Claudia Gibson

The Fields of Chazy

Self-released

Claudia Gibson is an Austin-based singer-songwriter that doesn’t always sound very Texan as she’s not a native, but one drawn to a city of songwriters. Instead, her mostly folk based music embraces Celtic and that traditional folk sound we associate with the British Isles. Yet, her environs do invariably seep into her sound on certain songs which is understandable given that she’s backed by some of the city’s finest musicians in Chris Beall, Rich Brotherton, John Chipman, Warren Hood, Geoff Queen, and others. Besides, Fields of Chazy is produced by Walt Wilkins and Ron Flynt.  As documented in the interview with Gibson on this site, as a mother of three, Gibson draws on a wealth of life experience and jobs ranging from salesperson, truck loader, waitress, journalist, librarian, and educator. Throughout it all, she has maintained one overriding passion – musician and songwriter. She takes a storytelling approach to historical, familial, and at times imagined events, while imparting genuine emotion along the way. If she hasn’t lived it, she’s certainly done her homework.

Gibson wrote eight of these nine acoustic based songs, all except the traditional Scottish “The Night Visiting Song,” where she duets with Pat Byrne. The opening title track imbued with Gibson’s forceful strumming and enveloping sonics that include Flynt’s piano, Hood’s fiddle, and Brotherton’s mandolin, she regales us with her crystalline vocals about the story of her paternal grandfather, Joseph Thibodeau, pictured on the inside jacket.  Singing with genuine affection for him, she relates the tale of her grandfather farming in an ex-Quebecois community in upstate New York in the early 20^th century. His tribulations of love and loss become tangible when she visits the property and is deeply touched by the apple trees he planted as a widower in those fields of Chazy. “Unbound” features the pedal steel of Chris Beall and harmonies from Walt and Tina Wilkins in the flowing soft country rock we associate with California in the ‘70s (today we call it folk-rock or Americana).

The fingerpicked “Laura,” also imbued with pedal steel to give a sweeping Western feel, tells the tale of outlaw Laura Bullion, the only female to ride with Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, and whose loyalty to lover Ben Kilpatrick results in loneliness and lifetime obscurity rather than the thrill seeking one she was pursuing.  The sonic approaches here vary considerably as exemplified by the electrified swamp rock of “Rain,” where Gibson nods to the passing of blue-eyed soul singer Valerie Carter, with Beall punctuated her lines with stinging guitar licks. She turns nostalgic and mortality focused on the warm, acoustic ballad, richly harmonically bathed “The Days” and turns those yearning sentiments directly to her maternal grandmother in the traditionally folk rendered “Promised Land.” She views immigration of Eastern European 20^th century immigrants through the eyes of a wide-eyed teenager to the strains of acoustic guitars and accordion. It’s the naivete of the American Dream. This segues nicely and logically into the Scottish traditional ballad, where Gibson and Byrne blend their voices gorgeously.

The piano ballad “Angels Fly” sees her reflecting on the thoughts and implied messages from departed loved ones. Aptly, after dwelling so much on historical in these songs, Gibson salutes the present in “Shine On,” where she expresses gratitude for her current home and companions, enriched by teeming vocal harmonies.

Gibson delivers a warm, expertly crafted, and varied set of narratives and emotionally tinged songs, singing confidently throughout, avoiding any overly wrought pedantic, or sentimental traps. Wilkins and Flynt and the musicians add lush and wonderfully unobtrusive accompaniment.

• Jim Hynes

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