Blues Legend Eric Bibb Goes “Ridin'” With Taj Mahal, Russell Malone & More On Quest For Unity (ALBUM REVIEW)

Two-time Grammy-nominated and multiple BMA winner Eric Bibb has returned with salient messages. Bibb can count 47 albums in his storied career that began five decades ago. Unlike 2018’s Global Griot and 2021’s Dear America, the latter acknowledged by many critics as the crowning gem of his career, Ridin’ was only recorded in two studios, (Brooklyn and Quebec) not four, but still boasts a similar cast of accompanying musicians. Even more importantly, Ridin’ continues the themes of social justice and African American history with equal fervor as its predecessor. Produced by his longtime collaborator and multi-instrumentalist, Glen Scott, the album was inspired by the oil painting by Eastman Johnson, “A Ride for Liberty” (1862) which depicts an African American family fleeing enslavement during the Civil War. 

Bibb and Scott are focused on the ongoing task of understanding systemic racism and purging it from this world. This is not to say there are not fun-filled, hopeful songs here but the predominant underlying messages are deeply serious. Bibb approaches all of them with unparalleled calm. The banjo-driven opener “Family” immediately states “I am like you” and “You are like me” in call-and-response patterns with his gospel choir. The title track speaks to riding on the Freedom Train, evoking Freedom Riders of the Civil Rights era. He teams with pals Taj Mahal and Jontavious Willis on the stomping “Blues Funky Like Dat,” a slight deviation from the major thematic material.

One of the album’s most memorable and harrowing tracks is “The Ballad of John Howard Griffin,” featuring guitarist Russell Malone. It’s about the American writer and journalist best known for his book Black Like Me published in 1961. Similar visceral history not surprisingly marks “Tulsa” while several others are the kind of hopeful hymns long sung by the oppressed – the traditional “500 Miles” and “Sinner Man” (with the Eric Bibb String Band, Live at Wheatland Festival).  The band features Dirk Powell and Grant Dermody among others

Malone’s guitar sparks Bibb’s cry for resilience in “Hold the Line” while electric guitarist Amar Sundy does the same for Bibb’s shuffle “I Got My Own.” Canadian blues great Harrison Kennedy joins for the outstanding flat-out response to prejudice in “Call Me By My Name” – “I’m a man, not your boy, you will call me by your name.” In “Joybells” he memorializes the host of fallen soldiers who fought for freedom from John Lewis to George Floyd, singing with Tommy Sims and Ash Haynes. The list of names he recites makes for a haunting tune. Habib Koite, along with African and Norwegian musicians who have appeared on previous efforts, helps in the pleading “Free” while he again summons the choir in his quest for unity on “People You Love” and finishes with a soothing instrumental outro, “Church Bells.”

Bibb’s smooth voice and overall calm belie the deep issues he sings about, the epitome of graceful, peaceful protest.

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