The Gibson Brothers
Red Letter Day

(Sugar Hill)

First Appeared in The Music Box, January 2006, Volume 13, #1

Written by John Metzger

Although The Gibson Brothers clearly are influenced by the old-time, bluegrass styles of Ira and Charlie Louvin, Bill Monroe, and Alton and Rabon Delmore, the duo consistently (and necessarily) has forged its own path by drawing from a wider, more contemporary palette. Starting with the striking harmonic convergence and robust meshing of folk, country, and rock textures that earned them well-deserved comparisons to The Everly Brothers, Eric and Leigh Gibson ventured even further on their previous effort Long Way Back Home by covering Robbie Robertson’s Ophelia and drawing the title track from the songbook of Gordon Lightfoot. On its latest endeavor Red Letter Day, the group succeeds in transforming an unlikely pair of rambunctious soul classics from Bobby Womack (It’s All Over Now) and Ray Charles (I Got a Woman) into blazing, pyrotechnic displays, and it constructs Walking with Joanna around an infectious folk-pop core. Elsewhere, the Gibsons shade the wistful remembrances The Barn Song and What a Ways We’ve Come with gentle, country-tinged hues; they cross Jimmie Dale Gilmore with Roy Orbison on the laid-back groove One More Try; and they perfectly deliver Chris Knight’s affecting tale of highway robbery If I Were You. There’s no question that the appearance of the Del McCoury Band’s Jason Carter and Ronnie McCoury helps to keep Red Letter Day aloft, but when all is said and done, this is The Gibson Brothers most accomplished collection of material to date.

Red Letter Day is available from Barnes & Noble.
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Ratings

1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 2006 The Music Box