otis gibbs

Cry For Love was written by Iggy Pop and Steve Jones. I’ve always liked Iggy’s version of the song, but I hadn’t thought of it in a while. One morning, I found myself humming it around the house, so I picked up a guitar and started singing it.

I liked the way it sounded when I played it and I’ve always liked the words, so I recorded it at my buddy, Thomm Jutz’s place. Tammy Rogers of The SteelDrivers played some fiddle on it and I put it out into the world.

I woke up in Chicago in the middle of a tour and realized the song was live, so I should probably make a video for it. I sat down with my buddy, Todd Fox and we came up with a game plan while eating breakfast. We walked out of the hotel in Chicago and filmed this. Then, we drove to Ann Arbor for the next gig.

The Stooges were from Ann Arbor, so it all felt connected and strangely organic.

I like the idea of doing things for the hell of it and this is a good example of that. It was fun to do this, so I did it. It won’t be on an album and it’s just gonna be a random song on a streaming service.

Sometimes that’s enough.

If you enjoy doing something, that’s all you really need. Just make stuff and put it out into the world. Thanks for giving a damn, -Otis

You can stream the song here, if you’re into that sort of thing.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/73SEI8878pZkAdhWHNoc11?si=djHk6iHXRqeFntmXMIqL5Q

Photo from last night at The Madison Theater in Covington, Kentucky. It’s just across the river from Cincinnati, but don’t call it Cincinnati. Folks get upset about such things. I learned that one the hard way. Photo by Todd Fox

The Lucero tour has been a blast. Wonderful cats who throw down hard every night, laid back and mellow backstage and they have a deep connection with their fans. It’s a pleasure going up and down the road with them.

The tour continues tonight in Bloomington, Indiana, then Nashville and Knoxville.

This snuck up on me, but I have a new song that went live this morning on Spotify. It’s called Cry For Love. It was written by Iggy Pop and Steve Jones. I was humming it one morning, picked up a guitar and started singing it. I liked the way it sounded when I played it, so I recorded with my buddy, Thomm Jutz , Tammy Rogers of the The SteelDrivers played some fiddle on it and I put it out into the world.

Just because I wanted to.

Take care of each other and I’ll see you at a show.

Tickets for the Nashville & Indianapolis screenings of A Love Letter To Handsome John go on sale this Friday.

April 3: Indianapolis, IN – Kan-Kan Cinema
April 9: Nashville, TN – The Belcourt Theatre

Get more information and RSVP to receive a reminder just before tickets go on sale.

An intimate portrait of Todd Snider in the last year of his life. What starts as a film about gratitude, and a way to say thank you to John Prine, becomes a rare glimpse of the artist at home in his most quiet moments.

The East Nashville music community is mourning the loss of our friend, Pete Finney. I’m not really sure where to start, so I’ll just blurt out some random memories.

This photo was taken in 2016 in a historic studio on Music Row. We were filming a Sarah Gayle Meech session for my Pandora show and Pete was playing steel. Pete and I spent most of the day begging the studio manager to tell us Kris Kristofferson, or Tom T Hall stories. I remember asking the manager if there was anything in the studio that only the most hopeless music nerds would find interesting. Luckily there was.

I remember looking through boxes of 70 year old quarter inch tape while Pete whispered to me, “I can’t believe we’re actually getting paid to do this!”

That was Pete.

He didn’t like having his picture taken and seemed most comfortable staying in the background. I asked him if I could snap a picture of him behind his steel. He told me I could take one shot, so make it a good one. This is my one blurry phone photo from that day. I don’t think I’ve ever shared it before.

Pete and Kenny Vaughan were hotel roommates for 2 years while playing with Patty Loveless. Imagine the great conversations those two must have had.

He was over the moon when Chris Scruggs asked him to play with him in The Stone Fox 5. He told me that he thought Chris was the best C6 steel player in the world and was honored that Chris asked him to do the gigs. He seemed to be more excited about playing with his peers than playing with famous artists. And he played with quite a few famous artists.

You may have heard Pete on my podcast talking about playing with Doug Sahm, or about curating the Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats exhibit at the Country Music Hall Of Fame. He was a great storyteller and those were excellent episodes. I tried to get him to come back on the show for years, but he didn’t really dig the limelight.

I’d sometimes run into him 4, or 5 nights a week at shows. If there were 9 people in attendance, Pete would usually be one of them. He’d joke that he liked seeing me at shows because he’d know it must be the place to be. He started greeting me with, “This must be the right show because Otis is here.” I started greeting him the same way and it went on for years.

