Billy Gibson first picked up the harmonica at a very young age. “It was cheap and I could easily make sounds with it.” After high school, Gibson’s desire for learning and improving as a musician took him to Clarksdale, Mississippi, where he played with blues guitarist Johnnie Billington and drummer Bobby Little in Billington’s group The Midnighters. “Johnnie and Bobby taught me how to make it in this business,” Gibson recalls. Like many before him, Gibson eventually left Mississippi for Memphis. “Beale Street was my university of blues,” recalls Gibson, referring to the lessons learned as a Beale Street performer. “For a young musician, all you have to do is look and listen and you can learn so much.”
Gibson’s talent and commitment have not gone unrecognized. He received an endorsement from Hohner, his harmonica of choice in 1999. He has made guest appearances on national recording artists’ CDs including Deborah Coleman’s Soft Place To Fall (Blind Pig 2000) and Michael Burks’ I Smell Smoke (Alligator 2003). Around the same time, Gibson received a BA in music from the University of Memphis.
Gibson’s career has been a constant progression and immersion into many genres of music, with blues being the foundation and primary inspiration of his artistic endeavors.
Album: THE BILLY GIBSON BAND
Styles: Modern Electric Memphis Blues, Harmonica Blues
Recorded: 2004
Released: 2005
Bitrate: 320k/s
Size: 88.04 MB
Time: 37:56
Art: Full
1. Down Home (3:16)
2. Keep Doin' What Ya Doin' (5:01)
3. Home At Last (6:04)
4. What Is Love (2:51)
5. Darlin' Please Come Home (4:26)
6. Stingin' Stang (3:14)
7. Love Everybody (5:25)
8. One More Time (4:43)
9. Tell It Like It Is (2:56)
Personnel: Billy GIBSON - Harmonica, Vocals
David Bowen - Guitar
James Jackson - Bass
Cedric Keel - Drums
with special guests:
Charlie Wood - Keyboards
Charles Cambell - Saxophones
Note: As anyone who has heard him on Beale Street already knows, Billy Gibson's harp playing is extraordinary. Seeing him live is an experience not to forget--he is simply electrifying. On this new studio recording, the chemistry of these ace musicians is in perfect harmony. Although his harp playing is no less than ferocious, every guitar lick, every drum fill, and every organ nuance has its place on these nine songs. "A certified genius," Bill Ellis of The Memphis Commercial Appeal comments regarding Gibson's virtuosity. For fans who have followed his career since his days in junkyardmen, The Billy Gibson Band CD will be comfortably familiar. For fans not familiar with Gibson, GET this one!
The Billy Gibson Band
Album: IN A MEMPHIS TONE
Styles: Modern Electric Memphis Blues, Harmonica Blues, Instrumental Jazzy-Blues :-)
Recorded: 1996/97
Released: 2004
Bitrate: 320k/s
Size: 147.33 MB
Time: 63:39
Art: Full
1. Chicken Shack (13:38)
2. Straight No Chaser (8:57)
3. Body And Soul (8:36)
4. In A Mellow Tone (7:43)
5. Shortnin (6:00)
6. Gimme Fire (9:16)
7. K's Walk (5:18)
8. Ballad For Bill (4:11)
Personnel: Billy GIBSON - Harmonica
Pete Pedersen - Harmonica tr.2
Charlie Wood - Organ, Piano
Joe Restivo, David Boven - Guitar
Bryant Lockhart - Tenor Sax
Kevin Sheahan - Bass
David Forrester, Jeff Burch - Drums
Notes: Billy Gibson is an amazing harmonica player. In a club setting, he ignites both the band and his audience with explosive solos and individual charisma. In a studio setting, he s the one who gets a call from producers when a track needs some magic. Simply put, Billy Gibson is an extraordinary musician. Born in Clinton, Mississippi, Billy first picked-up the harmonica at a very young age. After high school, he spent some time in Clarksdale, where he honed his musical skill and immersed himself in the blues culture. In his early 20s, he moved to Memphis and quickly became recognized as one of Beale Street s most dynamic new performers. During this period, he also became acquainted with some legendary Memphis jazz musicians and began studying jazz harmonica with renowned virtuoso Pete Pedersen. Now one of Memphis most popular entertainers and twice the recipient of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Premier Player Award for outstanding harmonica, Billy Gibson is a mature musician who is getting more than just a little notice.
His recent guest appearances on Michael Burks I Smell Smoke along with various television appearances are adding up to nothing less than a serious buzz. His recording credits include two CDs with the popular Beale Street band Junkyardmen (1998 and 1999), a self-titled solo release in 1996, and the 2001 jazz release 'The Nearness of You'. He was also guest artist and co-producer on two other releases that year Goin Down South Blues Sampler and the McCarty-Hite Project s Weekend in Memphis. In a Memphis Tone was mostly recorded in 1997 and captures Billy Gibson as an artist with enormous talent and renewed inspiration. The sessions include his mentor Pete Pedersen on one track, and B-3 organ virtuoso Charlie Wood and bassist Kevin Sheahan on most others. An instrumental CD with elements of blues and jazz, 'In a Memphis Tone' captures a moment in time where a heightened sense of artistry is achieved and pure pleasure awaits the listener. This is all instrumental music, mostly jazzy blues.
In A Memphis Tone