Are we still using the term “alt-country” in this post-genre landscape? (Yes we are – Ed.)
Well here’s something worthy of the tag, music you can file alongside your Richmond Fontaine, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Handsome Family, and maybe even Son Volt albums.
Otis Gibbs is a folk singer who possesses a grizzled voice of experience and sings of the blue-collar world, the marginalised, the forgotten. The songs have a kind of dirty realist hue but are capable of lifting you out of the doldrums they document. An older generation might even point to the great John Hiatt as a reference point.
Otis is out on an Irish tour this week, in support of his sixth album Harder than hammered hell. Tour details here, including de Barra’s in Clonakilty on Thursday night.
Irish Tour Dates
Monday 25, Mick Murphy’s Bar, Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare, €12, 8.30pm
Tuesday 26, Whelan’s, Dublin, €15, 8pm
Thursday 28, De Barras, Clonakilty, Co. Cork, €10, 9pm
Friday 29, Cleere’s, Kilkenny, €12, 9.30pm
*We recommend you check his website too, it features some fantastic slice of life photography from Otis’ travels around the US of A.
