Customer Reviews

Get Myself Together

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4 star:		(2)
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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 Shelton's electric bass is in the mix of four songs. With a vocal charisma characteristic of John Hartford, Norman Blake and Guy Clarke, Danny's 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 O'Brien.

"Get Myself Together" doesn't try to knock us upside the head with pretentious or ostentatious music. Rather, it has a rusticity that is immediately charming. But don't think that what Barnes does is as simple as child's play. It takes a bunch of skill to be picturesque with one's 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 Johnson's "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 "I'll 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 "Rat's 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. He's 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 didn't 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 today's audio technology.

On the surface, Danny Barnes might appear a little eccentric or disjointed like the image on this album's cover, but I know better. He's 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.)

As Barnes puts it, this CD is a collection of "one-act plays" about how people, says Barnes, "myself included, volunteer for misery."

But don't 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 couldn't 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 hoo"s. 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 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...It's like your kids--you love em' all the same though they are all different in their own ways. Danny, don't ever stop my friend--we love you!

Danny Barnes has given us another great CD.....this stands up to the finest Bad Livers material. Great songwriting & performance.

I have seen Danny live several times, and this album provides a look into the studio for some of his personal favorites. "Big Girl Blues" and "Wasted Mind" are two of mine, and they are very realisic commentaries on life in these United States. Danny's playing is innovative and insightful, with several unique choices of instrumentation and a few effects for flavor. Well worth a listen!