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Billy Gibson
Billy Gibson Band: Southern Livin'

by Woodrow Wilkins
A surefire way to annoy, insult, upset or even anger a Mississippian is for some Northerner to spell the state's name in a silly chant: Em, eye, crooked-letter, crooked-letter, eye, crooked-letter, crooked-letter, eye, humpback-humpback, eye--Mississippi. Billy Gibson and his band get away with it, partly because he's a Southerner who knows, all too well, how the chant can infuriate the locals. It doesn't hurt that he put it into a delightful song on Southern Livin'.Gibson, a fixture on ...
Continue ReadingCharlie Wood: Lucky

by Woodrow Wilkins
Memphis has long been a hotbed of music. It was there that an unknown blues singer named Riley King would later become the biggest name in the genre: B.B. King. The city has also been home to Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire, Isaac Hayes, Rufus Thomas and The King: Elvis Presley. A more recent product of the city on the river is Charlie Wood, a vocalist and organist who plays old-school blues. Wood spent time ...
Continue ReadingBilly Gibson: The Billy Gibson Band

by Woodrow Wilkins
If anyone thinks the blues is a dead genre, they're badly mistaken. The Billy Gibson Band rocks from the first note of its new self-titled album. The first song, Down Home, sets the tone early, with the bandleader on harmonica and lead vocals, singing, Let's go down, down home, where I play the blues... on my Mississippi saxophone. Sidemen David Bowen (guitar), James Jackson (bass), and Cedric Keel (drums) lay down an impressive background rhythm. While prominent in support without ...
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