Six decades into his career and pushing 75, Barry Gibb has far from exhausted his creative prowess. The last surviving Bee Gees brother’s latest work, Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers’ Songbook Vol. 1 (★★★☆☆), reimagines some of the band’s most well-known songs as a country compilation. Featuring several powerhouse country artists and recorded in Nashville for good measure, the album is the rhetorical answer to anyone who ever wondered what the Bee Gees might sound like as a folksy Americana band.
Bands composed of siblings have a certain magic to them, and there is no replacing the brothers’ iconic three-part harmonies. Wisely, Gibb doesn’t try to replicate that spark, instead making use of a range of unique vocal talents. Greenfields boasts a list of contributors that includes heavyweights like Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow, and Dolly Parton, bolstering its country cred but also underscoring that even when covered, Bee Gees songs work best as a team effort.
Despite some stellar performances, particularly from Jason Isbell and Jay Buchanan, the album falls short of its promise. Producer Dave Cobb, notable for giving us the soundtrack for the 2018 remake of A Star is Born, does good work in bringing a sense of flow and consistency, but in doing so overcorrects and robs the tracks of their sense of fun and buoyancy, something that was always absolutely key to the Bee Gees’ appeal.
On its face, Gibb’s choice to reimagine his band’s classic rock and disco stylings as country songs is an odd one, but much of the album is in fact shaped by the music the brothers grew up listening to. The release of Greenfields semi-coincides with How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, the HBOMax documentary released last month that chronicles the brothers’ decades-long career from the very beginning, including their formative years in Australia where, in the 1950s, country music ruled the radio. The film also turns its focus outward onto the cultural forces that the Bee Gees shaped and were in turn shaped by, at one point focusing in on their pivot to disco and their popularity in the underground Black and gay music scenes, and the eventual backlash that followed — including the infamous Disco Demolition Night.
These scenes in particular drive home that there was a time when the Bee Gees were at the forefront of American culture. They accordingly inspired strong feelings all around, receiving both intense admiration and vilification. That strong creative spirit is what’s missing more than anything in Greenfields. It’s not trying to make lightning strike twice, and nor should it necessarily be, but an album conceived by one of the most visionary and influential musicians of the 20th century with an all-star list of collaborators will necessarily come with high expectations attached. The flattening out of some iconic songs and the filler quality of many of the tracks leaves an otherwise solid album lacking.
Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers’ Songbook Vol. 1 is available for streaming and purchase now. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart is available at www.HBO.com.
The D.C. area is on track to be graced by two visits from the Indigo Girls this year, including a stint with the Fairfax Symphony at Capital One Hall and a remarkable double-bill pairing with fellow lesbian vanguard Melissa Etheridge at Wolf Trap. Wolf Trap is also the place to go for a second edition of the venue's Out & About Festival, this year offering a new cohort of LGBTQ musical acts.
Queer artists are really, truly just about everywhere, coming to nearly every music venue in the region this season. A quick scan of the listings bears this out: There's Donna Missal at The Atlantis, BOOMscat at Blues Alley, CMAT at DC9, XOMG Pop! at the Fillmore, Billy Gilman at Jammin Java, Mary Gauthier at Rams Head on Stage, and Mx Mundy at Songbyrd. And that's just a quick and easy seven, with several times that number waiting in the wings for your discovery.
David Archuleta has been through a lot in the past several years.
He came out as gay and left the Mormon church, which had been a huge part of his life. As an artist, he’s now looking to mine his past experiences – and even his trauma – to make something beautiful out of an experience that must have been incredibly difficult. That's exactly what he's managed to do with “Hell Together,” his latest single.
The former American Idol star dropped “Hell Together” last week after teasing new music was coming. The track is a gospel-tinged affair, a nod to his past and the story he tells in the song.
Cher is among a group of musicians named as inductees to he Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The Grammy Award-winning artist was one of four artists -- along with Foreigner, Peter Frampton, and Kool & the Gang -- who were on the ballot for the first time.
Cher -- the only artist to have a No. 1 song in each of the past six decades -- and fellow inductee Mary J. Blige, a nine-time Grammy Award winner with eight multi-platinum albums -- will boost the Hall of Fame's number of females, which previously stood at 65, constituting about 8% of the total number of inductees.
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