April 30, 2024

Eric Bibb Is Ridin’ Down Under, Solo Style (Interview)

Eric Bibb is an American blues singer and songwriter based in Stockholm, Sweden. Eric is on his way down under with his first stop in Auckland on May 9th at The Tuning Fork.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Eric about making his new album, Live At The Scala Theatre and how he views the current US political landscape from his perspective as an ex-pat raised by a civil activist.

Click here for date and tickets to see Eric Bibb:

Eric Bibb

ERIC BIBB AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND TOUR 2024

After an extensive sell out tour in early 2023 and with a third Grammy nomination in hand, blues legend Eric Bibb has announced his return to Australia. In solo mode, he will be back by popular demand to play at Blues On Broadbeach and select venues around the country in May and June, 2024.

New Zealand fans are also in for a treat, with “the ultimate blues brother” kicking off the tour in Auckland and Christchurch on May 9 and 10 respectively.

He will then perform two dates at Blues On Broadbeach (Gold Coast) before travelling to theatres and venues in Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra, Adelaide, Hobart, Castlemaine, Melbourne and Upwey.

The ultimate “blues brother”, Eric Bibb is known and revered globally as a fiery singer-songwriter with true soul, grounded in the folk/blues tradition but with contemporary sensibilities.

Testament to his endurance as one of the most relevant, leading bluesmen of our time, Eric’s 2023 album, Ridin’ received a Grammy nomination in the Best Traditional Blues Album category.

It sits in the Top 10 of multiple blues and roots charts, has over three million Spotify streams and has been lauded by critics as his “late life classic” and “a fervent gospel-backed blues manifesto”. The past twelve months alone has seen his entire catalogue clock up 15 million streams.

He comes to Australasia with a brand new album under his belt, Live At The Scala Theatre, recorded in Stockholm, which he calls home.

It is easy to point to Eric’s accomplishments: A five-decade career recording with folk and blues royalty. Three Grammy nominations and multiple Blues Foundation awards. A following that not only crosses borders, it crosses continents. But what Eric Bibb is about is much, much larger than that.

To experience Eric live is to be struck by his sheer humanity and convictions based in the values of the civil rights movement of the sixties. His music works in service of that dream, holding out hope for a new world. He challenges us to do better, to reach higher, and strive harder. Like Mavis and Pops Staples, he wants to take us there.

Eric carries this mantle honestly. His father, the late Leon Bibb, was an activist, actor, and folk singer who marched at Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King. Eric’s youth was spent immersed in the Village folk scene. Names like Dylan, Baez, and Seeger were visitors to his home. He was deeply influenced by Odetta, Richie Havens, and Taj Mahal. And he has synthesised all of that into his very own style.

Eric is an artist who preserves the best traditions of pre-war blues, even while he expands his own oeuvre.

As Blues Brother actor, Dan Aykroyd famously declared to the American born singer, ‘You are what the blues in the new century should be about.’

Eric sings of the Freedom Train. He believes it. He lives it. He wants to take us on that ride. Maybe you already have your ticket. But if you haven’t, no need to worry. There’s still time to get on board.

AUCKLAND

Thursday, May 9

The Tuning Fork, 42/80 Mahuhu Crescent, Parnell (All ages)

Time: 7.00pm

Tickets: $80 ($70 concession)

https://moshtix.co.nz/v2/event/eric-bibb-us/160363

CHRISTCHURCH
Friday, May 10

The Piano, 156 Armagh St, Christchurch (All ages)
Time: 8.00pm

Tickets: $85.30 (U$75.05 concession)

Bookings

QUEENSLAND

Friday, May 17 & Saturday, May 18