Of The Gibson Brothers' ninth release, Ring the Bell, both brothers talk about the “feel” of the album. "Ring The Bell makes me think of being young and growing up in our small farming community in NY,” explains Leigh. “It evokes memories of fellowship with the men who knew my Grandfather Gibson at church on Sunday mornings. We'd see folks at the hardware store or the bank during the week and then see them all again at church each Sunday. Ring The Bell seems to me to be a call to action for coming together in a world that sometimes seems intent on tearing itself apart. More than just nostalgia, it's a song about love of fellow man.”
Eric agrees that there is an elated intensity to the album. “There is a lot of joy in the music. I think you can tell in listening that we poured our hearts out – not that you can’t tell on our other records – but the joy in our playing and singing. At the same time, it feels like our most hard-driving bluegrass album; there’s more thump on it, a bigger sounding record than we’ve ever had.”
That bigger sound comes from having the whole band (list band here) playing on every track, according to Leigh. “I’m very proud of how the band served each song,” agrees Eric. “There’s not a lot of ‘look at me’ acrobatic playing. It’s more ‘let’s support the vocals, let’s support the message of the song, the feel of the song.”
While Eric admits to loving all of the songs on the album, he cites the title track as one of his favorites. “It feels so uplifting to me,” he says “and I love my brother’s harmony on it. These tracks just feel so good. You don’t know why you’re humming along or why your foot is tapping – that comes from getting the feel right and I think these songs feel really good.”
Leigh leans towards “Farm of Yesterday” of which he says, “It wasn't a consideration until Eric sang it to me in the studio. We cut it the next day I think. I've never had a song impact me the way that one did. Not only is it 100% true to fact about our youth, but it's so well crafted. I told him he'd now written one Haggard would sing.”
Of the album as a whole says Eric “I think it says ‘hey, look at us’. I hope people will. I don’t want to sound needy…I just feel like we’re a strong band and we’ve carved out our niche in this business. We’ve hung in there and toughed it out. We’re not old, we’re still in our 30’s but I feel like we’re lifers.”