I just saw him maybe 3 weeks ago at a Jon Byrd show in East Nashville. I snuck up next to him and whispered, “I must be at the right show because Pete Finney’s here.”

That was the last time I saw him.

Rest easy, Pete.

Looking forward to hitting the road with Lucero in March. We’ll be stopping through some cities I haven’t had the chance to visit in a while. Tickets are on sale now, and you can find them on my tour page.

See you down the road.

This is my roommate, Malcolm. He showed up on our front porch 13 years ago today. He introduced himself and explained that he needed a place to crash, so he was moving in. He made a pretty compelling argument, so I took this photo (for security purposes) and let him inside. He’s been my buddy ever since.

When he first showed up, he was too skinny and it was obvious he’d had a rough start to life. When Amy and I fed him, he’d gobble it down as fast as he could. It seemed like he thought someone was gonna take it from him, so he ate quickly. We fed him quite a few times a day for a month or so in hopes of putting some weight on him. Then one day out of the blue, he stopped eating, left his bowl half full, layed down and took a nap. Amy and I immediately realized it was the first time in his life that he got “enough” food. It might sound weird, but we got all sentimental over it. We still get choked up and sentimental whenever we mention the first time Malcolm got enough to eat.

Malcolm sits on my lap every morning while I drink my coffee and he loves to sleep under the blankets when it gets cold at night. He’s a good roommate and I’m glad I snapped this photo when he showed up on my porch.

Happy Halloween, Mr. Malcolm.

You can purchase The Trust Of Crows on vinyl from the store section of this website.

https://otisgibbs.bigcartel.com

First off, lets pretend that we don’t see all of that dust covering my dashboard. I didn’t notice it until it was too late. I rarely do.

Anyhow, I was listening to Outlaw Country yesterday on Siriusxm when one of my songs came on the radio. It’s from my new record, The Trust Of Crows and it’s always great to hear yourself being broadcasted out over the airwaves. I’m told there are over 50 stations in the USA spinning songs from the new record right now, so thanks to those stations and everyone involved.

We have just a couple of days left for the presale. You can pick up some vinyl, a CD or one of my paintings at this link. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-trust-of-crows/x/17363880#/

I’m gonna be honest with ya. We used Indiegogo about 5 years ago and everything went smoothly, but it’s been a complete pain in the ass this time around. I’ve had a lot of complaints from folks saying they’re having trouble getting the site to load. If you’re having trouble, I’m sorry, but please keep trying. This will be our last time using their service. Lets try to finish up strong and then we’ll move everything to my website from here on out. Live and learn.

I’ll be playing a few shows at the end of this month. If you’re anywhere near Indianapolis, Louisville or Cincinnati, lets get together and have some fun. There’s something beautiful about being in a room full of people and sharing a moment together. Something real and tangible and most importantly, something fun. I’m gonna be there and I’m gonna have fun. I hope y’all will join me.

Thanks for giving a damn,
-Otis

I heard a loud commotion somewhere outside the house. When I looked out the window, I saw a big semi truck parked out front and someone unloading two large skids of boxes onto the street.

Those boxes contained my new record, The Trust Of Crows.

Amy and I carried way too many boxes up a couple of sets of stairs and piled them wherever we could in the house. Half of them are in our dining room and the other half are in our living room.

I’m not gonna lie, it felt pretty nice to hold the record in my hands. There’s a lot that goes into getting a record out into the world and when you have to do 99% of the work yourself, it feels pretty dang good to see it become a reality. I sat back in the rocking chair and patted myself on the back for about ten minutes and then I got back to work.

We’re gonna start shipping these out to those of you who’ve bought these starting late next week. It’s just me and Amy mailing it from our living room to yours, so it’ll be a slow process. Thanks ahead of time for your patience.

Here’s a link to buy The Trust Of Crows. You can pick up my vinyl, CDs or one of my paintings there. This is the only place you can buy the record or CD for the next 10 days or so. When this presale ends, we’ll start selling through my website.

https://igg.me/at/otis-gibbs

Thanks for giving a damn,

-Otis

The Trust Of Crows is available at this link until the presale ends on October 12th. After that, it will be available at the store on this website.

https://igg.me/at/otis-gibbs

I made a bit of a pilgrimage this week in Chicago. If you’re a John Prine fan looking for something to lift your spirits, this is for you. -Otis