Bluesman Eric Bibb makes his Syracuse debut at the Redhouse Arts Center, Monday, February 12th as part of the Set List Songwriter’s Series.

Blues legend Taj Mahal describes Bibb as One of the new young singers that has appeared on the scene, that much to my delight has a great voice, is an excellent performer and has a great knowledge about roots music.

Eric Bibb is a legitimate heir to the blues/folk music tradition. The nephew of jazz pianist John Lewis and son of folk singer Leon Bibb, Bibb the younger grew up in the fertile ground of New York in the '60s surrounded by musical legends including Pete Seeger, Odetta, Richie Havens and Bob Dylan.
Eric has appeared on major TV and radio shows including Later with Jools Holland and The Late Late Show. Eric and his band have played at most of the world’s major festivals including Glastonbury and the Cambridge Folk Festival in the UK. He joined Robert Cray on two U.S. tour stints in 2001 and 2002 and opened for Ray Charles in the summer of 2002.

Eric’s talent for both performing and songwriting has been recognized with a Grammy Nomination (for Shakin' a Tailfeather) and 4 W.C.Handy nominations (for the albums Spirit and the Blues, Home To Me and A Ship Called Love; for 'Kokomo' as Best Acoustic Blues Song of the Year, and for Best Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year). His songs have featured on TV shows such as BBC TV's 'Eastenders' and "Casualty", and The Distric in the USA. Eric's version of I Heard the Angels Singin' was included in the feature film "The Burial Society" and Eric appears on Jools Holland's double platinum-selling album Small World, Big Band, singing his own composition All That You Are. In 2005 Eric released A Ship Called Love and toured the world as ever, including a major US tour with John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers and Robben Ford. Ship Called Lovehas been nominated for Acoustic Album of the Year in the 2006 Blues Music Awards.

A performance by Eric Bibb is an enriching experience – both musically and spiritually. Purveying a beautifully realized and deftly accomplished, soulful and gospel infused, folk- blues, Eric has no problem melding a traditional rootsy American style with a subtle contemporary sensibility. As one critic wrote, Eric’s singing and versatile guitar playing fuses a variety of genres to become a New World Blues. Elwood Blues on the House of Blues Radio program told Eric, you are what blues in the new century should be about.