Release Date: Jan 8, 2021
Genre(s): Vocal, Pop/Rock
Record label: Capitol
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Buy Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1 from Amazon
The Bee Gees seem to have undergone some sort of critical evaluation over the last few years. Once derided for excessively tight trousers and lashings of cheese, the world seems to have eventually woken up as to how many good songs the Mancunian siblings wrote. Barry Gibb‘s Glastonbury ‘Legends’ spot a few years ago started the turnaround, and at the end of 2020, a documentary called How Can You Mend A Broken Heart aired, celebrating the band.
Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers' Songbook, Vol. 1 may be a bit of a departure for Barry Gibb, who spent his career exploring the byways of pop music as a member of the Bee Gees, but it fits into a long line of albums where a pop star revisits his catalog through the prism of country music. Assisting Gibb in this journey is Dave Cobb, one of the premier producers in Nashville in the 2010s.
O n the face of it, the notion of Barry Gibb releasing a country album seems peculiar. The Bee Gees were noted for their mastery of a variety of genres - from baroque 60s pop to disco - but country wasn't among them. They did record country-flavoured tracks, but they're largely on their least beloved album, 1970's Cucumber Castle, and they're certainly not among its meagre scattering of highlights.
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