Folk and blues Leon Bibb dies in Canada aged 93

A SEMINAL figure in the growing popularity of folk music in the USA in the '50s and '60s, Leon Bibb died in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on 23rd October 2015. The singer, guitarist and actor was born in Louisville, Kentucky and played at the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959. That year he also recorded his first album for Vanguard Records, 'Sings Folk Songs'. Further albums for Vanguard, Columbia and Liberty followed. In 1963 Bibb travelled to Mississippi to join Dick Gregory and others in the fight against racial segregation in the US. Leon performed in the national TV show Hootenanny and on the Ed Sullivan Show and performed with Bill Cosby on tours. He also provided the soundtrack to the 1960 film The Young One. Leon's last recordings were the album 'Lift Every Voice And Sing' (2003) and the second of two albums he recorded with his son, blues singer Eric Bibb, 'Praising Peace: A Tribute To Paul Robeson'. Bibb relocated to Canada in 1969.