Biography
Clifford "Grandpappy" Gibson earned recognition less for vocal ability than for his commanding guitar work, ranking among the most accomplished instrumentalists in country blues. He relocated from Kentucky to St. Louis during the 1920s and remained there for the rest of his years. Throughout that decade and the following one, he appeared regularly in local clubs and cut his first sides for QRS and Victor in 1929. Lonnie Johnson exerted a strong influence on his style, and Gibson also backed Jimmie Rodgers on a 1931 Victor release. For much of the next thirty years he performed on St. Louis streets. In 1960 he returned to the studio for a Bobbin session and continued working in the city’s Gaslight Square district for three more years until his death in 1963.