What? Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees Made a Country Record?

“Trig, did you see this?!? That guy from the Bee Gees made a country record?!?”
Yeah, yeah, I saw it. And you might be surprised to find out that I don’t have a whole lot of problem with it. Am I looking forward to it? Eh, I’m just not much for collaborative albums or tributes of previously-released material in general. But the first song they released from it featuring Jason Isbell sounds pretty damn good to me (listen below). And looking over the list of contributors, it’s pretty interesting as well, aside from a few bad apples.
I just know too much about the untold history of Barry Gibb and his dalliances with country music to be perturbed that at 74-years-old, he wants to make a country record. It’s not like he’s Darius Rucker looking to exploit country to revitalize his career. This is a guy putting together a passion project with folks he has respect for, and Dave Cobb producing it. I think it’s kind of cool.
To be released on January 8th, 2021, Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1 will feature songs from the Gibb catalog, performed with cohorts such as Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, the aforementioned Jason Isbell, Miranda Lambert, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and Brandi Carlile. And yes, there’s also a few less savory names, like Keith Urban. You can see the full track list below.
As part of the three-headed hydra of The Bee Gees, Barry Gibb will always be a pariah to some, if not many, especially in the country music realm. Before there was widespread public outrage and mass-produced T-shirts decrying Bro-Country and country pop, disco was the most dubious form of popular music for a generation. And look, even though I would assert that time has been much more kind to “Staying Alive” than it will be to “Body Like a Backroad,” disco was still a derivative of the much more cool elements of funk and soul, and deserves much of its ridicule, even in retrospect.
But the story of Barry Gibb and even The Bee Gees is much more expansive. They had been around for nearly 20 years before they became the face of disco, and Barry Gibb had a solo career beyond the band, including one that at times interfaced with country music very directly. Barry Gibb’s first ever solo record called The Kid’s No Good from 1970 has been described by many as a country record as much as anything.
Then of course there was Barry Gibb’s collaboration with Kenny Rogers in the early 80’s. Rogers approached Gibb for some song ideas, and Gibb started by sending Rogers a demo of the song “Eyes That See in the Dark.” This resulted in an album of the same name that Barry Gibb produced and wrote for Kenny after the two formed a friendship. Among other things things the album resulted in, it’s where the song “Islands in the Stream” with Dolly Parton came from, which you don’t need me to tell you is one of the most well-recognized country songs and duets of all time, even if it is more pop than country.
And there’s more stories of Barry working as a songwriter and collaborator in the country realm. He also wrote Conway Twitty’s #1 “Rest Your Love” from 1981. It’s probably one of those subjects that deserves its own deep dive someday. And yes, both Barry’s output, and much of what you can expect from this new record is probably better to call “Americana” than country. But regardless of what you call it, you can’t discount Barry Gibb as a songwriter.
But screw it. If Barry Gibb wants to make a “country” record, what’s the harm or foul? Especially if he’s tapping cool folks to do it with. It won’t be at the top of my wish list to Santa, but it sounds promising so far, and I’ll give it a spin.
TRACK LIST:
1. “I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You” with Keith Urban
2. “Words of a Fool” with Jason Isbell
3. “Run to Me” with Brandi Carlile
4. “Too Much Heaven” with Alison Krauss
5. “Lonely Days” with Little Big Town
6. “Words” with Dolly Parton
7. “Jive Talkin’” with Miranda Lambert, Jay Buchanan
8. “How Deep Is Your Love” with Tommy Emanuel, Little Big Town
9. “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” with Sheryl Crow
10. “To Love Somebody” with Jay Buchanan
11. “Rest Your Love On Me” with Olivia Newton-John
12. “Butterfly” with Gillian Welch, David Rawlings
November 9, 2020 @ 10:36 am
Lonely days by the Bee Gees is a fantastic song. Wish I liked the collaborator on that track
November 9, 2020 @ 10:45 am
I’m a sucker for pre-disco Bee Gees output. Their 1967 debut album reminds me of post-pop Beatles albums.
November 9, 2020 @ 3:12 pm
I think most folks think of them as a just a disco band, as I did for several years until I heard “I Started a Joke”. That caught my attention. They were a very talented band with a range that could find fans anywhere. I have no problem with this album because Mr. Gibb has done quality work for years.
