Migration Blues

Blues & Rock/Rythm & Blues
premiera polska: 2017-03-30
kontynent: Ameryka Północna
kraj: USA
opakowanie: digipackowe etui
opis:
Editor's info:
The joy of making music and sharing it with you is a big part of my life. Another big part is travelling and getting to know folks from many places. This exposure to di?erent cultures has led me to think of myself as a citizen of the world, blessed with countless opportunities to recognize my connectedness to people everywhere. Feeling this connection makes it easier to let go of my pre-conceived notions and prejudices toward people and cultures that are outside of my experience. The way I see it, prejudice towards our brothers and sisters who are currently called “refugees” is the problem. Fear and ignorance are the problems. Refugees are not “problems” – they are courageous fellow human beings escaping dire circumstances. Fleeing from war and unbearable hardship is something people have been doing all over the world for millennia. It’s nothing new. Every culture has its own migration stories and songs. While pondering the current refugee crisis I found myself thinking about the Great Migration, which saw millions of African Americans leaving the brutal segregation and economic misery of the rural South for the industrial cities of the North. Making this connection is what inspired the new songs included here. Whether you’re looking at a former sharecropper, hitchhiking from Clarksdale to Chicago in 1923, or an orphan from Aleppo, in a boat full of refugees in 2016 – it’s migration blues. With this album I want to encourage us all to keep our minds and hearts wide open to the ongoing plight of refugees everywhere. As history shows, we all come from people who, at some time or another, had to move.
by Eric Bibb

bluesblastmagazine.com:
Veteran acoustic tunesmith Eric Bibb delivers a strong political message in his latest release, the 37th album in his illustrious catalog, as he compares the pilgrimage of former slaves and sharecroppers from the American South to better lives in the North with the plight of immigrants seeking redemption from war-torn foreign lands today.

The son of Leon Bibb, a superstar on the New York folk scene in the ‘60s, Eric’s traveled the world steadily since taking up the blues in his 20s, and he’s an emigrant himself – first settling in Sweden and now Finland. “I want to encourage us all to keep our minds and hearts wide open to the ongoing plight of refugees everywhere,” he insists. “As history shows, we all come from people who, at some time or another, had to move.”

A gifted songwriter and storyteller who relishes his exposure he gets to different cultures in his travels, Bibb delivers 11 originals and three covers while accompanying himself on guitar, six-string banjo and contrabass guitar. Recorded in Quebec, and richly annotated, Migration Blues gathered a collection of top-flight musicians from around the globe.

Michael Jerome Browne, a two-time solo artist of the year in the Canadian Folk Awards, provides guitars, banjos, mandolin, triangle and backing vocals, while Frenchman JJ Milteau, a national award-winner who’s worked with Charles Aznavour and Yves Montand, contributes harmonica. They team tightly for an instrumental number, during which Eric takes a break. Swedish multi-instrumentalist Olle Linder adds percussion and bass, while North Carolina-based Big Daddy Wilson provides vocals on one cut, and Ulrika Bibb does the same on another.

“Refugee Moan” features Eric on baritone guitar accompanied by Michael on gourd banjo for a simple, but powerful message: “If there’s a train that will take me there/Take me where I can live in peace.” Next up, the theme for “Delta Getaway” was based on a conversation Bibb had with an elder blues musician decades ago and relates being chased by dogs as the man tried to escape Mississippi for a better life Chicago.

“Diego’s Blues” describes the difficult life of Mexican migrants in Yazoo County, Miss., in the 1920s. It’s based on details Eric discovered while browsing the Internet. Next up, “Prayin’ For Shore” describes the recent, tragic attempts of Africans attempting to flee to Europe. The moody instrumental “Migration Blues” features Bibb playing slide on a 12-string guitar, accompanied solely by Milteau on harp.

Next up is the poignant “Four Years, No Rain” – written by Browne and B.A. Marcus. It deals with the plight of refugees seeking Paradise as well as relief from starvation and warfare raging in their homeland. Bibb goes to another source for the tune that follows. “We Had To Move” is based on accounts provided by the family of The Hardest Working Man In Show Business in James McBride’s book, “Kill ‘Em And Leave: Searching For James Brown And The American Soul.” It depicts forced migration after the government claimed the family’s land.

