Journey with the Gibbs to disco country

BARRY GIBB

Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook Vol One

With their falsetto voices, perfect harmonies and unstoppable groove, the Bee Gees provided the soundtrack for a generation.

The charismatic Gibb brothers, Barry, Robin and Maurice, didn’t knock out generic dance music, they crafted sublime pop classics.

Barry, at 74, is the last remaining Bee Gee and here he revisits 12 Bee Gees classics, duetting with big country stars.

He teams up with Dolly Parton on a beautiful re-arrangement of Words, and with Keith Urban for the opening track, a plaintive reworking of I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You.

Fellow contributors include Alison Krauss on Too Much Heaven, Olivia Newton-John on its original B-side Rest Your Love On Me and Sheryl Crow on 1971’s How Can You Mend A Broken Heart.

Songs from Saturday Night Fever work surprisingly well in this context.

The Gibbs wrote the music for the 1977 blockbuster movie that cemented disco as a global phenomenon.

Country singer Miranda Lambert and Rival Sons vocalist Jay Buchanan join Barry for a relaxed, sexier take on Jive Talkin’. How Deep Is Your Love – forever associated with John Travolta’s emotionally charged dance with Karen Gorney – sees Aussie guitarist Tommy Emmanuel and US country band Little Big Town do the honours, the latter contributing their trademark four-part vocal harmonies.

Other treats include Jason Isbell (ex-Drive-By Truckers) joining Gibb for a trad-country arrangement of Words Of A Fool, and Brandi Carlile’s heartfelt vocals on Run To Me.

The Bee Gees weren’t the first to sing falsetto, The Stylistics and Roy Orbison were their biggest influences. Yet they made the style their own.

Barry Gibb says of this album: “It doesn’t matter whether people remember us, it’s the music that counts.

“I want people to maybe enjoy it years from now.”

How could we not?