Album: Booker's Guitar / Eric Bibb /  Acoustic Blues Vocals and Guitar

 

Reviewed by Mike O'Cull

 

Guitarist / vocalist / songwriter Eric Bibb, already known as a great talent, moves even further into his own element with his new release, Booker’s Guitar. The album title refers to a chance meeting with a fan in the U.K. following a gig; a fan who actually owns the National guitar that was owned and played by bluesman Booker White, an important early blues player, and the older cousin of B.B. King, who in turn also proved to be an important influence on Eric Bibb. When he recorded the title track, Bibb was able to play Booker White’s guitar and that experience seems to have touched him deeply.

 

The entire album finds Bibb in full-on acoustic blues mode with a stack of original songs and a couple of covers that roll by like a history of fingerstyle blues, topped off with Bibb’s warm and inviting vocals that pull the listener into the deeper meanings that lie just beneath the surface of these seemingly simple tunes.

 

It would be easy to say that the songs are the stars here, but the real attraction to Booker’s Guitar is the overall vibe of the album. With both the guitar and in his singing, Eric Bibb displays a master’s touch and the combination creates an emotionally seductive universe which is populated by characters and ideas which range from Booker White to Depression era camp workers and which also includes the writings of Deepak Chopra.  Individually, the songs, including “With My Maker I Am One,” “New Home,” and the title track, stand tall, as do Bibb’s covers of “Wayfaring Stranger,” and Blind Willie Johnson’s “Nobody’s Fault But Mine.” Taken in sequence however, the album is like riding a time machine back to the early blues era and seeing the best of it go down before your very eyes. The fact that the music was recorded in a 19^th century general store in Ohio helps to complete the effect. 

 

With Booker’s Guitar, Eric Bibb hits the top of his form and he invites all of us along for the ride. Anyone who thinks that they know acoustic blues will want to give this album a listen and that experience will round out their education.

 

Reviewed February 2010

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