![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/jan-malmstrom-0125_30965.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
“Prison farms, lynchings, the story of Emmett Till,” Bibb says. “A 14-year-old boy who came down from Chicago and didn’t go home.”<\/p>\n
Bibb’s brief time in Mississippi left a lasting impression.<\/p>\n
“To actually be there and see the remnants of what I’m talking about, a lot of it is still around,” he says. “Even the attitude.”<\/p>\n
Those histories sit beneath much of his songwriting.<\/p>\n
Bibb describes himself as a history buff and a long-time reader, particularly of historical novels, which continue to shape his storytelling.<\/p>\n
In recent years, that engagement has intensified.<\/p>\n
“So much of what’s important about our past is being deleted from the historical record in the US,” he says.<\/p>\n
He does not soften the point.<\/p>\n
“It’s revisionism on steroids.”<\/p>\n
Bibb has lived in Sweden for many years, now based on a farm south of Stockholm, but distance has not dulled his attention to events in the United States.<\/p>\n
“It’s alarming,” he says. “But on some level, it’s expected.”<\/p>\n
He sees similar shifts across Europe, including in Sweden.<\/p>\n
“If you look, and you don’t have to look too hard, you’ll see a swing to the right,” he says. “There’s a lot more xenophobia than people imagine.”<\/p>\n
For Bibb, the lesson is collective rather than national.<\/p>\n
“I think we’re all in it together.”<\/p>\n
That belief underpins his understanding of music’s role, shaped long before One Mississippi took form.<\/p>\n
His father, a singer and civil rights activist, treated music as a way of bringing people together rather than performing at them.<\/p>\n
“My dad was the portal to this whole world for me,” Bibb says. “He had a beautiful voice and included me in what he was doing.”<\/p>\n
“I met Bob Dylan in my living room when I was 11,” he says. “My dad had a party and Dylan was just the talk of the town. They didn’t even know how to say his name yet.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That sense of music as conversation still drives his work.<\/p>\n “Using music to bring people together is really what it’s all about,” Bibb says.<\/p>\n It also shapes his relationship with Australian audiences.<\/p>\n “The gratitude for us appearing comes before we even walk on stage,” he says. “If you have that kind of communication with an audience, it turns into a love fest.”<\/p>\n Each album, he believes, becomes a snapshot of its moment.<\/p>\n “My latest work is the most accurate reflection of what I’m thinking and feeling about the world,” he says.<\/p>\n The message behind One Mississippi is direct.<\/p>\n “We’re experiencing so much divisiveness,” Bibb says.<\/p>\n His response is conversation rather than retreat.<\/p>\n “We have to have real conversations,” he says. “We have to get past the anger and really learn from a good look at our past.”<\/p>\n The aim, he says, remains unchanged.<\/p>\n “I want people to communicate.”<\/p>\n “I want people to mix it up.”<\/p>\n “I want people to hear music that makes them hopeful about a future where there’s some kind of true peace and justice for everybody.”<\/p>\n “That might sound like a clich\u00e9,” he says. “But justice for everybody is not what’s happening in the world today. Peace is not what’s happening.”<\/p>\n So he keeps writing.<\/p>\n Eric Bibb plays at the 100 Acres Festival, Bellarine Estate, on April 18, as part of his Australian tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ERIC Bibb calls One Mississippi a collection of stories from a not-too-distant American past and a tense global present. “If they’re going to rip pages out of history books, I can at least write songs.” One Mississippi, released earlier this month, grew without a fixed plan, shaped through long collaboration with producer Glen Scott. “We […]<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/jan-malmstrom-9565_32030.jpg\")