Steve Tibbetts - Anyone listen to him?

[darkshade]

I only discovered his music last year, though I'm pretty sure I have seen his name pop up once or twice before. This man is brilliant. He plays guitar but he also uses the studio as a musical instrument, similar to what Pink Floyd did with their mid-70s albums. On most of his albums he is accompanied by Marc Anderson on drums and percussion. Tibbetts only has 10 studio albums under his name, though he's recorded with others in collaboration or as a sideman, but there's still only a handful of albums there, too. I know his first 7 albums, and Marc Anderson's first album (which features Tibbetts) and I plan to explore more music from these two soon. His music is so good, I didn't want to listen to every one of his albums right away and have nothing else to explore, but I do intend to check out more in the coming months as I've been digging into his music again recently.

Most of his albums seem to be out of print, unfortunately, though most are available online to stream or buy the mp3.
His first album, self-titled, is oop and not available online. I found a used copy for not very cheap and it's the only Steve Tibbetts album I own currently.


For a self produced album it sounds pretty professional-sounding, though isn't on par with literally every album he made after this.

The second album "Yr" and his 4th album "Safe Journey" are probably the two best Steve Tibbetts albums to start with if you've never heard his music, especially if you are a prog or metal fan. My favorite of the ones I've heard so far is "Big Map Idea". Steve's style of guitar playing is clearly rooted in rock and early metal, and his first couple of albums are particularly proggy, with synths and organs, but he avoids all the tropes of those styles of music. His music changes over time, as he surrounds himself more with sounds that remind one of Pink Floyd's most popular era, Brian Eno type stuff, but also folk music styles from many parts of the world like the Caribbean, Brazil, East Asia, Tibet, India, Africa. A good amount of this music is ambient, mildly psychedelic, with tribal and pastoral sounds. There are touches of aggression, chaos and darkness at times; at other times, peace, tranquillity, and introspection.

[SoundscapeMN]

I know him and saw him join Eight-Head on stage a number of years ago at The Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis,

And I think he's played live with Dean Magraw a number of times as he plays live frequently in the Twin Cities.

Marc Anderson is another guy who plays with Dean regularly, and has recorded with Dean.

I know he's somewhat of a revolutionary guitarist, but truth be, I probably never listened to any of his studio recordings, but I probably should.

[HOF]

I heard some of Big Map Idea the other day when it popped up on my Amazon Music. Was kind of random (not sure what I was listening to but the algorithm picked it for me next). Pretty cool stuff. Will need to explore a bit further.

[darkshade]

His music is just... music. It defies categorization. I couldn't really rank any of his albums, they're all really good.

I encourage DTF to check out this guy's music. Tibbetts' albums sound as good as the DSOTM/WYWH/Animals trilogy of Floyd albums, if not better. I haven't heard his recent work, but I imagine it rival's Steven Wilson's in sound production.

[darkshade]

First time listening to A Man About A Horse from 2002.
Sounds like rock music if it was played in ancient times. Otherwise, very ethereal.

[ytserush]

Very aware of him but that's a road I have not explored yet.

[darkshade]

A Man About A Horse is a phenomenal piece of music, gave it another listen. Like all his albums, I can tell this one will grow and get better with every listen.

Very aware of him but that's a road I have not explored yet.

You should.

'Yr' is a good gateway album, as it has some proggy sounds on it.