Eric Bibb
Album: Jericho Road
Label: Dixie Frog
Tracks: 15
Website: http://www.ericbibb.com

Eric's always been more than just a bluesman, and here on the latest in a very long line of distinguished records he traces lines through all manner of soulful musics in collaboration with two friends, Glen Scott (the disc's producer, engineer and arranger) and Philippe Langlois (the "visionary record man" with whom Eric has shared a long-term passion for American roots music).

The principle of the Good Samaritan (who, of course, travelled the Jericho Road between Jerusalem and Jericho) informs Eric's worldview and his generous-spirited philosophy, and imparts a fresh-minted open-mindedness to his musical adventures. In terms of arrangements too, this is Eric's most ambitious and complex album to date, involving a large number of guest musicians, the highest level of technical studio expertise, and a top-drawer recording of exemplary clarity. Eric and his trusty acoustic guitar glide chameleon-like through, and effortlessly blending in with, any number of tasty musical backdrops, taking in influences and modes from blues, soul, jazz and a wide range of indigenous world musics.

There are some great moments along the way: the seriously showstopping number Can't Please Everybody, for instance, and points at which we remember just how fine a musician Eric himself is (Death Row Blues, With My Maker I Am One), and how deeply felt still is his response to the gospel (The Lord's Work). The lavish accompanying booklet is littered with tributes to (and/or quotations from), influential figures like Tagore, Gibran, Mother Teresa, Harriet Tubman and Bob Marley, and Eric's humility and sincerity are never in doubt. The drawback to all this overt eclecticism, however genuinely felt, is that in the rush to encompass the axiom of all things to all men, textures can all too often get overloaded, with too much going on and working to the music's detriment (not to mention distracting us from Eric's own personality, however prominently balanced his individual voice is within the mix); Freedom Train is badly cluttered with much extraneous noise, for example, as are Good Like You (despite some tasty harmonica and horn work) and She Got Mine, while the beautiful acoustic ballad They Know suffers from the incorporation of a somewhat misplaced string chorale arrangement. And I guess it's a bit strange for the listener to find that the pair of bonus tracks concludes with an admittedly thrilling performance by the celebrated modern-day West African griot, kora player Solo Cissokho, of one of his own compositions (this notwithstanding Eric's strong endorsement of Solo's role in the global community).

So in the end Jericho Road is a bit too much of a mixed bag; one might say that in this instance the good ship Bibb is spoilt just a touch by the two-ha'porth of tar that's been liberally splashed out on its production.

David Kidman