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Austin Live Music >
Austin Bands >D >Danny Barnes
Get Myself Together
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Danny Barnes Album Review:
Another eclectic Barnes CD at 2005-09-23
As Barnes puts it, this CD is a collection of one-act plays about how people, says Barnes, myself included, volunteer for misery. But dont be put off, this CD is no downer, not with laugh-out-loud lyrics like the following, from Get Me Out of Jail: 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/ I couldnt find your house key, so I broke in with a rock/ I keep my Oxycontin, baby, way down in my sock. But if that is too pedestrian or profane for you, then wait for the beautiful instrumental arrangement of the traditional tune Cumberland Gap, or for the succulent four-part vocal harmony of the Blind Willie Johnson spiritual Let Your Light Shine on Me. And to top it off, there is the down-home acoustic version of the Rolling Stones classic, Sympathy for the Devil, complete with bluegrass sounding woo hoos. And throughout the CD, the fiddling (by a woman half Barnes age) is brilliant.Fair warning: while Barnes Texas twang of a singing voice is perfect for the material, it is something of an acquired taste, though think I notice a mellowing over the years, like the aging of harsh tannins in a red wine, perhaps.
Danny Barnes Album Review:
Danny Barnes should rule the universe at 2005-08-07
Danny Barnes is one of the greatest musicians and songwriters in the world. Since his early days with the Bad Livers through this mighty fine release he consistently delivers the goods. I honestly treasure every album he has ever put out. His lyrics inspire on a deep level and also can make you laugh and feel the characters involved. The musicianship is first-class. Danny mixes folk, blues, bluegrass,americana, rock, old-time, jazz and makes it his own. This album plays out like a movie about a down and out drunkard/oxycontin addict who loses women and his mind through the thirteen tracks. Though I thought Danny could never top Dirt on the Angel this record feels fluid and rolls like a John Hartford album...Its like your kids--you love em all the same though they are all different in their own ways. Danny, dont ever stop my friend--we love you!
Danny Barnes Album Review:
Dannys tuned into the heart and soul of roots music at 2005-10-24
Playing Time - 42:04 -- Danny Barnes shows us how musicians can be very successful by doing more with less by treating us to rawboned arrangements of songs inspired by old-time, blues, bluegrass and jug band music. Barnes plays guitar, banjo, and even tuba on one track. Four songs have smokin fiddle or sweet violin sawed by 19-year-old Brittany Haas. They do a particularly nice job on the banjo/fiddle rendition of the traditional Cumberland Gap. Garey Sheltons electric bass is in the mix of four songs. With a vocal charisma characteristic of John Hartford, Norman Blake and Guy Clarke, Dannys singing and delivery have a heartwarming alt-country quality. Formerly of The Bad Livers, the multi-instrumental entertainer does a lot of solo shows as well as session work and touring with the likes of Tim OBrien. Get Myself Together doesnt try to knock us upside the head with pretentious or ostentatious music. Rather, it has a rusticity that is immediately charming. But dont think that what Barnes does is as simple as childs play. It takes a bunch of skill to be picturesque with ones minimalist music, arranged with just a few instruments, and crossing over into so many genres. This is the meat and potatoes of Americana music. An old-time rendition of the Rolling Stones Sympathy for the Devil could become one of his trademark songs. But the practitioner of taste also introduces us to The Frigidairs, an imaginary multi-tracked gospel quartet comprised of Danny singing four of the five parts (Garey Shelton singing the fifth) on Blind Willie Johnsons Let Your Light Shine on Me. Mark Graham is an interesting and whimsical tunesmith who may have written Corn Kingdom Come just for Barnes. Capricious lines like Ill be the king of corn liquor, and you can be the queen of fools are interspersed with funky guitar rhythms and flatpicked riffs. About half of the album are Barnes originals, and the title cut has a swing jug band feeling to emphasize his message to get myself together somewheres else. In Rats Ass, all of us should be able to relate to being driven wild by people who talk too much and just wanting a jug of `shine. With a few chuckles along the way from the singer himself, we can tell that he had fun recording these songs. Get Me Out of Jail is a sorrowful tale of a guy addicted to Oxycontin. His profound countrified advice (learned in fine folkloric fashion from his daddy, or so he says) is often pretty honest and straight: You can work in a coalmine, You can make a little moonshine, or you can get it on down the line. That seems to be a recurring theme here. People can control their own destinies, but many makes poor decisions and wind up on those highways of pain, sorrow, misery and regret. Hes a good storyteller with songs like Cat to the Rat and Wasted Mind, and his blues riffs on Big Shoe (music written by one of his collaborators, Bill Frisell) keep us thrilled. I sometimes wish that musicians didnt have to be so authentic that they strive for vintage sound complete with LP scratches. Maybe just start the song with a minute of this then seque into a cleaner sound that capitalizes on todays audio technology. On the surface, Danny Barnes might appear a little eccentric or disjointed like the image on this albums cover, but I know better. Hes very tuned into the heart and soul of roots music, and he has the necessary skill to present it in a rollicking and gleefully pleasing style. Relocating to Seattle from Austin in 1997, the wry-witted and indefatible Danny Barnes still has a lot of Texas outlaw sensibilities that have taken root and have found fertile soil for their growth in the Pacific Northwest. (Joe Ross, Roseburg, OR.)
