Otis Gibbs - Joe Hill's Ashes 2011

Otis Gibbs is a man in search of an honest experience. 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. Much of his work concentrates on the world that is ignored by pop culture. Sometimes forgotten, obsolete or simply marginalized, it is a world that doesnt fit into a twenty-second sound bite or a White House talking point. Otis has spent the last fifteen years traveling across America and abroad documenting this world, and has a story to share about each stop along the way. Otis grew up in the rural town of Wanamaker, Indiana. He first stepped on stage at the age of four, when he sang Jimmie Rodgers Waiting for a Train at a neighborhood honky tonk. While his parents worked countless hours trying to make ends meet, Otis was often in his uncles care. Not accustomed to parenthood, the uncle was sometimes bored, so the two would frequent bars, where Otis sang for tip money (which meant more booze for his uncle). Otis was hooked, and would often ask if they could go back and sing some more songs. The answer, Only if you promise to never tell your parents. Otis started working when he was in high school. He stacked concrete blocks, flipped burgers, drove an ice cream truck, pumped gas, and did countless other crummy jobs. After discovering writers like Edward Abbey, Henry Miller and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, he started questioning what he was doing with his life. He was tired of working jobs that didnt stimulate, or interest him in the least. So, in his own words, he decided to just drop out. Over the next four years, Gibbs earned and lived off less than 3,000 dollars a year and had never been happier. He got rid of his car and shared apartments with artists, musicians and radicals (often living with 5 to 10 people). He also took advantage of the free time and wrote hundreds of songs. The next few years were spent touring and releasing four indie records. The most notable being 49th and Melancholy, (a stripped-down acoustic record, that was recorded to two-track reel-to-reel in a friends laundry room). There was also Once I Dreamed of Christmas, a collection of songs hed written for people who dont like Christmas. In 2004, his critically acclaimed, One Day Our Whispers was released. It was an unpopular time to speak truth to power, but the albums optimism and anti-war undertones resonated deeply with people who felt uncomfortable with the direction America was heading. Though songs like I Wanna Change It, Thirty-three and Ours is the Time have been described as protest songs, Otis prefers to call them love songs for young radicals. The Peoples Day was later included in a Wall Street Journal list compiled by Billy Bragg of the Top Five Songs with Something to Say. This placed Gibbs in the company of Bob Dylan, The Clash, Sam Cooke, and Chuck Berry. In 2009, Gibbs released Grandpa Walked a Picketline. He spent most of the year touring to support the record, including 4 tours of the UK, Ireland and Holland. The album spent 6 weeks in the top 5 on the Americana Radio Chart (USA), peeking at number 4. It reached number 2 on the Euro Americana Chart. If Gibbs current album, Joe Hill’s Ashes, leaves you with one lingering thought, it might be that the great challenge of adulthood, is keeping your idealism once youve lost your innocence. Where Only The Graves Are Real describes life after your closest friends have died, moved away, or simply moved on. The song suggests that the only tangible part of the rock and roll myth are the graves. It issues a warning, that you might wake up one day and find yourself surrounded by the delusional, vacuous and beautiful people that inhabit the music world and wonder how in the hell you ended up there. When I Was Young was inspired by a conversation Otis had with friends. Each person was trying to remember the most perfect moment in their life. A moment when they felt completely safe and secure. Otis described his earliest memories of sitting in his mothers arms with his ear pressed against her chest. He could remember hearing her voice resonating from inside her body as she spoke to him. Otis claims that the song popped into his head and pretty much wrote itself. The Town That Killed Kennedy is an indictment of Greyhound as a means of transportation. This song was written after endless bad experiences while traveling with the bus line. As the lyrics suggest: No one chooses to ride in a Greyhound The only reason youre here is youre too broke to fly Theres a devil named poverty who has brought us together Now the devil is taking us for a ride. When asked about making this record Otis said, Im silly enough to believe that Im the worlds foremost authority on what an Otis Gibbs record should sound like, so I trusted my instincts and ran with it. There are moments when artists find that theyve followed their muse off the side of a cliff and they need someone to hand them a parachute. Thomm Jutz was the perfect person for the job. After recording a lot of the album in my home, I contacted Thomm about finishing the rest of the record in his studio. Working with Thomm was like a breath of fresh air. We worked fast and had a good time doing it. We brought in some Nashville-based musicians who elevated the record in every way. From start to finish, the record was pressed and in my hands in less than three months. Otis currently resides in East Nashville, Tennessee with his long time girlfriend, Amy Lashley, their dog and two cats. (otisgibbs.com) - - - Otis Gibbs albumtitel har stark symbolisk laddning, och han skriver sånger i den radikala tradition som, trots det korta minnet i USA, har Joe Hill som en av sina viktigaste utgångspunkter. Men till skillnad från Joe Hill skriver han inte kampsånger. Han tolkar den proletära medvetenheten i musikaliska och erfarenhetsmässiga ramar som mer anknyter till Harlan County-sångarna och old timey-traditionen. Där Joe Hills sånger ofta päglades av humor och en satirisk tillspetsning, är Otis Gibbs en luttrad pessimist. Även när han direkt anknyter till Joe Hill i titelspåret uttrycker han en uppgivenhet av samma slag som Steve Earle i Christmas in Washington, fast han gör det mindre programmatiskt. Främst präglas Otis Gibbs sånger av en personlig livs- och samhällstolkning. I Where Only the Graves Are Real faller han ut i förkastelsedomar över marknadssamhällets rat race, men sångens coda formuleras likväl i den personligt vinklade hyllningen till de få sanna vännerna i en värld där annars bara gravarna är verkliga. Det gör att en titel som Outdated, Frustrated and Blue är emblematisk, den blir ett tecken för den samlade erfarenhet som kommer till uttryck i Otis Gibbs sånger. Den starkaste syntesen av det personliga och det politiska uttrycker Otis Gibbs annars i The Town that Killed Kennedy: I woke up in the town that killed Kennedy Staring out the window of a Greyhound bus I woke up and felt the age within me Så manar Otis Gbbs fram både ett socialt sammanhang och en existentiell upplevelse innan han abstraherar erfarenheten: No one chooses to ride in a Greyhound The only reason youre is you’re too broke to fly There is a devil named poverty That has brought us together Now the devils taken us for a ride Joe Hills Ashes är en av de bästa samhällskritiska skivorna jag hört på mycket länge. Otis Gibbs sjunger med skrovlig övertygelse, och han ramas fint in av Thomm Jutz slide, mjuka melodispel och flat picking i någon sång och Deanie Richardsons följsamma old timey-fiddle. Och Joe Hill är närvarande, som inspiration och formande kraft, när Otis Gibbs trots allt vågar drömma om bättre tider. (Magnus Eriksson i rootsy.nu) - - - Otis Gibbs - Joe Hill's ashes 2011 1. Joe Hill's ashes 2. Where only the graves are real 3. When I was young 4. Twelve men dead in Sago 5. Kansas City 6. Outdated, frustrated and blue 7. The town that killed Kennedy 8. The ballad of Johnny Crooked Tree 9. I walked out in the river 10. Cross country 11. My new mind 12. Something more

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