There’s a reason why Ricky Skaggs pulled Eric and Leigh Gibson off the stage at

the Ryman two decades ago and offered to produce their debut record.The same thing

that led David Ferguson and GrammyAward winning producer and Black Keys frontman

DanAuerbach to co-write and produce their 14th album “Mockingbird” (2018) and

release it on his own label Easy Eye Sound alongside cultural icons such as

HankWilliams Jr. and Dr. John:the Gibson Brothers are the real deal.They can pick.They

can sing.And they can write a damn good country song. They’ve won about every

bluegrass award you can name and released albums on almost every

premierAmericana label you can think of including Sugar Hill and Rounder, and, if that’s

not enough, their songs have been recorded by bluegrass legends no less than Del

McCoury. It’s a resume almost anybody in country music would be proud to have. But

despite 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 FeelThe

SameWayAsYou”] on the new project you realize that his voice is as good as anyone in

music today.Add the brother harmony to that and they have something truly

unique.While “Mockingbird” featured gorgeous production, recreating the sound on

stage was difficult. “We put together a little band to go out and try to recreate it,” Eric

told me, but we couldn't.We would have to have such a huge band to try to recreate that

record, but we did the best we could.”

Douglas—who has won 14 Grammy awards and backed up everyone from Ray

Charles to PaulSimon and George Jones—wanted to make a record they could actually

play on the road. So he picked the best songs (out of dozens) and squirreled them away

in Sound Emporium’s Studio B.But then the pandemic hit. “We did our last shows in

March of 2020,” Eric told me. “We were inNashville the week everything was shutting

down. It was surreal, but Jerry was like, ‘Guys, the world's going crazy. Let's let this be

our little cocoon.’And we did.We cut all of the acoustic stuff and then went home and

didn't play any more gigs until things started opening.Then we went back and finished

the record with Jerry in February of 2021.”

The result is arguably the strongest record The Gibson Brothers have ever

made.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 from

what DanAuerbach dubbed “country soul”(“I Go Driving”) to high octane bluegrass

(“What a Difference A Day Makes” and “Dust”) with Douglas always keeping the

spotlight on the songs themselves. “That’s what I love about those guys,” Douglas told

me, “they are just great songwriters.”

Growing up on a dairy farm in northern NewYork and then traveling around the

world in a bluegrass band has given them a unique vantage point on life, and the songs

on “Darkest Hour”are a testament to that. “Jerry wanted to hear everything we’d

written,” Eric told me, “so we just sent him songs: brand new songs, old songs, there's

stuff on that record 20 years old that we never recorded. We wanted to see what he

would do with us as singer-songwriters.We respect him that much. Some of my favorite

records are Jerry Douglas produced records. He didn’t disappoint.”

If the Gibson Brothers had stayed in Nashville in 1999 they might possibly be

Grand Ole Opry members by now. At the very least they would be hit songwriters on

Music 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 major

success until he was approaching 60).All they need is someone to shine a light on

them.Their talent level is well-established, the only producers they have ever worked

with are Ricky Skaggs, DanAuerbach, David Ferguson andJerry Douglas. I dare say not

many musicians can stack up a list of producers that strong. For theGibson Brothers

though, they just want to keep writing, singing, and standing on a stage

From central Mass, the Slik Pickers are friends who have enjoyed playing music for

decades at campfires and in living rooms. While they primarily follow the roots of

traditional bluegrass, they are well-versed in old country and Americana as well as

featuring some of their original tunes. Dave Slik on guitar, Rob Griffin on fiddle, Brie

Green on bass, Fran McConville on mandolin, Jake Comeau on banjo, John Cloutier on

dobro and Myron Becker on harmonica.