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Leon Bibb was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and nowadays lives in Vancouver, Canada. His was an important name in the Greenwich Village scene of the ‘folk boom’ era. Leon is a classically trained singer and his singing incorporates many different influences. His repertoire includes spirituals, Celtic ballads and many, many, folksongs, especially those coming from the African-American tradition. But a concert tour in the Soviet Union led to his being blacklisted in the US, which in the aftermath made it hard for him to find work as a singer. Consequently, Leon Bibb turned to acting and managed to have a successful second career in acting, with appearances in the theater and on TV. He’s is still active today and a proud witness to his son’s ever-evolving career as one of today’s most widely-loved roots music voices.
Eric Bibb grew up in the vibrant, politically charged, and culturally intense climate that was New York City in the 60s. The city was making musical history then as much as now and through his father Eric met folk music legends like Woody Guthrie or Joan Baez when he was still a kid. The great singer and activist Paul Robeson was his godfather and his uncle John Lewis was the famed and distinguished pianist in the Modern Jazz Quartet. Amazingly, the much younger-looking Eric Bibb is in his early fifties today and already a keeper of the flame himself, bringing the music to the people in the spirit of Taj Mahal or Richie Havens, both trailblazing black voices coming from the African-American tradition who are still carrying it on today. There’s a lot of mutual respect and admiration among these men, who continue to be an inspiration to many younger roots music players and fans. In the years following his big career boost in 1996, Eric Bibb without a doubt has secured himself a place among this select group of artists.
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