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![]() Otis Gibbs (from the album Hoosier National available on Wanamaker Recording Company) (by Bryant Liggett) He’s got plenty of stories and his pockets are stuffed with more than his share of pearls of wisdom. Accounts and advice make great songs, and both have been keeping rough around the edges Folkie Otis Gibbs busy through nine studio albums. His latest, Hoosier National, finds the gruff voiced Gibbs plugging in and leading a band through ten cuts that delve into stories of touring, faith and tall tales, told with by campfire storyteller over a gritty Roots Rock score. Thank the ‘preachers that were peddling faith’ that helped Gibbs gain a critical mind as “Nine Foot Problem” has the Folksinger ‘jaded, American faded’. Yet while protest is in his blood, detailed memories lives in his mind. “Panhead” namedrops motorcycle parts as Otis Gibbs half-sings, half-speaks the bond between a man and his motorcycle, painting a picture of riding ‘through twisties with the rubber side down’. “Lord Open Road” is a narrative homage and hobo tale that’s a rail ride across a sepia-toned America ‘past barbershops and V.F.W. Halls’ and even ‘carnie clowns’. It is a sweeping song zipping through the farm country, including America’s backbone, the ‘so called illegals that feed the nation’. “Fountain Square Stare” finds Gibbs at the DIY all-ages Punk show while the bouncy “Ten Minutes” is a tour diary spilling out on-the-road reality. Otis Gibbs is a treasure, a country-punk purveyor of backroad America. Rarely backed by a band, the musicians make Hoosier National a beefed-up and beautiful album of alive-and-breathing, vivid tales. (by Bryant Liggett) Listen and buy the music of Otis Gibbs from AMAZON For more information, please visit the Otis Gibbs website
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