Eric Bibb, the bluesman who tells the story of racism in the United States

Eric Bibb is uprooted. He left his country 50 years ago. No longer supporting the United States, he arrived in Paris at 19, penniless but with his guitar. “I earned my living by begging in the Paris metro. Life in America was too stressful, the racism was too intense. Martin Luther King was assassinated, and the civil rights movement crumbled. I needed a change“, he recalls.

A musician historian

Despite his new life in Europe, Eric Bibb keeps in mind the trauma of segregation. From these stories of terrible childhoods, he drew blues songs, and in particular “Rosewood”, which evokes the racist massacre of a community in Florida. “I’m a storyteller, I like to write songs. I like to entertain, and I also like to help people understand where we are in society“, explains the one who likes to describe himself as a musician historian.