The Gibson Brothers

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Recording artists The Gibson Brothers on Compass Records. Eric and Leigh bring "fancy picking" (The Washington Post) and "the toughest and tightest harmonies this side of hillbilly heaven"

Bluegrass duo The Gibson Brothers’ talk about the “feel” of their new album, Ring the Bell.“ It makes me think of being young and growing up in our small farming community in New York,” explains Leigh. “It evokes memories of fellowship with the men who knew my Grandfather Gibson at church on Sunday mornings. 

There is a lot of joy in their music as will be able to tell by listening that they poured their hearts out 

Brother bluegrass acts are almost as old bluegrass itself, but I feel like we’ve carved out a special niche for ourselves. We’ve hung in there and toughed it out - we’re still in our 30’s but I feel like we’re Bluegrass lifer’s.

The Gibson Brothers deliver their tales of rural life with a mixture of pain and joy that rings truer than the romanticism of most bluegrass." (Geoffrey Himes, Washington Post)

"The Gibson Brothers have not only revisited their previous high watermarks, but have also thrillingly exceeded them."  (Bob Allen, Bluegrass Unlimited)

The Gibson Brothers

Eric and Leigh Gibson grew up on a dairy farm outside of Ellenburg Depot, New York in the shadow of the Adirondack Mountains. It isn't the typical beginning for a bluegrass band, but sometimes things just come together. "My parents loved music but they didn't play," says Eric. "My father, I think, always wanted to play but he worked like mad from the time he was 9 years old. He was a dairy farmer. He'd go to an auction and come back with a fiddle, and they ordered a guitar and a banjo through the Sears Roebuck Catalog so we had instruments around the house but nobody knew how to play them. When I was 12 and Leigh was 11, we came home from school and Dad said, 'there's a guy giving lessons at Dick's Country Store, and I'd like one of you to play the banjo and one to play the guitar." Eric chose banjo and Leigh, guitar, and the die was cast.

The brothers took lessons on their instruments and began singing at the suggestion of their minister. "We progressed at the same rate," remembers Eric. "We grew up listening to the same people and seemed to agree about what type of songs we wanted to play and our direction. We never really argued about that. If I like a song, Leigh will like it too." They caught the Bluegrass bug after their teacher introduced them to the music of Flatt and Scruggs, but still they never intended to actually make it as musicians. "I was just as much into baseball, if not more so, than music," Eric laughs. "I either wanted to pitch at Yankee Stadium or play at the Grand Ole Opry, and I've gotten to do one of those. I always had monstrous dreams. But each year we’d get more and more serious about music."

By the time they were in their early 20's, the brothers couldn't deny the lure of the requests that were coming in for them to play shows and festivals. At the same time, Eric was having problems balancing his career as a schoolteacher with his drive to play music, so he took a leave of absence from teaching. "It was hard decision," he says. "You take the safety net out from under you. We couldn't have accomplished what we've done if we hadn't gone into it full bore. To be a good teacher, it has to be your passion, but music is my passion. I always felt pulled by the music. I felt like I had to make a choice." By this time, the brothers had a few albums on the Hay Holler label, Eric took a leave of absence from teaching, and, in 1998 the brothers won the 1998 IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year award. In 2005, the brothers signed with Sugar Hill and subsequently released four albums: Bona Fide (which went to #1 on the Bluegrass Unlimited chart), Long Way Back Home, Red Letter Day, and 2008’s Iron and Diamonds, which is a reference to their hometown’s two claims to fame -- iron ore mining and baseball. The Gibson Brothers’ debut release on Compass Records, Ring the Bell, will be available in stores on May 5, 2009.

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