MUSIC NEWS
Gibson will bring her music to Beach CITE studios
04/14/2011

from Baldwin County Now on baldwincountynow.com

Songwriter Susan Gibson (of Grammy Award-winning “Wide Open Spaces fame) will perform in the Listening Room at Beach CITE Studios, located in SanRoc Cay Marina in Orange Beach, on Thursday, April 21. The show starts at 7:30 p.m.; doors open at 7. Gibson will play original songs from her songbook including “”Wide Open Spaces.”

Gibson wrote “Wide Open Spaces,” a song made popular as the title song on the Dixie Chicks 1998 debut album and a breakout hit for the group. Gibson’s song was No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart for four weeks, won Single of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards in 1999 and has sold more than 16 million copies.

The album hit No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart, No. 3 on the Heatseekers Chart, and No. 4 on The Billboard 200. At the 41st Grammy Awards, the album won two Grammy Awards, including Best Country Album. Recently, Gibson was inducted into the West Texas Music Hall of Fame as 2009’s Entertainer of the Year.

Gibson has been hitting the road consistently over the past 14 years, touring nationally in support of her own brand of Texas-Americana folk music. However, 2010 started off as the year where the road unexpectedly hit her back, and in February she suffered a severely broken arm, dislocated elbow and shattered wrist in a car accident. Doctors estimated she wouldn’t be playing guitar until early fall, and her record release plans were put on hold indefinitely.

Road warriors don’t sit around for too long when their livelihood involves playing music and traveling, however, and Gibson was playing full shows a mere two-and-a-half months after the accident with the help of some physical therapy, fan support and a lot of determination. The back half of 2010 made up for lost time with two tours to the northern Rocky Mountain region, a Southeast tour and her well-worn paths across Texas.

Gibson’s 2011 release, “Tightrope,” is both right at home with and a departure from her previous albums. While the album was recorded before her accident, the mood and tone are fitting of a year spent in reflection. Gibson and producer Gabe Rhodes are the sole musicians on “Tightrope,” which manages to be beautiful in its sparseness, easily accessible yet full of sophisticated notes for those who take a careful listen. A pencil eraser on a cigar box for percussion, a plucked grand piano string, or a dobro with a neck so warped it isn’t a dobro anymore; these elements create an intimate album that only two creative minds sitting in a studio together for days at a time can create.

Gibson’s performance style is suited to any venue, from solo acoustic in living rooms to raucous full bands in Texas dancehalls and everything in between. She will get uncomfortably close to broaching your personal space boundaries at a house concert, or tell just-inappropriate-enough jokes to make the crowd in an attentive listening room blush, but feel good about it.

Beach CITE Studios Listening Room is proud to be the exclusive Gulf Coast area performance venue for the multiple award winning singer/songwriter following

(read full story on baldwincountynow.com)





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