Rounder Records has announced the signing of The Gibson Brothers to their label. A new album is currently in progress, which is expected to hit in January of 2015.
The past few years have been big ones for the brothers, who like most “overnight successes,” have been plugging away for more than two decades in bluegrass music. At the 2013 International Bluegrass Music Awards, they took home four major awards, cementing their place in the contemporary bluegrass pantheon.
Eric (on banjo and tenor vocals) and Leigh Gibson (on guitar and lead vocals) have rekindled interest in the old time brother duet singing style, which shaped the sound of early country and pre-bluegrass music in the 1930s and ’40s. Think Blue Sky Boys with a crisp, modern bluegrass rhythm section – and a knack for writing memorable songs and choosing good ones from their fellow tune crafters.
Here’s a taste of their duet harmony on Eastbound Train, filmed by the folks with Mason Jar Music during the 2013 FreshGrass festival in Massachusetts.
Eric Gibson says that for he and Leigh, the reputation that Rounder Records has earned over the years is something they aspired to even as young boys.
“As kids on the farm, we spent many hours listening to records, many of them on Rounder, a name synonymous with quality. We remember absorbing Tony Rice’s Cold on the Shoulder, the first J. D. Crowe & the New South album, and offerings from the Bluegrass Album Band, looking at that identifiable logo and wishing that one day we would be affiliated with Rounder, a beacon in the roots music world. That day has come. We are so excited to have signed with Rounder and cannot wait for people to hear our first Rounder project, a tribute to the great brother acts in bluegrass and country music history.”
Look for more details about the first Gibson Brothers Rounder album to emerge over the next few months.
