''In the Now'' is the second solo album by British singer-songwriter
Barry Gibb
Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb (born 1 September 1946) is a British musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He rose to worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful groups in the history of popul ...
, released on 7 October 2016 by
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
.
Although his second solo album (since 1984's ''
Now Voyager
''Now Voyager'' is the debut solo studio album by British singer-songwriter Barry Gibb, the member of the Bee Gees. It was released on 17 September 1984 by Polydor Records in the UK and MCA Records in the US. ''Now Voyager'' was recorded someti ...
''), it is the first of all new material since the
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees
were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era in ...
' final studio album ''
This Is Where I Came In
''This Is Where I Came In'' is the twenty-second and final studio album by the pop group the Bee Gees. It was released on 24 April 2001 by Polydor in the UK and Universal in the US, less than two years before Maurice Gibb died from a cardiac ar ...
'' (2001). Gibb said of the album: "This is a dream come true for me. It's a new chapter in my life. I always hoped one day that the Bee Gees would be with Columbia or indeed
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
so, it's a great joy for me to start again this way with such great people."
The album was made available for
pre-order
A pre-order is an order placed for an item that has not yet been released. The idea for pre-orders came because people found it hard to get popular items in stores because of their popularity. Companies then had the idea to allow customers to r ...
on 12 August 2016 with the track "In the Now" as an "instant grat".
Background
Following the deaths of his brothers
Maurice Maurice may refer to:
People
* Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr
* Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor
*Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and ...
,
Andy
Andy may refer to:
People
* Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds
* Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and pi ...
and
Robin Gibb
Robin Hugh Gibb (22 December 1949 – 20 May 2012) was a British singer and songwriter. He gained worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees pop group with elder brother Barry and fraternal twin brother Maurice. Robin Gibb also had his o ...
in 2003, 1988 and 2012, respectively, Barry Gibb thought his music career was over: "I was ready to quit. I was done. There was no point in going on any further. I’ve done solo work my whole life but never felt like a solo artist."
Gibb said he "gave up for a long time" until he became interested in writing songs again. The album was written with his sons
Stephen
Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...
and Ashley Gibb, which according to Barry Gibb meant "there was this huge personal thing going on between the three of us for the whole of this album" and "that you could say whatever it is you’ve got to say and be as honest as you can".
Barry Gibb initially planned on recording a
country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
album citing
bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music
The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as ''traditional music'', ''traditional folk music'', ''contemporary folk music'', ''vernacular music,'' or ...
as an inspiration, but he was told by his record company that "they’d have a lot of trouble getting me on
country radio Country radio refers to radio stations that play country music. Most country radio stations are commercial radio stations. Most country radio stations usually play only music which has been officially released to country radio by record labels. The ...
".
Instead, the album evolved into "classic pop" inspired by
Carole King
Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who has been active since 1958, initially as one of the staff songwriters at 1650 Broadway and later as a solo artist. Regarded as one ...
and
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...
.
Gibb has said of ''In the Now'': "The album is my opinion of life, my feelings and my journey with my brothers, and without my brothers, with my parents and without my parents, and with my own family, seeing my kids have their own kids."
Track listing
Personnel[Taken from the CD booklet of "In the Now"]
*
Barry Gibb
Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb (born 1 September 1946) is a British musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He rose to worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful groups in the history of popul ...
– vocals, guitars
*
Doug Emery – keyboards, musical director, programming (13-15)
*
Ben Stivers – keyboards (1-12)
*
Stephen Gibb
Stephen Thadeus Crompton Gibb (born 1 December 1973) is a British-American guitarist. He has been a member of numerous hard rock and metal bands including 58, Black Label Society, Crowbar, Kingdom of Sorrow, The Underbellys, SkilletHead, an ...
– guitars (1-13), additional vocals (13)
* Dan Warner – guitars (1-12, 14, 15)
*
Greg Leisz
Gregory Brian Leisz ( ; born September 18, 1949) is an American musician. He is a songwriter, recording artist, and producer. He plays guitar, dobro, mandolin, lap steel and pedal steel guitar.
Biography
Leisz grew up in the garage band cu ...
–
pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...
(12)
*
Alan Kendall
Alan Kendall (born 9 September 1944) is an English musician and was the lead guitarist for the Bee Gees, in an unofficial capacity from 1971 until 1980, and again from 1987 until 2001.
Career
His first recording was "Don't Play That Song (You ...
– pedal steel guitar (14)
* Julio Hernandez – bass (1-12, 14)
*
Lee Levin – drums, percussion (1-12)
*
Richard Bravo
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...
– percussion (1-13)
Horn and String sections
* Doug Emery – arrangements
* Alfredo Olivia – string concertmaster
* Ed Maina – baritone saxophone
* Ed Calle – soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
* John Kricker – trombone
* Jim Hacker and Doug Michels – trumpet
* Eric Kerley –
French horn
The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...
(10)
* David Cole and Claudio Jaffe – cello
* Anthony Parce, Chauncey Patterson and Scott O'Donnell – viola
* Huifang Chen, Monica Cheveresan, Carol Cole, Tomas Cotik, Scott Flavin, Valentin Mansurov, Alfredo Olivia, Evija Ozolins and Mark Schuppener – violin
Production
* Barry Gibb – producer
* John Merchant – producer (1-12), recording (1-12)
* Ethan Carson – recording (13-15)
* Matt LePlant – recording (13-15)
* Sam Bohl – recording assistant (1-12)
* Femio Hernandez – recording assistant (1-12)
* John Paterno – pedal steel recording (12)
*
Mick Guzauski
Nathan "Mick" Guzauski is an American multi-platinum mixing engineer and sound engineer.
His work spans a wide range of styles, including jazz, R&B, Latin, rock, pop, easy listening, funk and hip hop. He won a 2002 Latin Grammy for Thalía's ...
– mixing at Barking Dog Studios (Los Angeles, California)
*
Bob Ludwig
Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...
– mastering at Gateway Mastering (Portland, Maine)
* Joe Lizano – audio technician
* Carlos R. Guzman – drum and percussion technician
* Lazaro Rodriguez – guitar technician
* Dick Ashby – project coordinator
*
Danny Clinch
Danny Clinch (born 1964) is an American photographer and film director.
Biography
Born in Toms River, New Jersey, Clinch graduated from Toms River High School East in 1982. After attending Ocean County College, he attended the New England Scho ...
– photography
* Dave Bett – art direction
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
References
{{Authority control
2016 albums
Columbia Records albums
Barry Gibb albums
Pop rock albums
Albums produced by Barry Gibb