Jim has these posted on his Website, but I think they should also be posted here:


Newport Daily News
Monday, April 25, 2005
Friends gather to jam with Jody
By James J. Gillis/Daily News staff
        
Photo: Singer Jody Gibson plays the guitar during a jam session in his honor Sunday night at Billy Goode's in Newport. (Jacqueline Marque/ Daily News staff)
        
NEWPORT - Singer Jody Gibson has loved Newport passionately for nearly 40 years. On Sunday night, Newport loved him back.

Friends and family packed the stage area at Billy Goode's, sometimes 15 at a time, to sing and play with a musician who seems to know every song ever written. There were no speeches, just music. Gibson's one-time Popeye frame has shrunk a bit, but his customary Greek fishing cap was in place as he sang and played from a wheelchair, loving every moment of it.

Gibson is best known as a local troubadour, a hillbilly singer from way back, a guy who hung out in Greenwich Village as a young man with Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, and Newport's contribution to the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

But that's just part of it. Gibson, 75, also is known for forming a hard set of opinions and sharing them with little provocation. He is characteristically direct about his current situation.

"I've had this colon cancer the past two years," he said during a break in the music. "I don't have much time left. That's official."

His wife, Donna, puts it differently: "You know Jody. He says he'll go when he's ready."

There was more joy than tears Sunday night at Billy Goode's. It was a jam session, a sing-along and a hootenanny. Performers took turns leading songs, with John "Fud" Benson starting things off on fiddle, Gibson's daughter Joyce Katzberg leading a rousing "Hey, Good Lookin,'" and everyone sang "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"

Donna Gibson, who has sung with her husband through the years, took a guitar and led "Jambalaya." She said the night was not a fund-raiser (there was no cover charge) and not a concert, either. "This is different. This is music sharing, not different people getting up and singing," she said. "It's a jam, really, everyone sharing."

As the night unfolded, some players dropped out and new ones joined in. Some were familiar faces on the local scene, including Benson, Jim McGrath, Kevin Sullivan, Mark Quinn, Mickey Scotia, Mike Fischman, another of Gibson's daughters, Kate Katzberg, and Cindy Peloquin. Some, like Roger Sprung of New York, played with Gibson at the Black Pearl more than 30 years ago.

If Gibson were a mere entertainer, he'd still be among Newport's memorable figures. But he's always been a pot-stirrer, too, catching heat as early as the 1940s for forming a mixed-race hillbilly band in the Air Force.

In an interview in the 1980s, he proclaimed his undying love for Newport, only to leap from his kitchen chair and stomp his right foot as he railed against the developers who clogged the waterfront with time-share condos and hotels.

Gibson also holds a well-honed distaste for bigotry. The worst part, he said, is that prejudice keeps people from forming friendships: "You miss out on so much."

Benson, who has known Gibson for decades, said the singer always has given all that he had to audiences. "Sure, he loves being on stage, but he's always been able to see it from the other side," Benson said. "He's worked to make sure people enjoy themselves.

"And to be honest, he's one of the most talented people I've ever met. He's just a terrific guy."

Through the years, Gibson's worked as a sign maker, toiled on ships, performed with Donna, singing tongue-in-cheekers like "Pave the Bay" and "Tiptoe Through the Tourists," and taken up martial arts. In more recent years, he's lugged a homemade contraption to open-mike nights, an instrument he dubbed a "digeri-don't."

Kevan Campbell, who owns Billy Goode's, helped organize the party. "If you can call someone a music legend around here, it's him," he said of Gibson. "The night was understandably bittersweet for Joyce Katzberg, a longtime singer and arguably the state's leading peace activist. But it was a fitting way to honor her father, she said

"Jody has given so much of himself through the years, it's wonderful to see all these people here tonight," Katzberg said. "It's really a celebration."