November 9, 2020 @ 10:47 am
Barry Gibb also co-wrote “Come on Over” with brother Robin, which was a big country hit for Olivia Newton-John in 1976.
November 9, 2020 @ 6:35 pm
I was going to mention that as well. I know how Trigger feels about Olivia, but her country-pop from the ’70s might as well be Hank Williams compared to today’s straight-up hip-hop monstrosities like Niko Moon.
November 9, 2020 @ 10:59 am
I’d rather listen to The Bee Gees than I would any “Country” act who got their start after 1997.
November 9, 2020 @ 11:45 am
that self-imposed date of personal stagnation explains a lot about you.
November 9, 2020 @ 12:30 pm
Yes, that was the intent, Captain Perceptive.
November 9, 2020 @ 12:50 pm
You’ve really got a hard-on for the old man, don’t you?
November 9, 2020 @ 1:27 pm
a hard-on? that’s sort of a foreign concept for you at your age, huh?
November 9, 2020 @ 3:23 pm
I see you have judged me by my SCM nom de guerre. I’m 37. Just because I’m a Jerry Clower fan, doesn’t mean I’m old. I enjoy a lot of things my grandfather introduced me to.
But back to the point. Your obsession with one-upping Honky is getting tired.
November 9, 2020 @ 6:04 pm
ooft. even worse than i thought!
i don’t think a person who checked out 23 years ago on purpose and takes pride in it has much to contribute to a musical discussion that is happening in 2020. it’s the epitome of old man yells at clouds. guess that’s on me.
November 9, 2020 @ 10:04 pm
Yeah, but the fact that you’re butt-hurt about the way Honky trashes your favorite artist is pretty obvious. Honky’s a tool. Sometimes you are too. You both are usually funny, but when you are constantly going back and forth about stupid shit, it’s pretty boring and pathetic.
November 10, 2020 @ 6:05 am
i assure you that any back and forth i have with honky is not motivated by his opinion of paul mccartney and only by whatever he said in his comment directly proceeding mine.
November 10, 2020 @ 3:36 am
I have no problem with this collection overall. Barry Gibb has always had respect for country music and its artists, and I think that goes both ways. Plus, he can sing and is an excellent songwriter. I’ll definitely give this a listen. On another note, I must say that if anyone had thoughts of relaunching his or her music career from another genre into the country realm, they need to secure Sheryl Crow’s management company. She seems to appear all over the place and has for years now…award shows, album collaborations, tributes, etc.,…whenever “country” performers are mentioned. I find that intriguing—I’ll never think of her voice in that category.
November 9, 2020 @ 11:00 am
Bee Gees rock. They successfully wrote music that was sung by everyone from Dolly Parton to Destiny’s Child. I’m sure this will be great.
(Emotions is the best Destiny’s Child song. Don’t @ me.)
November 9, 2020 @ 11:16 am
the bee gees are awesome. people do write them off for the disco stuff, but that’s a small segment of their massive output – and that’s great too. early bee gee’s is some of the best psychedelic pop music this side of the beatles’ revolver. there are definitely country-tinged songs from odessa on, for example:
marley purt drive – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqtzloiPxZE
don’t forget to remember – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTTbQOQdSiE
and if you don’t think a bee gee’s soul song can translate to an excellent country song, look no further than karl blau’s stellar version of ‘to love somebody’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBGVNfUGBuQ
here’s barry on the grand ole opry with ricky skaggs – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPp5c8t-N9k
and here’s a little treat – the bee gees, willie nelson, and glen campbell: https://youtu.be/1yVeybZLYrs
November 9, 2020 @ 11:45 am
I watched his Opry performance with Ricky Skaggs earlier. It is apparent that Barry Gibb has the utmost respect for country music and country artists.
November 9, 2020 @ 12:01 pm
I was a bit surprised not seeing Ricky as guest on this album.
November 10, 2020 @ 3:29 pm
I’d bet money that if there is a Vol. II – Stayin’ Alive with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder will be on there
November 15, 2020 @ 4:31 pm
Glad someone else remembers “Marley Purt Drive”, a great song from a very musically diverse album – which was more than a little country-influenced.
