Gibb Droll (Band)

I’ve been holding off writing about Gibb Droll because I wanted to make sure that I did him justice. Having never blogged before I wasn’t sure what would be proper to write about. Now that I’ve got a few blog entries under my belt, I’d like to take a stab at it. I had the pleasure of seeing Gibb Droll live some 41 times over a period of about 9 years. I used to follow him around and record the shows on cassette, reel-to-reel and a couple of times on video. I had the fortune of meeting Gibb and the band back in October ’91, some 3 months after they formed. My first bootleg was February the following year at Trax in Charlottesville, Virginia. I have such fond memories because I was able to see the band grow and to watch the struggles of a local band (Virginia Beach) go regional and attempt national status. I will include a discography of the albums the band released together and then what Gibb released as a solo performer. When I saw the band for the first time they were selling their four-song demo on cassette. It was recorded in a studio just after the formed.

Their first official album was a Live CD released in 1993. 1994 saw the release of their first full-length studio CD, Dharma. Next was Narrow Mouth Jar in 1995. The band was originally a three piece with Mike Williams on drums, Tom Hall on bass and Gibb on guitar and vocals. By 1993 Pete Mathis had joined to play keyboards. Gary Look replaced Tom Hall. Gary played on Dharma and Narrow Mouth Jar. A guy named Kevin from Charleston, who played with the band briefly, replaced Gary. He was the most amazing bass player I’ve ever seen live, with the exception of maybe Chris Wood. A young guy who had studied music at Radford University replaced him. He played a stand up bass, and I’m sorry to say that I don’t remember his name. Somewhere around ’98 Gibb decided to disband the Gibb Droll Band and to continue on as a solo artist. He came out with a self-titled CD in 1998. It only contained 6 songs but showed some of Gibb’s best songwriting. Walking Away was released in 2002 and included two members of the band Everything, Dave Slankard and Nate Brown. This album again proved Gibb was growing as a songwriter and getting away from his moniker of just being a lead guitarist. He met up with Kevin Kinney of Drivin’ and Cryin’ fame and formed the Sun Tangled Angel Revival. They released an album of the same name. In 2005 Gibb released his latest album entitled Ten Days. Again he has honed his songwriting to a phenomenal level. Gibb now seems to be a guitarist for hire and has hooked up with a lot of young, diverse talent. He occasionally comes out and plays on short tours, sometimes with Kevin Kinney. He know longer has a “band”, as far as I know. I was proud to have gotten to know Gibb Droll and the band he had through the 90’s. He’s a very, very nice and humble person. I would like to say that Gibb Droll, who is my second favorite artist of all-time, went on to achieve fame and fortune on a national level but that never became the case. He has some notoriety but not what I had hoped. I think Gibb is happy with what he has achieved. I’ve seen an incredible growth from him as a musician, a songwriter and a vocalist since that first time in 1991. I wish him and the musicians that have been associated with him all the best. Buy his albums, go out and see him if you have the chance, check out his website. You won’t be disappointed.