The Gibson Brothers at Stone Church

There’s a reason why Ricky Skaggs pulled Eric and Leigh Gibson off the stage atthe Ryman two decades ago and offered to produce their debut record.The same thingthat led David Ferguson and GrammyAward winning producer and Black Keys frontmanDanAuerbach to co-write and produce their 14th album “Mockingbird” (2018) andrelease it on his own label Easy Eye Sound alongside cultural icons such asHankWilliams Jr. and Dr. John:the Gibson Brothers are the real deal.They can pick.Theycan sing.And they can write a damn good country song. They’ve won about everybluegrass award you can name and released albums on almost everypremierAmericana label you can think of including Sugar Hill and Rounder, and, if that’snot enough, their songs have been recorded by bluegrass legends no less than DelMcCoury...

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There’s a reason why Ricky Skaggs pulled Eric and Leigh Gibson off the stage atthe Ryman two decades ago and offered to produce their debut record.The same thingthat led David Ferguson and GrammyAward winning producer and Black Keys frontmanDanAuerbach to co-write and produce their 14th album “Mockingbird” (2018) andrelease it on his own label Easy Eye Sound alongside cultural icons such asHankWilliams Jr. and Dr. John:the Gibson Brothers are the real deal.They can pick.Theycan sing.And they can write a damn good country song. They’ve won about everybluegrass award you can name and released albums on almost everypremierAmericana label you can think of including Sugar Hill and Rounder, and, if that’snot enough, their songs have been recorded by bluegrass legends no less than DelMcCoury. It’s a resume almost anybody in country music would be proud to have. Butdespite all of this, the GibsonBrothers are not yet household names.Their latest album,“Darkest Hour,” produced by dobro master Jerry Douglas might just change that.As soon as you hear Leigh singing withAlison Krauss [“I FeelTheSameWayAsYou”] on the new project you realize that his voice is as good as anyone inmusic today.Add the brother harmony to that and they have something trulyunique.While “Mockingbird” featured gorgeous production, recreating the sound onstage was difficult. “We put together a little band to go out and try to recreate it,” Erictold me, but we couldn't.We would have to have such a huge band to try to recreate thatrecord, but we did the best we could.”Douglas—who has won 14 Grammy awards and backed up everyone from RayCharles to PaulSimon and George Jones—wanted to make a record they could actuallyplay on the road. So he picked the best songs (out of dozens) and squirreled them awayin Sound Emporium’s Studio B.But then the pandemic hit. “We did our last shows inMarch of 2020,” Eric told me. “We were inNashville the week everything was shuttingdown. It was surreal, but Jerry was like, ‘Guys, the world's going crazy. Let's let this beour little cocoon.’And we did.We cut all of the acoustic stuff and then went home anddidn't play any more gigs until things started opening.Then we went back and finishedthe record with Jerry in February of 2021.”The result is arguably the strongest record The Gibson Brothers have evermade.The songs recorded in the first recording period featured Mike Barber (bass),Justin Moses (mandolin),Eamon McGloughlin (fiddle), and of course, Jerry Douglas,adding in John Gardner (drums), Guthrie Trapp (electric guitar), andTodd Parks (bass)for the final tracks, “Darkest Hour”showcases just how easily Eric and Leigh move fromwhat DanAuerbach dubbed “country soul”(“I Go Driving”) to high octane bluegrass(“What a Difference A Day Makes” and “Dust”) with Douglas always keeping thespotlight on the songs themselves. “That’s what I love about those guys,” Douglas toldme, “they are just great songwriters.”Growing up on a dairy farm in northern NewYork and then traveling around theworld in a bluegrass band has given them a unique vantage point on life, and the songson “Darkest Hour”are a testament to that. “Jerry wanted to hear everything we’dwritten,” Eric told me, “so we just sent him songs: brand new songs, old songs, there'sstuff on that record 20 years old that we never recorded. We wanted to see what hewould do with us as singer-songwriters.We respect him that much. Some of my favoriterecords are Jerry Douglas produced records. He didn’t disappoint.”If the Gibson Brothers had stayed in Nashville in 1999 they might possibly beGrand Ole Opry members by now. At the very least they would be hit songwriters onMusic Row. But, just like their buddy Del McCoury, they chose family over success(McCoury was in his 50s when he moved to Nashville and didn't really see majorsuccess until he was approaching 60).All they need is someone to shine a light onthem.Their talent level is well-established, the only producers they have ever workedwith are Ricky Skaggs, DanAuerbach, David Ferguson andJerry Douglas. I dare say notmany musicians can stack up a list of producers that strong. For theGibson Brothersthough, they just want to keep writing, singing, and standing on a stage

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