Album Review: Eric Bibb, ‘One Mississippi’

It’s a gift to have yet another new album—his most recent was 2023’s Ridin’, which earned a 2024 Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album—from the prolific Eric Bibb. His new one, One Mississippi, illustrates his musical range as he moves from acoustic blues to folk to soul and to jazz.

The album opens with the sing-song stride blues of the title track, a protest song penned by Janis Ian and Fred Koller that mimics the prison shouts of inmates at Parchman Prison Farm as they use the rhyme “one Mississippi” to count the days that pass. Shaneeka Simon’s and Sara Bergkvist Scott’s haunting call and response vocals elevate the piercing field hollers and snaking gospel blues of the moving “Go Down Ol’ Hanna.” The slowly unfurling “Muddy Waters,” with its heady brew of slide guitar, harp, and tuba, evokes the down-and-out muddiness of a blues journeyman who must burn up the road between Memphis and St. Louis just to keep his head above water. The funky soul stew “This One Don’t” testifies to the straight-ahead, get-down simplicity of the song: “some songs got complicated melodies/this one don’t.” Bright guitar chords and fingerpicking flow gently beneath Bibb’s warm vocals on the lullaby-like love song “It’s a Good Life,” while the atmospheric “No Clothes On” uncovers the ways that politicians often cover up their lies. They dress up when they’re really “struttin’ down the street with no clothes on.” “No Clothes On” joins the songs of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye in crying out for change. Uncoiling like a snake, “Crossroads Marilyn Monroe” memorialize the tale of a juke joint beauty whose lies ruin lives but who later in life admits her wrongdoing. “Waiting on the Sun” is an airy anthem of anticipation of better times, while “Show Your Love” floats orchestrally, urging everyone to share their love with others and not to wait to do it. The album closes with the ethereal blues “We Got to Find a Way,” which urges us to find a way to peace, right now.

One Mississippi showcases Eric Bibb’s insightful songwriting, his innovative playing, and his ingenious musicianship.

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One Mississippi is available HERE.