Eric Bibb – The Mackintosh Church – Celtic Connections – support Grainne Hunt – January 26, 2025.

ERIC BIBB

Grainne Hunt

Another wonderful Celtic Connections evening where both support and main act got a rapturous reception from an enthusiastic packed house.

Grainne Hunt has been called the hardest working woman in Irish music, and she’s certainly had a busy year that included a showcase at Folk Alliance International before her first US tour in mid-2024. She’s now in possession of the coveted O1 visa, and, on the evidence of the performance I saw, that should hopefully kick her into the festival stratosphere.

First off: what a voice. Grainne has a strong natural contralto pitch, but she can switch it up when needed – as she indeed showed on her final song Let Go when she really did let go and sent her last note soaring higher and higher before holding and fading it for an impressively long time – and the public WERE impressed. It didn’t hurt that her choice of material and her cosy banter between songs meant that they were very much on her side already.

Couple that voice with a songwriting talent that continues to impress and you have a recipe for success.  I recognised some older songs, but she aired a handful of new material with skillfully crafted lyrics, some great hooks, and melodies that struck me as strongly commercial within the alt-country/trad crossover fields. Who knows? If she ends up bumping into the likes of Emmy Lou Harris on her American jaunts, she could well end up selling a hit song.

She opened with an oldie – her first single from 9 years ago – Lilacs. Since most were present to see Eric Bibb, it’s not surprising that it was the first time many there had heard her, and I could hear people around me remarking on the quality of her voice on that beautifully pensive song.

It seems unfair to pick out individual moments from such a good set, but, alas, such is a critic’s lot so one I’d certainly focus on was her surprisingly good “on the road” number – after all, the theme has been done to death by so many. Somewhere I Called Home featured some nice guitar-picking (compliments to Grainne, the sound man, and a rather expensive instrument I’d give my eye-teeth for!) and a theme that actually contained some appreciation for her itinerary rather than just the usual nostalgic looking-back: “Everywhere I go I leave a part of me and there it will remain/Stronger now without it, the memories are what I take away.”

Another high point for me was This Secret, title song of her 2019 album, all about finding happiness in moments of pleasant solitude. It feels somewhat paradoxical to be enjoying someone else’s paean to being alone, but I think most of us have had that feeling at times and this was a very pretty rendition.

As I hinted at the start of this review, I suspect, and hope, that this will be Grainne’s year. She certainly deserves wider acclaim. Star quality, go and see her!

Talking of star quality … Eric Bibb has it to spare. His warm evocative singing traverses the world of blues both ancient and modern,  and takes his audience along on that journey while pointing out the sights. His absolutely rock-steady guitar-picking had a hypnotic quality to it in a way that recalled Taj Mahal, and he was intermittently backed by a mighty fine rhythm section consisting of Paul Robertson on drums and Neville Malcolm on bass guitar.

Robertson’s drumming had something in common with Ringo Starr’s in that every beat was crafted to fit in perfectly with the intent of the song, and Neville Malcolm kept it solid, with the occasional Jamersonian run and some tasty unison touches with Bibb’s guitarwork.

Eric Bibb’s songs aren’t the only testament to his star quality. He’s a great raconteur. The between-numbers chats to the audience gave intriguing and interesting backgrounds both to his own career path and to those of those who had inspired that path. When he reverently spoke of Huddie Leadbetter “with that big old Stella guitar”, you could just picture that giant figure onstage. Eric could make a living on the lecture circuit alone and people would pay to hear him.

His set opened with the self-penned Tall Cotton, in which he pins his success on words from the mouth of his great-grandmother: “Keep a song in your heart and a truth on your tongue”. Sage advice indeed – and much appreciated by his public. It set the keynote for a relaxed intimate evening wherein many songs were sung and many truths were told.

Being a tad on the ancient side myself, I felt a warm stab of recognition when Eric dipped into The Great Blue Songbook to give us classics like Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad (sung by Elizabeth Cotten, Woody Guthrie, and many etceteras), Huddie Leadbetter’s Bring Me Little Water Sylvie (one of the first songs I ever learned to play), Walter Davis’s Come Back Baby, and a compelling take on Jimmy Oden’s Goin’ Down Slow.

One of the lyrical highlights of the evening was Eric’s own With A Dolla In My Pocket. Inspired by a conversation with an old bluesman, it told how he’d had to flee Mississippi to escape possible death after giving a cruel workboss a piece of his mind. He headed off to a cold Chicago right away without even having time to say goodbye to his family. The song was uncompromising, moving, and effectively conveyed the anguish in the soul of a man forced to leave everything and everyone he knew.

A similarly evocative and downright chilling number was his unaccompanied Refugee Moan – a forceful, and perhaps necessary, reminder that these ragged souls on the road from wars engineered by powers beyond their control are human too.

An interesting touch of autobiography was Silver Spoon. Eric acknowledged that coming from a comfortable middle-class existence in New York City, he was born with the said spoon in his mouth (at least by comparison with the originators of his art). The blues was, in a sense, self-inflicted, but it led to more than a fair amount of dues-paying – which all, thankfully, helped to shape the career of one “born to sing the blues”.

There’s a lot of truth in the fact that the blues (this concert was an obvious example) has a wide appeal for many who live outside the specific experiences much of the music references, but we don’t all go for broke and follow it down that lonesome road. Eric Bibb did just that and we’re all grateful for the result.

Towards the end of the evening, Eric introduced “a lady with a beautiful voice” – his wife of many years, Ulrika. Two things: it was no exaggeration, Ulrika DOES have a beautiful voice, and, despite being from what is arguably one of the least likely “blues territories” in the world – Sweden, she sings with great feeling for the music, both when taking the lead and when harmonising.

The finale, when she and Eric harmonised on a gospel treatment of the Lightnin’ Hopkins classic Needed Time, had the entire hall joining in and the number was granted a thunderous standing ovation.

This was my first live hearing of Eric Bibb (and Ulrika, Paul, and Neville), and I have to say it left me mightily impressed (OK, I admit it, I was even dancing!).

BOB LESLIE