Eric Bibb

Eric Bibb is a legitimate heir to the folk music tradition. The nephew of jazz pianist John Lewis and son of folk singer Leon Bibb, Bibb the younger grew up in the fertile ground of New York in the ’60s surrounded by musical legends including Pete Seeger, Odetta, Richie Havens and Bob Dylan. Bibb started playing the guitar as a child. While enjoying the pop and rhythm and blues music of the day, he also developed a taste for the traditional sounds of the blues, jazz and roots music he discovered in, among other places, his father’s record collection. He studied the classics at New York’s High School of Music and Art and Columbia University. After leaving college to pursue music as a career, Bibb moved to Paris, and then onto Sweden where he found a folk scene reminiscent of an earlier Greenwich Village. He continued his exploration of the Blues, focusing on the pre-War era, and developing his songwriting and performing skills. Bibb has built a successful career, both on stage and as a songwriter, drawing from music influences that include Taj Mahal, Leadbelly, Judy Collins, Josh White and his father, Leon. Recent CD releases from Bibb feature collaborations with Maria Muldaur and Rory Block (Sisters and Brothers), his dad (A Family Affair) and the 2004 Telarc recording, Friends, which offers collaborations with Guy Davis, Ruthie Foster, Mamadou Diabate, Kristina Olsen and others.