Bluegrass Brothers

Eric Gibson talks about ‘blood harmony'

Friday, Feb. 27, 2009

If you ask Eric Gibson to brag he will mention four straight records reaching the top of the Bluegrass Unlimited magazine charts and some appearances at the Grand Ole Opry. Truthfully though, Gibson is not one to brag, nor is he is the type to force his not-too "high lonesome" voice to strike an unnaturally falsetto pitch.

He writes in his online journal that, after almost 20 years as a touring musician, he is finally starting to feel truly comfortable gracing stages. Incidentally, in 2008, the five-piece bluegrass band released what might be its best record yet.

Even so, some people say brothers (and bluegrass duo) Eric and Leigh Gibson, born in the 1970s, were born 40 years too late.

Too late, as of late, because recent Gibson Brothers' tunes take a listener back to a time when there was a less obvious divide between bluegrass and country, when country music itself was popular, not pop.

Sure, on the new album "Iron and Diamonds" there are cuts, like "Picker's Blues," which are as distinct to modern bluegrass as a Kenny Chesney number is to modern country. But then there's a song like the title track written by Leigh, a stirring piece of folksy country, plainly told and starkly sung, about the miners in an upstate New York town in the Adirondacks near where the brothers grew up. Here's a song about men who toiled six days a week in the mines of Lyon Mountain and then spent their Sundays on the baseball diamond.

Forty years too late? Perhaps. Because these days the Gibsons seem to be thinking less about genres than about serving lyrics, letting the emotions spill where they will. And whether it's an original or a cover by Tom Petty, Steve Earle, Julie Miller or Faron Young, the band has been working with material which fits their pretense-free style.

"There's a difference between getting through the song and living it for three minutes," said Eric during a phone interview.

Although the mines closed in the decade before the Gibsons were born, they played baseball against miners' sons. "We got the flavor of that town, I think. … When Leigh and I played ball up there, we felt like outsiders because we were not from the town," Eric said, talking about the title tracks' unromantic viewpoint.

Still, the band received a letter from a former member of the Lyon Mountain Miners baseball team. "I write this with tears in my eyes," he wrote. "I have never heard anyone capture the spirit of Lyon Mountain and the Miners Baseball Club as you folks have."

The Gibsons are not effortless singers, and their band, though road-tested and tight, does not exactly have a Ronnie McCoury or Sam Bush. Leigh's voice is said to have more range than Eric's, but Leigh's voice is less typical for bluegrass. The brothers, however, have had many years to harness a natural blend, which Eric refers to both as "harmony buzz" and "blood harmony."

"It's hard to beat blood harmony," Eric said. "I'm not saying you can't beat it, but it's hard to beat it, because I know we come in on the chorus on a good night and it's just right. We grew up together, very rarely apart. We kind of learned to talk at the same time. You're around the same people so you learn how to phrase the same way in your daily conversation."

The Gibsons grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York, close to the Canadian border. Their parents collected instruments, and before they hit their teens Leigh was playing guitar and Eric was playing banjo. They took lessons at Dick's Country Store, performed in church, listened to famous brother duets like the Stanleys, Monroes, Delmores, Louvins and Everlys. The Gibson Brothers are often compared to the latter group, but Eric has said no performer influenced their development more than Buck Owens.

Even better, the blood harmony continues off the stage. The Everly Brothers, for one, spent more years not speaking to each other than playing music. ("They made a lot of money, though," Eric said, laughing. "They sold a lot of records.")

Ten years ago, the group was named the International Bluegrass Music Association's emerging artist of the year. They signed with Sugar Hill Records in 2005.

The Gibsons are actually ready to release a new record. Although the name is not yet official, it will diverge from the band's recent trend of reflective, moody blues-grass. Apparently those who found "Iron and Diamonds" lacking enough hot picking will not be able to voice the same complaint.

"I think our new album is going to be our most high lonesome sounding album in a long time," Eric said. "I think it's our grassiest record in a while, as far as we do have some that are pretty high. It's a good hard-driving album. There's going to be no doubt about it that it's a bluegrass record."

Watch them live

The Gibson Brothers will perform at 7 p.m. Feb. 28 at American Legion Post 238, Hughesville. Doors open at 5 p.m. for a fried chicken dinner. Tickets for the concert are $15; tickets for dinner are $7. Bring a nonperishable food item to benefit local food banks. Call 301-737-3004.