Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Hard-Picking Harmonies

Growing up on an upstate New York dairy farm, Eric and Leigh Gibson were more concerned with cows than chords. But at their father’s insistence, the brothers learned to play the banjo and guitar, respectively. When a teacher introduced them to the music of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, the pair became obsessed with bluegrass and never looked back. Years later, they formed the Gibson Brothers band, an award-winning combination of talent featuring upright bassist Mike Barber, fiddler Clayton Campbell and mandolinist Joe Walsh.