The Bee Gees’ early music was heavily influenced by the Everly Brothers, as shown by their earliest recordings made in Australia prior to their commercial breakthrough there wish “Spicks And Specks” and subsequent move back to England. Don and Phil were probably the biggest influence on the teenaged Gibbs (along with the Beatles and Beach Boys)
November 9, 2020 @ 11:30 am
Looks like a perfectly fine victory lap for an astonishing songwriting career. I’m thinking Alison Krause will slay “Too Much Heaven.” Your lack of snarkiness is appreciated!
November 9, 2020 @ 11:34 am
Needless to say the man’s a legend in a world where there are so few left and we’re losing more each day. I was 10 when I played the single How Can You Mend A Broken Heart to death right on through to the album Main Course and the disco classics he wrote. He’ll always be one of the greats and part of a soundtrack to me growing up. I’ll listen to it once or twice I’m sure.
November 9, 2020 @ 11:37 am
FYI – Kendell Marvel did a version of the Bee Gees’ “I’ve Gotta Get a Message To You” on his album last year, Solid Gold Sounds.
November 9, 2020 @ 11:41 am
Love Barry- I’m sure it will be great
November 9, 2020 @ 11:50 am
i don’t even have to hear this collection to know in my gut it will be a better ‘country’ record that what so many mainstreamers are peddling . sure ….you might argue that that isn’t saying much with the bar so low . but it likely said all barry needed to hear to inspire him to do a project like this . the man has nothing to prove to himself or anyone else . like so many REAL writers I’m guessing he thought to himself ” I shit better songs than what I’m hearing on my radio ….why do I have to listen to THAT when I can write THIS ? ” .
or maybe he doesn’t use the word ‘ shit ‘ . i don’t know the man .
November 9, 2020 @ 11:52 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pABaFx3jY90
BG Grass
November 9, 2020 @ 12:03 pm
Sheryl Crow….. again ugh!
November 9, 2020 @ 12:22 pm
Can’t have a tribute album or event without her. It’s the law. Apparently.
November 9, 2020 @ 10:04 pm
Yep, pretty disgusting.
November 10, 2020 @ 10:35 am
There must be some sort of “has been” union that makes sure Sheryl Crow gets tossed a bone every once in awhile.
That said, I’ll suffer through her occasional appearance as a feature, than have an entire album of Crow unnaturally pushed up the charts. Please don’t waste real estate in my brain by telling me she’s released a new album every year for the last 10 years or whatever the actual output has been. Don’t care, hard pass.
Agree with Trig, aside from the handful of undesirables on the track list, this might be an interesting project. Worthy of at least one spin.
November 9, 2020 @ 12:12 pm
Conway had a #1 hit with Rest Your Love On Me.
November 9, 2020 @ 12:49 pm
There are all kinds of country tie-in’s here. Like I said in the article, it probably deserves its own deep dive.
November 9, 2020 @ 1:11 pm
I love Conway Twitty’s version of “Rest Your Love On Me” even though it’s got to be one of the least ‘country’ songs he ever recorded! It’s funny the Bee Gees version has steel guitar and tries to sound country when it isn’t really – but the Conway Twitty version seems to just accept that it’s not a country song so doesn’t have the steel guitar and in fact has more piano and strings and also a wicked electric guitar solo. The Conway Twitty version sounds better to me – you’ve got to admit that the production on Conway Twitty albums from 1979 is top notch (and maybe even ahead of its time) even if it’s different to before and often less country.
I do prefer Conway’s ‘more country’ classic country songs from the late 60s and through most of the 70s – I think they’re some of the best country songs ever made – but I have to admit his later stuff is very very good too. It’s funny from 1979 the production on Conway Twitty albums completely changes becoming more modern and he starts to add in some less country songs like Rest Your Love On Me whilst continuing with solid gold country tunes like Tight Fittin’ Jeans which is 100% country but just different to the songs he did before 1979 (they don’t have that John Hughey steel guitar sound for example). I believe Conway ditched Owen Bradley as his producer when his success dwindled a bit in 1978 and then co-produced albums from then on with a few different producers (and continued getting number ones until 1987). I’m not sure on the details. Anyway it’s a very good song.
November 9, 2020 @ 4:52 pm
We could use more Conway. Growing up, I didn’t quite “get” him. Thought he was corny, cheesy, fake etc etc. Now , danged if I’m not a little sentimental about those many solid gold hits of his. And all those duet albums with Loretta are also sounding pretty good to my ears . Ive got a compilation of those and its creeping into my consciousness.
