AL: I’m at home in my kitchen, eating a Cornetto that has somehow just gone down the wrong way!

Home is a very strident, confident almost stealthy beat for the opener there in what I tend to call the post-Cray punchy blues style. Some great Hammond piano on this track. How do you work out your keyboard arrangements? Or do you rely on your man to know what to do?

When I write a song I‘ve always got a good idea of the instrumentation that I’m sort of hearing in my head. Basically, when I write, I write in isolation. I demo it at home, I have a home studio set up where I sort of write the songs, programme the drums and put some bass down. So I’ve always got an idea of what I wanted to hear. But I’m not a keyboard player, I’m not a drummer and I’m not a bass player. The super musician version is the one on the album with all the guys. I basically sketch it out and present the band with a demo CD of the song and then they do their great musician version of it.

It’s how a lot of people work. When I write songs, I write it on an acoustic twelve-string and if it doesn’t sound good with the vocal and twelvestring, I dump it. That’s a workable rule. Some songs work great as a solo acoustic. Other songs need a full band behind it for them to work. But if you’re trying to work out a melody, a verse or a chorus it’s a good guide for that.

OK. It’s kind of a novelistic lyric here isn’t? Well obviously it’s a very personal song. But I think the title of the album Home has a few angles that all go back to the same thing really. In my own life I’m at a point where I’m very settled and grounded. With the label being in-house and the management and everything it’s all kind of come home.

That song is kind of a key song to the album, really.

OK. Broke has sort of a stabbing tempo with that guitar. Your voice sounds very comfortable on this Aynsley. You’ve actually got a slightly light-ish voice for blues rock music

Well, what I say to that is, I don’t have a generic blues rock voice. I don’t have what you would call a hoarse, gravelly blues voice. I never have had. My style particularly as an artist, is rooted in the blues.

My guitar playing is very bluesy. It has a blues undertone to it. But my voice, I’ve never had that gruff blues voice. When I first started out I really wanted that. I was kind of disappointed that when I sang it didn’t sound like that. But now, I kind of embrace it and I’m really happy with the voice I have because it’s different.

I think these days as well, with Robert Cray, Jon Amor, people singing in the same ‘above range’. John Mayall had a higher voice and still has. It’s a feature in your music that you sing in that range.

I think in terms of the range, I don’t have the classic blues voice but I think I have enough of a range that I can get across the songs and melodies in my head. I think one of the things when you’re writing is, you hear a melody or something and you think ‘can you sing it?’ In this album, there’s quite a range of melodies and tunes and stuff. There’s things on there vocally that I’ve never, ever done before.

Well that’s a good point. You should always have things on the record that weren’t on the last one. Insatiable has this deliberate moody, walking sound with the sparse tremolo guitar. There’s some quite subtle chord movements aren’t there? I wonder what inspired that song?

I think for that, I wanted something that was quite rootsy and old-school. In terms of the chorus, you’ve got the texturable drum groove.

But then for the verses, I really like to create moods in my songs, I always like to put a little twist in there. On the turnaround in the verse it’s not a very obvious chord change. But I like that. I like to keep people guessing!

It’s a great thing. It’s what makes songs memorable, not going to the obvious place. Inside Out I like. It’s an excellent song. Cheers.

You should actually give that to Bonnie Raitt I think! It’s a song that I think she would take to. I like that a lot. Was that written early on when you were recording the album or was it a late addition? No, that was one of the first songs I wrote for the album. I think the first song I wrote for the album was Home. Then Inside Out probably came about three or four songs later. For that, it’s definitely influenced by John Mayer. I got into John Mayer a couple of years ago and I just like the depth and mood that he puts into his songs. So for that, it’s got sort of a laid back groove to it. Again, vocally that was something where I tried a melody and vocal thing that I’d never done before in a song. But it really worked.

I was talking to Chuck Leavell from the Stones and he’s friends with Mayer. In fact, Mayer came down and did a spot on his piano album. He thinks the world of him. Look, there’s a star on your record, Wayne Proctor, who I do run into. He has a great touch and feel for making an album varied. You have to give him credit.

Yeah. Wayne is a great musician and he has a good sense of song structure, so working with him on this album was really good. I like his drum sound. I tell you, one thing he is very good at is getting drum sounds onto tape. He’s very good at getting that big, lively sound recorded. He just complements the songs.

Yeah and on Free he’s sort of edging onto a Neil Young-Crazy Horse kind of tempo. Which I think puts a bit of a sharp jolt through the performance. OK. Well that’s interesting. All of the tempos have my initial ideas on them and then we fine-tuned them. We rehearsed all of the songs before we recorded them. We just tried it out, found the natural tempo that would sit comfortably with each of us for each song.

