THE GIBSON BROTHERS Record Review

THE GIBSON BROTHERS
Red Letter Day
Sugar Hill Records
BY GRACIE MULDOON

Red Letter Day is a hot, traditional bluegrass project infused with country, a little R&B and R&R songs, and their own true story originals have the underpinning as to make this one solid and spirited CD. Kicking off the project, Don Gibson's tune Lonesome Number One is exquisitely rendered and happy, not lonesome, is the way you feel after listening to it. Walking With Joanna, with brothers Leigh and Eric in true family harmony, is a delightful song and cool enough to be covered by bluegrass bands everywhere. One Raindrop has that old time feel to it, ala Flatt & Scruggs, as Leigh also attributed in the inners. It is a great song by Kieran Kane and you will find it charming as well - traditional, good b'grass. Red Letter Day, the title track, is very traditional and a very appropriate song written by Bruce Robison. Bluegrass is quite often "blues grass" and is about life and its blues and so is this song. I Got A woman, a favorite Ray Charles happy song, full of fun and brother duet harmony, is easy to hear as a bluegrass song - just wonder why someone hadn't done it sooner? A pretty and sad love song. We Won't Dance Again, is country music-inspired beauty and the beautiful steel by Russ Pahl always adds that sorrowful crying to any good song. Not for the newly heartbroken, unless you like to cry. Leigh wrote Sam Smith, a true character from Civil War days - 'wild eyes and a wicked beard a hangin' from his chin' - and wrote it colorfully. A Story handed down by his great grandmother, Minnie White, to his father and then to the brothers, a true story, it is quite entertaining. History revisited. Subjects such as ballfields, hunting camps and farms - real places - also provide inspiration for their original tunes by recalling memories they've left imprinted on Leigh and Eric. Traditional standard tunes such as The Prisoner's Song and Twenty-One Years, sparkle. Great bluegrass music on this red letter CD. I believe this is their best effort yet. Being The Gibson Brothers, that's saying a lot. BMP