The Gibson Brothers

by Charlotte DillonThe upstate New York bluegrass group known as the Gibson Brothers is really two talented brothers and a father-and-son team who can deliver a close-knit harmony without a hitch. The brothers are writer, banjoist, and vocalist Eric Gibson and writer, guitarist, and vocalist Leigh Gibson. The father-and-son team is Junior Barber on Resophonic guitar and son Mike Barber on acoustic bass. Brothers Leigh and Eric began performing before their teens, playing gospel instrumentals in the local church. They added singing harmonies to their act when they were around 16. They did numbers by artists such as Buck Owens and Jim & Jesse. A musician by the name of Bob Fuller made sure the young brothers were exposed to the music of bluegrass greats like Red Allen, Bill Monroe, and Jimmy Martin. In 1994, as a group of four, the Gibson Brothers recorded their debut album, Underneath a Harvest Moon, released by the independent label Big Elm Records. The album featured tunes like Your Man in the Middle, I Never Was Too Much, and Tears of Yesterday. The groups music moves from fun and energetic to serious and deliberate, stirring in classic bluegrass and roots country in a way that makes each song original and the style all Gibson Brothers. In 1995, a performance at Owensboro, KY, landed the group a contract with Hay Holler Records. A year later, the Gibson Brothers released Long Forgotten Dream. With numbers like Good as Gold, Little Man in the Mirror, and I Dont Know What to Do, the album did well enough to earn a place on the bluegrass charts, holding ground there for months. The title song made it into the Top 30 Survey for the Bluegrass Unlimited chart, reaching number ten. The Gibson Brothers next album, Spread Your Wings, hit the stores in 1997. It did as well as the debut. One of its tracks, Picture in the Moonlight, hit the Top 30 survey. In 1998, the album Another Night of Waiting was released. One of its tracks, She Paints a Picture, climbed even higher on the charts than its predecessors. In October of that same year, the Gibson Brothers signed on with the Ceili Music bluegrass label, owned by Ricky Skaggs, who produced the groups next album. Also in 1998, the Gibson Brothers were named the IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year. Two years later, the band issued the playfully bittersweet Spread Your Wings and the more cohesive Another Night of Waiting. Bona Fide, which appeared in 2000, marked their first for Sugar Hill. Covers of the Bands Ophelia and Gordon Lightfoots Long Way Back Home, the latter of which served as the title track for their fifth album, appeared in 2004, and 2006 saw the release of Red Letter Day.