Otis Gibbs lives the country music version of a modern day Beat Generation. He’s less about rejecting mainstream American for drug experimentation, eastern spirituality and sexual exploits and more about discovering the America that you don’t see on the news or in pop culture and then documenting it in photographs and songs to tell the stories. The end result are albums for the downtrodden like his upcoming release, Grandpa Walked The Picket Line.
Otis was introduced to me through an email from Adrian at the blog, I Pick My Nose. He thought Otis’s sound was right up my alley. He was correct. After digging into Gibbs’ bio, I read the following:
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, theaters, festivals, bars and living rooms.
I’ve been listening to the album for two weeks and its oddly uplifting. I guess if misery loves company in today’s economic times, then Grandpa Walked The Picket Line is your company, sharing tales of woe from people worse off than you. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the lead track, “Caroline,” a story about a girl married at sixteen who then endures years of domestic abuse at the hands of a much older, alcoholic husband. She finds relief by escaping to her “life inside a daydream.”
There’s plenty more of Otis’s weathered vocals to enjoy on the album. It’s only available in Europe for now, but look for it on January 20th stateside.
Otis Gibbs – Preacher Steve (Live)
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I’d almost forgotten about that. Glad to be of service.
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