A cover of Bob Dylan’s “Masters Of War” precedes “Brotherly Love,” an upbeat number that provides a glimmer of hope amid all the despair. It states Bibb’s belief that, ultimately, human nature will overcome worldwide subjugation. Milteau and Browne spell Eric to deliver the instrumental “La Vie C’est Comme Un Oignon (Life Is Like An Onion)” before “With A Dolla In My Pocket,” based on statements from older bluesmen to Bibb that the only way to survive racial oppression was to hide your rage as best you can.

A traditional cover of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” follows before another instrumental, “Postcard From Booker,” a solo performance delivered on a National steel guitar once owned by first-generation superstar Booker – a/k/a “Bukka” — White. The album concludes with “Blacktop,” which states that “everyday, seems like murder here,” and the traditional spiritual, “Mornin’ Train,” on which the singer’s headed for his heavenly reward and which brings full circle the theme stated in the opener.

Powerful stuff from beginning to end from one of the most thoughtful musicians on the planet. The message runs deep as the mighty Mississippi. My only regret about Migration Blues is that the people who need to hear and understand it the most are the folks who’ll refute its meaning or never give it a listen.
BY MARTY GUNTHER

utwory:
1 Refugee Moan 3:06
Banjo [Fretless Gourd] – Michael Jerome Browne
Harmonica – JJ Milteau
Vocals, Baritone Guitar – Eric Bibb

2 Delta Getaway 2:38
Drums – Olle Linder
Slide Guitar [Resophonic] – Michael Jerome Browne
Vocals, Guitar – Eric Bibb

3 Diego's Blues 3:42
Guitar [12-String] – Michael Jerome Browne
Vocals – Eric Bibb

4 Prayin' For Shore 4:04
12-String Acoustic Guitar – Michael Jerome Browne
Backing Vocals – Big Daddy Wilson
Harmonica – JJ Milteau*
Vocals, Guitar, Guitar [Contrabass] – Eric Bibb

5 Migration Blues 3:08
Guitar [Resophonic 12-String] – Eric Bibb
Harmonica – JJ Milteau*
Slide Guitar [12-String] – Michael Jerome Browne

6 Four Years, No Rain 2:36
Guitar – Michael Jerome Browne
Harmonica – JJ MIlteau*
Vocals – Eric Bibb

7 We Had To Move 3:10
Guitar [Tenor] – Michael Jerome Browne
Harmonica – JJ Milteau*
Vocals, 6-String Banjo – Eric Bibb

8 Masters Of War 3:19
Banjo [Fretless Gourd] – Michael Jerome Browne
Harmonica – JJ Milteau*
Vocals, Guitar – Eric Bibb

9 Brotherly Love 4:12
12-String Acoustic Guitar – Michael Jerome Browne
Vocals, Baritone Guitar [Rozawood] – Eric Bibb

10 La Vie C'est Comme Un Oignon 2:39
Fiddle, Triangle [Cajun] – Michael Jerome Browne
Harmonica – JJ Milteau*

11 With A Dolla' In My Pocket 3:52
Drums, Percussion – Olle Linder
Guitar – Michael Jerome Browne
Harmonica – JJ Milteau*
Vocals, Resonator Guitar [Wood Bodied] – Eric Bibb

12 This Land Is Your Land 3:17
Guitar, Mandolin – Michael Jerome Browne
Harmonica – JJ Milteau*
Vocals, Guitar [Martin 7-String] – Eric Bibb

13 Postcard From Booker 0:51
Eric Bibb: Guitar

14 Blacktop 3:56
Vocals – Eric Bibb
Vocals, Resonator Guitar [Wood Bodied] – Michael Jerome Browne

15 Mornin' Train 3:35
5-String Banjo – Michael Jerome Browne
Vocals – Ulrika Bibb
Vocals, Guitar [Preston Thompson] – Eric Bibb
5-String Banjo – Michael Jerome Browne

wydano: 2017-03-30
more info2: www.ericbibb.com