This year, at the third of four concerts, Eric Bibb appeared at the Proms on Friday night, accompanied by a slide guitarist, bassist and percussion but missing piano. As is customary with Bibb, his genial in-between song patter betrayed his current less than relaxed opinions about his own homeland and beyond. We have lost count of the number of times we’ve seen Eric live, sometimes solo acoustic and sometimes, like on this occasion, with a small band. He rarely disappoints and by the time he upped the tempo and played some of the long established crowd favourites, he was as good as ever. It almost seems like sacrilege to broach the subject however, but it does occur to me that the more low key compositions, whilst always worthy, are seemingly of a pattern, with Bibb’s traditional guitar picking style to the fore. Perhaps, like many other artists, his best songs are behind him, ratified by the simplicity of ‘Needed Time‘ or the preaching intensity of ‘I Heard the Angels Singing‘ or ‘Don’t Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down‘. It is of course a minor quibble, and he received his usual standing ovation.
