{"id":538,"date":"2013-05-11T20:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-05-11T20:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/216.71.127.204\/wordpress\/?p=538"},"modified":"2015-10-08T18:25:39","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T18:25:39","slug":"otis-gibbs-almost-austin-pasadena-tx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/11\/otis-gibbs-almost-austin-pasadena-tx\/","title":{"rendered":"Otis Gibbs – Almost Austin – Pasadena, TX"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
Written by James Killen <\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 11, 2013 at 08:00 PM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Image\"Steve Earle wrote a song called \u201cChristmas Time in Washington\u201d in which he makes the lyrical plea, \u201cCome back Woody Guthrie. Come back to us now. Tear your eyes from paradise and rise again somehow\u201d. In my opinion, Otis Gibbs is the closest thing this country has today to a Woody Guthrie. He was born in the rural Midwest, worked with his hands and has taken up the cause of the common man through song, in a country that is bought and sold daily by lobbyists.<\/p>\n

Almost Austin\u2019s 100th show (congratulations, Kenny Pipes, for hanging in there) started off with \u201cSecond Best\u201d from Otis\u2019 latest, \u201cHarder than Hammered Hell\u201d. Otis Gibbs is as much a story teller as he is a song writer and performer.<\/p>\n

After singing \u201cWhere Only the Graves are Real\u201d, about separating one\u2019s true friends from the users, Gibbs recounted one of his many truck stop stories. Otis like most artists these days has a fairly large Facebook following, where he posts personal observations and a series of interviews with various music celebrities. He was walking in to the truck stop while this rather large and burley driver was walking out and it became obvious that he would not be able to pass without some kind of greeting so Otis, nodded and said \u201cHow\u2019s it Goin\u2019?\u201d. The driver replied, \u201cI\u2019m fat and ugly, but at least I\u2019m not on Facebook.\u201d Such is the life of Otis Gibbs, who is more likely to curl up with a pillow and a blanket in his car at a truck stop or road side park than to get a hotel room.<\/p>\n

After the story we continued with \u201cCaroline\u201d about the cycle of abuse and depression, running on to \u201cBroke and Restless\u201d and \u201cSmall Town Saturday Night\u201d. Otis continued to regale the audience with stories of Tractor Day in Wannamaker, Indiana when all the kids got to ride to school on their daddies\u2019 tractors, and almost being featured in a German documentary on the homeless, and being taught how to sing for tips at age 5 in a honky-tonk by his Uncle Brisco, who promptly drank up the tip money.<\/p>\n

Mr. Gibbs can always be counted on to offer an opinion in song, like \u201cPreacher Steve\u201d about the guys who use the pulpit to extract money from the crowd and \u201cJoe Hill\u2019s Ashes\u201d singing thanks to those that stood up for the workers in the tough times as union members. Otis slips in some pretty nice acoustic guitar riffs between the lines of his songs to keep everyone on board.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"His songs also reach out tenderly to the relationships between rural lovers as in \u201dWannamaker Pond\u201d and longing for one another while on the road, like \u201cKansas City\u201d. The road is a common theme for Gibbs\u2019 music. He was inspired to write a song about travelling cross country on a Greyhound bus and waking up in Dallas, when he heard Jon Dee Graham call Dallas, \u201cThe Town that Killed Kennedy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Otis decided to celebrate Kenny\u2019s 100th show by performing \u201cBig Whiskers\u201d, which is a musical tale about Otis\u2019 grandfather\u2019s quest for a huge flathead catfish. It\u2019s a little like a cross between \u201cMoby Dick\u201d and \u201cThe Old Man and the Sea\u201d, only set in Wannamaker. It was quite a treat. Otis closed out his set with an ode to the glory that is an American made full size automobile with \u201cDetroit Steel\u201d.<\/p>\n

Otis Gibbs is a regular at Almost Austin and he was one of the best choices that could have been made for the 100th show. There is truly no better place to enjoy the music of this genuinely warm and fun performer, than a cozy living room with folks that are like family all around. I can tell you that I\u2019m already looking forward to Otis Gibbs\u2019 next visit. I hope that ya\u2019ll are, too.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by James Killen May 11, 2013 at 08:00 PM Steve Earle wrote a song called \u201cChristmas Time in Washington\u201d in which he makes the lyrical plea, \u201cCome back Woody Guthrie. Come back to us now. Tear your eyes from paradise and rise again somehow\u201d. In my opinion, Otis Gibbs is the closest thing this… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":539,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions\/539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}