Otis Gibbs is a man in search of an honest experience. Some
people refer to him as a folk artist, but that is a simplistic way to
describe a man who has planted over 7,000 trees, slept in hobo
jungles, walked with nomadic shepherds in the Carpathian Mountains,
been strip-searched by dirty cops in Detroit, and has an FBI file.
Otis has played everywhere from labor rallies in Wisconsin, to
anti-war protests in Texas, Austria and the Czech Republic, Feed &
Seed Stores in the Midwestern U.S. and in countless, theatres,
festivals, bars and living rooms. Much of his work concentrates on the
world that is ignored by pop culture. Sometimes forgotten, obsolete or
simply marginalized, it is a world that doesn't fit into a
twenty-second sound bite or a White House talking point. Otis has
spent the last fifteen years traveling across America and abroad
documenting this world, and has a story to share about each stop along
the way.
Otis grew up in the rural town of Wanamaker, Indiana. He first
stepped on stage at the age of four, when he sang Jimmie Rodgers'
"Waiting for a Train" at a neighborhood honky tonk. While his parents
worked countless hours trying to make ends meet, Otis was often in his
uncle's care. Not accustomed to parenthood, the uncle was sometimes
bored, so the two would frequent bars, where Otis sang for tip money
(which meant more booze for his uncle). Otis was hooked, and would
often ask if they could go back and sing some more songs. The answer,
"Only if you promise to never tell your parents."
Otis started working when he was in high school. He stacked
concrete blocks, flipped burgers, drove an ice cream truck, pumped
gas, and did countless other crummy jobs. After discovering writers
like Edward Abbey, Henry Miller and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, he started
questioning what he was doing with his life. He was tired of working
jobs that didn't stimulate, or interest him in the least. So, in his
own words, he decided to just "drop out." Over the next four years,
Gibbs earned and lived off less than $3,000 a year and had never been
happier. He got rid of his car and shared apartments with artists,
musicians and radicals (often living with 5 to 10 people). He also
took advantage of the free time and wrote hundreds of songs.
The next few years were spent touring and releasing four indie
records. The most notable being "49th and Melancholy," (a
stripped-down acoustic record, that was recorded to two-track
reel-to-reel in a friend's laundry room). There was also "Once I
Dreamed of Christmas," a collection of songs he'd written "for people
who don't like Christmas."
In 2004, his critically acclaimed, "One Day Our Whispers" was
released. It was an unpopular time to speak truth to power, but the
album's optimism and anti-war undertones resonated deeply with people
who felt uncomfortable with the direction America was heading. Though songs like "I Wanna Change It," "Thirty-three" and "Ours is the Time" have been described as protest songs, Otis prefers to call them "love songs for young radicals." "The Peoples Day" was later included in a Wall Street Journal list compiled by Billy Bragg of the "Top Five
Songs with Something to Say." This placed Gibbs in the company of Bob Dylan, The Clash, Sam Cooke, and Chuck Berry.
In 2009, Gibbs released "Grandpa Walked a Picketline." He spent
most of the year touring to support the record, including 4 tours of
the UK, Ireland and Holland. The album spent 6 weeks in the top 5 on
the Americana Radio Chart (USA), peeking at number 4. It reached
number 2 on the Euro Americana Chart.
If Gibbs' current album, "Joe Hill's Ashes," leaves you with one
lingering thought, it might be that the great challenge of adulthood,
is keeping your idealism once you've lost your innocence.
"Where Only The Graves Are Real" describes life after your closest
friends have died, moved away, or simply moved on. The song suggests
that the only tangible part of the rock and roll myth are the graves.
It issues a warning, that you might wake up one day and find yourself
surrounded by the delusional, vacuous and beautiful people that
inhabit the music world and wonder how in the hell you ended up there.
"When I Was Young" was inspired by a conversation Otis had with friends. Each person was trying to remember the most perfect moment
in their life. A moment when they felt completely safe and secure.
Otis described his earliest memories of sitting in his mother's arms
with his ear pressed against her chest. He could remember hearing her
voice resonating from inside her body as she spoke to him. Otis
claims that the song popped into his head and pretty much wrote
itself.
"The Town That Killed Kennedy" is an indictment of Greyhound as a
means of transportation. This song was written after endless bad
experiences while traveling with the bus line. As the lyrics suggest:
No one chooses to ride in a Greyhound
The only reason you're here is you're too broke to fly
There's a devil named poverty who has brought us together
Now the devil is taking us for a ride.
When asked about making this record Otis said, "I'm silly enough
to believe that I'm the world's foremost authority on what an Otis
Gibbs record should sound like, so I trusted my instincts and ran with
it. There are moments when artists find that they've followed their
muse off the side of a cliff and they need someone to hand them a
parachute. Thomm Jutz was the perfect person for the job. After
recording a lot of the album in my home, I contacted Thomm about
finishing the rest of the record in his studio. Working with Thomm
was like a breath of fresh air. We worked fast and had a good time
doing it. We brought in some Nashville-based musicians who elevated
the record in every way. From start to finish, the record was pressed
and in my hands in less than three months."
Otis currently resides in East Nashville, Tennessee with his long
time girlfriend, Amy Lashley, their dog and two cats. |
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October - November 2010
Territories: UK and Ireland
Format: solo
Looking for dates: Please enquire for availability |
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October - November 2010
- see full schedule here. |
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