November 12, 2020 @ 11:26 am
Conway’s version was a cover of the Bee Gees version of that song; theirs actually hit the country Top 40.
Also, Conway removed a verse (or maybe the bridge). I like the BG version better for that reason.
November 9, 2020 @ 12:35 pm
Does anyone remember that it was Barry Gibb who bought Johnny Cash’s house in Hendersonville after June and Johnny died?
November 9, 2020 @ 12:49 pm
After her comments about EOTY, Miranda doing Jive Talkin’ is so appropriate.
November 9, 2020 @ 12:53 pm
A country version of Jive Talkin’? idk about that…
And I love the Bee Gees.
November 9, 2020 @ 12:54 pm
My daughter (who was a teen in the late-70s) like disco and played the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack on repeat. I’ve said “FUCK the bee gees” for the past forty years because of it. My daughter passed away last year and I was happy to bury the Bee gees records with her lol! However, this CD sounds promising, I might have to ask one of my grandchildren to set it up on the Internet for me!
November 15, 2020 @ 5:33 pm
Holy shit that took a weird turn.
April 3, 2022 @ 7:07 pm
Yeah, I love when these old men share to much of their personal life online.
November 9, 2020 @ 1:22 pm
Yep. And he didn’t get to enjoy it sadly, as it burned to the ground. Ouch! So much history lost there.
Yeah, I’ve heard Gibb loves country music. Doesn’t make him country though. But hey knock yourself out Barry. No weirder than Cyndi Lauper or Steven Tyler making “country” records.
November 9, 2020 @ 4:10 pm
Country as a “style.”
November 9, 2020 @ 8:10 pm
Jonathan Richman is another artist who did a one-off country album (“Jonathan Goes Country”). It’s fantastic.
November 9, 2020 @ 2:49 pm
“To Love Somebody” on Family Tradition was also pretty solid.
November 10, 2020 @ 5:58 am
I’m surprised you didn’t mention that he’s also released a country a song. ‘Drown in the River’ in 2007 was released to iTunes. He seems to have soured on the idea around the time his home, which used to belong to Johnny Cash, was burnt down (as addressed in the George Strait song ‘House of Cash’).
November 10, 2020 @ 8:13 am
late 60s to early 70s Bee Gee’s drew on a lot of folk and genuine and western influences from songs like Melody Fair to To Love Somebody (which even Hank Jr covered) to the fiddle at the beginning of Give Your Best, granted they were always more pop leaning towards a Beatles/Byrds/Harry Nilsson style but the western influence was always there. as ive grown older and more accomplished as a musician i’ve even grown to love much of the funk/disco era Bee Gees i hated in my youth,there is no denying the immense talent of the Brothers Gibb whether or not you are a fan, and it’s great to see Barry still moving forward, creating and innovating at 74 years of age!
November 10, 2020 @ 10:06 am
I have never been against pop starts making a country record or releasing a country single so long as it is “country” and they do not come in with the attitude of “saving-the-day”.
Barry Gibbs Opry performance with Ricky Skaggs some years ago was phenomenal.
November 10, 2020 @ 2:57 pm
Isn’t this dude supposed to singin stayin alive?
Cause Danny and I hunted this timber before we could drive….
November 11, 2020 @ 6:52 pm
Honestly, I was really hoping for a new rendition of “I Started a Joke”
November 11, 2020 @ 9:08 pm
Hell, I love the Bee Gee’s. Disco and before. My Momma had their greatest hits and I memorized every song growing up. Those brothers were damn good songwriters and I’m here for whatever Barry wants to do, he’s earned it.
November 12, 2020 @ 7:29 pm
The Bee Gees song “Massachusetts” sounds very country.
November 13, 2020 @ 11:00 am
No genre attracts carpetbaggers like country music!
November 13, 2020 @ 5:27 pm
Full disclosure: “How Can You Mend” is my all-time favorite song, has been since I was a kid. Was hoping that Gillian Welch would do it. Still, I’ll happily give this a spin.
November 14, 2020 @ 10:08 pm
I never cared about the Bee Gees one way or the other really until I saw the Storytellers show that used to be on VH-1, one night… and they were pulling out all these songs they wrote and just laying ’em down, live with a full band. I was impressed and surprised at the revelation that they wrote some songs I liked. Love ’em or hate ’em, they were a band that could play live and create material, unlike so much of the stuff shoved at us now.