Danny Barnes Album Editorial:
With Get Myself Together Danny Barnes - Americas irreplaceable alchemist of acoustic razzle-dazzle open-borders ecumenism and downhome chutzpah - gets back to basics. Or so a record of lively blues and old-timey-tinged songs played on banjo and guitar with occasional fiddle and bass guitar accompaniment would seem. Coming on the heels of the widescreen epic Dirt on the Angel and a magic-barrel profusion of experimental-edge side projects Get Myself Together sounds at first like a return to the earlier leaner aesthetic of Bad Livers the Texas avant-hillbilly visionaries whom Barnes steered through seven records from 1994 to 2000. But his fans know to listen more than once. When Barnes is driving there are no entirely straight routes forward or back and nothing slips off the back of the truck. One of the themes that interested me in the writing of this project was the law of cause and effect Danny says. How people basically cause their own misery and happiness. Its always amazed me how people myself included volunteer for misery. Threads of continuity bear out Dannys assertion that Get Myself Together is set up like a modern film various stories get woven into the fabric in disjointed ways little lyrical themes that pop in and out across the selections much like classical music. 13 stark jewels all recorded in a small room (by Garey Shelton/Seattle WA) and unfussily presented. This music breathes between the notes as it maintains an amiable give-and-take with dead masters - the student holding his own neither showboating nor allowing the exchange to flag. Pick up your copy today!
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Dirt on the Angel
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Danny Barnes Album Review:
Old Timey music for the 21st Century at 2004-01-16
Cross the more chaotic songs by Dock Boggs with John Hartford and you might end up with something that sounds like Danny Barnes. This album is hard to get a handle on at first, but will grow on you. As Danny says, Get it while you can.
Danny Barnes Album Review:
THIS ALBUM DESERVES 6 STARS! at 2003-09-26
I agree with everything the above reviewers said. My only problem is with the 4 stars given this masterpiece by one reviewer -- it deserves the full 5 and more!!!! Thats why I had to add my 2 cents. Hes at the top of his game and DOA reflects it. Also, if you ever get the chance to hear Danny live, dont miss it! Hes a musical and literary genius, a ham, and doesnt take himself too seriously unless youre talking about the musicianship or the writing. Also, if you really want a treat, visit his website and read his musings On Music. Dannys biggest fans are some of the best musicians on this planet -- thats why hes got such good ones on this album! They recognize his brilliance--how hes the real deal. Bottom line is, I love this album and give it a 6!
Danny Barnes Album Review:
Twentieth Century Redux at 2004-01-27
Banjo picker Barnes seamlessly covers the gamut from traditional American mountain music to hip hop. And his succulent cover of The Faces Ooh La La is one for the automatic repeat button.
Danny Barnes Album Review:
I 2nd the 6 Stars. at 2004-04-05
Expressive, playful, powerful!!!!I would have to give this 5 stars + also.A musicians musician if you would. Hasnt left the top of my stereo since it came out. As far as Im concerned its just another stellar album in a discography that is at the top of the genre of Americana music. Is that actually a genre yet? As I find myself saying at Dannys live shows What in the hell is he playing here?.Some damn fine music thats what. You wont be disappointed with this fine music.
Danny Barnes Album Review:
What a genius at 2004-02-25
I have played this CD more often since I bought it at a Danny Barnes show 2 months ago than I would have guessed possible. He is a wonderful song writer, incredible player - just a genius on guitar and banjo. You get his sense of humor and good natured showmanship when you see him live, and that shines through on this CD as well. Plus - what a killer band. The back and forth on peanut butter... with Darol Anger is great. I had the good fortune to see him again just last night here in Seattle. Damn, the man can play! People who say they hate the banjo need to open their ears and check this guy out. He is just a smokin improvisational player.
Danny Barnes Album Editorial:
What comes after post-modernism? And is it mere nostalgia when you willfully channel the ambience if not the intent of a music that arguably peaked a generation or two Ibefore you were born? The answers may not be readily apparent on this marvelous deeply rooted yet impossibly free album by the former frontman of Austins Bad Livers; that it merely inspires such musings is impressive enough. Barnes countryfied tack belies an intellect as wryly cutting as Randy Newmans fingers as soulfully nimble as Ry Cooders and a sense of history whose fervency rivals T Bone Burnetts--did we forget to mention Ives and R. Crumb?--yet the sum of the whole is distinctly his own. The product of collaborations with guitarist Bill Frisell violinist Darol Anger (who penned the albums jaunty instrumental Barnes Away) and others filtered through a self-produced sonic sensibility that suggests some lost trove of 40s country 78s Barness bluegrass-with-a-bop attitude transcends boundaries of genre and era with an effortlessness thats as deceptive as it is compelling. Whether skewering modern heartland myths (Life in the Country) with a banjo twang powering the ambitiously goofy stream-of-consciousness of I Like My Chicken Hot with pianist Chuck Leavells nervous jazz chords or furthering his only occasionally metaphorical food obsessions with the lovely Popcorn and Wine and the exuberantly cornpone Peanut Butter is a Mans Best Friend Barnes sense of joyous adventure is palpable here. Yet solid more traditional ballads like Face to Face masterfully anchor it to the longing concerns of a near century of country music. His cover choices (the antipodal traditionals Kitchen Floor Waltz and Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy; a wistful take on the Faces Ooh La La; a freeform jam of Becks Loser) are eclectic yet nigh-perfect forceful reminders that traditions are nothing if not continually tweaked and built upon. Jerry McCulley
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