Danny Barnes gets himself together
THE CD: “Get Myself Together” (Terminus Records)
THE PERFORMER: Danny Barnes
Bad Livers founder Danny Barnes mixes country, neo-traditional music, Delta blues, rock classics (”Sympathy for the Devil”) and some newfangled clawhammer banjo. Think John Hartford and Roger Miller in a sack race with Clarence Ashley.
Don’t let the hipster thing fool you — Barnes is a clever songwriter. (Hear him live on “Mountain Stage” show Oct. 16 here in Charleston). “Get Me Out of Jail” tells a tale of an Oxycontin user/loser, in classic jukebox cry-in-your-beer style, with that backbeat and voice reminiscent of John Anderson and some fine guitar playing:
“Well I got drunk this morning/and I went off to work/ by 9 or 10 I cashed it in/and threw up on my shirt/then I lost your house keys/so I broke in with a rock/I keep my Oxycontin baby/way down in my socks/well I think its gonna rain/and turn colder I’m a growing pain/that’s growing older/if you don’t know me all that well/baby please come get me out of jail”
Another, “Wasted Mind,” paints a vivid picture of an aimless 17-year-old:
“You got headers on your Honda/you shoulda spent the money on a carburator overhaul/ so your rusty bucket won’t stall at the courthouse/you’re only 17 with a Detroit lean/and a baby that don’t look like you/and you might be a little stupid too/and there’s that smart mouth.”
On the neo-traditional side, “Cumberland Gap” has a string quartet feel, with more solid banjo work and very honest playing from 16-year-old California fiddler Brittany Haas. Next up is the bluesy gospel of “Let Your Light Shine on Me” with more fine guitar work. Through it all, the warm production is closer to the bone than his previous CD, “Dirt on the Angel.” Barnes is a walking garage sale of the recycled, the reinfused and the new. Where else can you find a CD with songs from Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, Willie Johnson and Bill Frisell?
Barnes keeps getting better.
WHERE: Available on the Web at www.terminusrecords.com
—By Paul Gartner
