Palmer audience shares 'Pentecostal' moment with bluesman at Vagabond Blues

March 15, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman

Eric Bibb walked onto the tiny stage at Vagabond Blues Thursday night and for the next two hours, treated the shoulder-to-shoulder audience to an uplifting stroll through the blues.

Unlike many blues players, Bibb's songs and general demeanor were redemptive and uplifting. Sure, he waded into the murky waters of a dying man's farewell, prisoners toiling in an ungodly sugar cane field and introduced listeners to a cold-blooded murderer who would shoot you down for taking his hat. But Bibb's performance was more old-time revival preacher than doom-and-gloom prophet.

His opening song, "Connected," was a slow ballad about the traveling troubadours down through history who sang for their food. The song highlighted the fact that every man must stake his own path, but throughout the song, Bibb returned again and again to the unifying chorus, "Still I'm connected to you, and everyone and everything."

A few tunes later, he sang of a dying man who can't get better.

"I done had my fun if I don't get well no more," he crooned. "My health is failing me; I'm going down slow."

The front-row seats in the café were only a few feet from Bibb and he enjoyed the unusually intimate setting. He said that was the way music was supposed to be played.

"The thing about making music in a place like this is that it's less like performing and more like sharing," he told the attentive crowd.

While the first hour was a bit mellow, Bibb let loose during his second set and howled into the microphone as he sang about the "Champagne lifestyle" on a "beer salary."

The highlight of the evening came toward the end when Bibb resurrected a gospel tune, "I Heard the Angels Sing," written by the late blues legend Rev. Gary Davis. Bibb leaned into the microphone and summoned a little Pentecostal power.

"I went down in the Valley one day; I heard the angels sing, 'Your sins are forgiven, your soul is set free.'"

Bibb let out a few charismatic hollers between verses and then dove back in.

"People come running, say, 'What's it all about?'" he sang. "In that great gettin' up mornin', I heard the angels sing."

Bibb told the audience he loves to sing the older blues songs that span the generations, but he tries to take those perennial tunes and serve them up with contemporary flare. There were moments, Thursday night, when he was ablaze.

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.