A Unique Double Bill with
Elizabeth Cook Trio
& Otis Gibbs
Friday 23rd July
Tingewick Village Hall
Doors 8pm
Tickets £12 in advance. £14 on the door
Elizabeth Cook Trio
& Otis Gibbs
Friday 23rd July
Tingewick Village Hall
Doors 8pm
Tickets £12 in advance. £14 on the door
Buy tickets . . .
In association with BPA
Otis Gibbs is a man in search of an honest experience. Some people refer to him as a folk artist, but that is a simplistic way to describe a man who has planted over 7,000 trees, slept in hobo jungles, walked with nomadic shepherds in the Carpathian Mountains, been strip-searched by dirty cops in Detroit, and has an FBI file. Otis has played everywhere from labor rallies in Wisconsin, to anti-war protests in Texas, Austria and the Czech Republic, Feed & Seed Stores in the Midwestern U.S. and in countless, theatres, festivals, bars and living rooms. Otis has spent the last fifteen years traveling across America and abroad documenting this world, and has a story to share about each stop along the way.
Otis grew up in the rural town of Wanamaker, Indiana and started working when he was in high school and did countless crummy jobs. Eventually he got tired of working jobs that didn’t stimulate, or interest him in the least. So, in his own words, he decided to just “drop out.” Over the next four years, Gibbs earned and lived off less than $3,000 a year and had never been happier. He got rid of his car and shared apartments with artists, musicians and radicals (often living with 5 to 10 people). He also took advantage of the free time and wrote hundreds of songs. Otis sacrificed many of the comforts most of us take for granted, so that he could live a creative life.
His latest album, “Grandpa Walked a Picketline,” is a glimpse inside of an America that you don’t see on the evening news. The album showcases Otis’ ability to breathe life into the characters of his songs. “Grandpa Walked a Picketline” was produced and mixed by Chris Stamey, engineered by legendary Motown engineer, Bob Olhsson, and was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee with an impressive list of players including, Al Perkins, Don Dixon, Tim Easton and Will Rigby.
Otis currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee with his long time girlfriend, Amy Lashley, their dog and two cats. Recently, he’s been examining ways of using bird feeding as a form of civil disobedience.
Otis grew up in the rural town of Wanamaker, Indiana and started working when he was in high school and did countless crummy jobs. Eventually he got tired of working jobs that didn’t stimulate, or interest him in the least. So, in his own words, he decided to just “drop out.” Over the next four years, Gibbs earned and lived off less than $3,000 a year and had never been happier. He got rid of his car and shared apartments with artists, musicians and radicals (often living with 5 to 10 people). He also took advantage of the free time and wrote hundreds of songs. Otis sacrificed many of the comforts most of us take for granted, so that he could live a creative life.
His latest album, “Grandpa Walked a Picketline,” is a glimpse inside of an America that you don’t see on the evening news. The album showcases Otis’ ability to breathe life into the characters of his songs. “Grandpa Walked a Picketline” was produced and mixed by Chris Stamey, engineered by legendary Motown engineer, Bob Olhsson, and was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee with an impressive list of players including, Al Perkins, Don Dixon, Tim Easton and Will Rigby.
Otis currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee with his long time girlfriend, Amy Lashley, their dog and two cats. Recently, he’s been examining ways of using bird feeding as a form of civil disobedience.
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To say that Elizabeth Cook’s background is like something out of a country song would be wildly underestimating the entire genre. The youngest of 11 half-brothers and sisters, she grew up in rural Florida where her musician parents met while playing in local country bars. Her father learned to play upright bass in a Georgia prison band while serving 11 years for running moonshine. Her mother, a singer and mandolin player from the hills of West Virginia, wrote her daughter’s first songs, including “Does My Daddy Love The Bottle More Than He Loves Me,” and had Elizabeth singing on stage at 4 years old.
Elizabeth graduated from Georgia Southern University in 1996 with dual degrees in Accounting and Computer Information Systems. In 2000, she independently released The Blue Album. She made her major label debut in 2002 with Hey Y'All. But following a corporate re-structuring that left the album virtually abandoned and stagnant on sales, Elizabeth fought back with her 2004 independent release This Side Of The Moon, which received positive reviews from The New York Times and No Depression. Her album Balls was released May of 2007. It has been her most successful album to date, thanks to glowing press reviews and significant video play for the song "Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be A Woman". Her new album Welder will be released in May 2010. It features appearances by an all-star roster of guests including Dwight Yoakam, Rodney Crowell and Buddy Miller.
Through it all, Elizabeth has maintained a relentless touring schedule, playing shows in America, as well as South Korea, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Poland France and the UK, the last of these including memorable appearances at the Cambridge Folk Festival, the Maverick Festival and the Borderline in London. She has continued appearing on stage at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
In contemporary country music, it’s a rare performer who will dare to take on the industry on her own hogs-and-kisses terms. But for the artist whom Nanci Griffith has called “this generation’s Loretta Lynn,” it takes a certain tenacity to meld smart attitude with classic tradition, the credibility of a life lived with genuine hillbilly passion, and the integrity to write an acclaimed cache of uncommonly cool songs.
