My Fellow Sophisticates
About This Album
On the inner jacket of Gibbs' debut CD, My Fellow Sophisticates, there's a drawing of the artist supporting his chin with his right hand, elbow on his knee. It's a pose that brings to mind Hoagy Carmichael or Johnny Mercer, a hard working, hard drinking, hard living songwriter with stubble on his face, a cigarette dangling from his lip, and a sad heart full of song beating behind a vest covered with ashes and ink stains. Gibbs was born in Alabama and lives in North Carolina, and his songs lean heavily on archaic musical visions of the American southland with hints of blues, jazz, rockabilly, country, and rock & roll bubbling down into a rich gumbo of retro sounds. "Darling, You Were Beautiful Once" opens things on a cynical note, a dark kiss off of a relationship that's seen better days. The murky mix and Gibbs' sneering vocal adds to the tune's sinister feel, a bitter love note from the '40s lost in a time tunnel to nowhere. "Oh Pollyanna" brings the Band to mind with a swooning, moonlight drenched R&B organ playing long sustained notes to complement the melancholy piano notes Chuck Lichtenberg sprinkles behind Gibbs' weary vocal.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7)

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