Eric Bibb, an American folk/blues singer who has lived most of his adult life in Sweden, has a stronger connection to the history of his homeland than most permanent residents. On Bibb’s new album, Ridin’, the singer graces the cover mounted on a horse wearing boots and a hat. But Bibb is at his strongest as a historian rather than as a cowboy. Even the title track had more to do with the Freedom Riders than horses. On “Tulsa Town,” Bibb shares the story of a recently rediscussed massacre of a black community from the perspective of a survivor.
“It’s poetic license to a degree,” Bibb explained. “What I enjoy doing as a songwriter is giving a voice to people who didn’t have a voice in their time and place for obvious reasons. I mean it in that sense. But I also mean it in the sense of being an African American, I feel like to a degree, psychically or psychologically, many people have inherited that memory.”
While being disheartened by some recent developments in America, Bibb feels somewhat insulated from the worst of it in Sweden, a home he found while his father, also a musician, was touring Europe and the Soviet Union.
“I was happy to be free of the burden of being tense all the time around the whole issue of the Civil Rights movement in the states,” he said.
That same distance has helped him avoid the politics of Trump and DeSantis, at least to a point.
“The rest of the world has had a habit of imitating not only the good things but a lot of the negative aspects of American culture,” Bibb said. “The whole issue of racism has been very in our face here in Sweden as well because in recent years there has been a lot of immigration and the complexion of Sweden has changed radically.”
As a result, Sweden has swung to the right in recent years. Bibb said he sees a way forward, but it would require people of all races to see civil rights as benefiting themselves as well as minority groups.
“We’re all in this together,” he said. “We’ve all been traumatized by the brutal history of racism in America.”
To that point, Bibb highlighted a couple of White Americans who were attempting to move the needle in some way. In our interview, Bibb expressed gratitude that Tom Hanks drew attention the the Tulsa massacre and to the fact that the history of the episode was hidden from him in school. He also used a song to tell the fascinating story of John Howard Griffin, a White man who underwent medical treatments to darken his skin in the 1959 in order to expose racist acts in the book “Black Like Me.” With sustained action like that, Bibb sees hope. He even shouts out the more vocal younger generations in one of his songs.
“I’m very aware that what we need to change is a perception of each other that’s been ingrained for hundreds of years,” Bibb said. “Those kinds of deep-rooted preconceptions are not changed overnight or because some lawmaker manages to push through a new law. Change happens because people care and they keep at it.”
Other treats on the album include a live rendition of Sinner Man, the emotional reading of names lost to brutality on Joybells, and the playful “Blues Funky Like Dat” featuring the great Taj Mahal.
Above is the full episode as aired on WUSB’s Country Pocket, including both my interview with Eric Bibb and the songs we discussed, starting with Tulsa Town, which is one of many songs exploring historical events on the album. The interview begins afterward. You can hear the show live every Monday at 11am on WUSB 90.1 FM or check the blog to watch it as a YouTube playlist. Visit http://www.WUSB.fm and https://www.ericbibb.com for more.
Country Pocket 