Yeah Joanne Shaw Taylor has a band that’s got a very similar dynamic, where she feels able to jump off that, because she is very comfortable with the musicians around her. I mean Sugar is a sweetheart chug like Jimmy Reed. But again, it’s got a completely unusual turnaround. I’ve never been one to just do things simply. I always like to put a twist on it.

You Make it Real. My son’s a big James Morrison fan and he said to me ‘Ask Aynsley if he’s ever seen James Morrison live?’

I’ve never seen him live but I’ve watched him on YouTube. I think that song, the reason why I picked it is that I do like James’ songs from his earlier albums, and that song’s lyrical theme was very fitting with the rest of the album. Again, in my style I thought ‘I’m not gonna do a carbon copy’. So again, I put in a little bit of a twist. I put a few bits in like the guitar bit in the middle to suit myself. It was something to break it up.

The FeelingGood version that you do, to me goes back to the Antony Newley. This was before Nina Simone got to it. They didn’t actually have her i n mind when they recorded it.

There’s a deep feel to that and I like your light touch.

Right. Well again, it’s a great song with a great riff. With that, I wanted to do the bluesy fill in the verses where the dynamic drops down. Just have some light and shade.

On Possession, you’ve got this heavy chording and this fuzzy gallop tempo. Your voice sounds most comfortable at that tempo. The bass on this track is absolutely terrific.

Steve’s a fantastic player. You mentioned earlier about the song Free and if you listen to what Steve’s playing on the bass and how he bounces off the main vocal line it’s fantastic.

Hyde2612, there’s a very sinister tread to that. It seems to be a story of disorientation. It’s got a sort of cartoonish element

Well there’s a story on that that might actually shed a bit of light for you. It’s actually written after watching the television series ‘Life on Mars’ a few years ago.

It was John Simm wasn’t it?

Basically, I watched that series and the whole storyline of a guy having an accident in 2006 and waking up in 1973 I thought was absolutely brilliant. It was like this time warp thing and I got really sucked into that. So Hyde 2612 was written from the perspective of the characters. He wants to wake up but he has to deal with this guy every day.

Who is technically his boss really. What I did when I was writing that, I tried to use as many references and quotes from the actual series as I could. So there’s obviously some interesting and quite far-out there lyrics in there. Which you might think ‘What is he on about?’, but basically if you watch the series, or one episode, then you would totally get where the song’s at.

There’s a bridge in there with very light chording which I think works a treat. But Impossible where does that come from?

That just started off because I bought a new guitar. I just sat strumming the guitar, and I came up with that chord sequence. Really laid back so I just recorded it on my recorder. Lyrically, I really enjoy writing lyrics and spending time on creating. It’s like when you read a good book you can almost build up a picture in your mind of the scenario.

That’s what books are for. Books are to trigger your own brain to sort of start creating. Yeah, that’s what I try to do. It’s that whole thing of building up imagery and making the listener go to a place when they are listening to a song. It’s not the same old train coming down the line thing!

Do you realise, half of this album is a love letter?

I’m well aware of that yeah. I’m at the happiest place I’ve ever been in my life. Certainly my personal life and in my professional life as well. Life’s good.

The whole business machine of the album with everything being in-house. It’s on our own label and it couldn’t be better really. I think the other thing with this album is it’s a very settled and honest album. At the moment, I suppose I’ve got a lot to shout about. I’m quite happy to use that as inspiration really.

Yeah but if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be true to yourself. Painters go through different eras don’t they? The Byrds made albums that according to my friend Roger McGuinn are ‘like magazines’. He regarded the albums as editions of what the band could do at that particular point, with that particular line up. I think you suppress yourself if you don’t follow your heart and let that come through when you write.

I think the other thing is as well though, as a person I’m a very private person.

I’m not the type of person who would talk about my private life openly to someone I didn’t know really well or felt comfortable with. But I’m in control of the songs, saying what I want to say and not saying what I don’t want to say, I don’t. I’m actually very open in my lyrics put it’s the other way around in my own life.

That was just an observation. There’s a huge romantic streak and obviously it deserves to be there. I enjoyed it immensely, I thought it was a great record and I thought the players really rise to the occasion on these songs home is AvAilAble on strAight tAlkin’ records. Aynsley’s uk tours kicks off on december 1st in edinburgh. for the lAtest news on Aynsley, check out www.Aynsleylister.co.uk

Yeah it was great working with the guys. I worked with Wayne before a good few years ago. Steve is in my live band at the moment and hopefully he’s not going anywhere soon. Also Andre is in the live band as well, so it’s great to go out on the road.

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