Danny Barnes – Man on Fire
ATO – 6 March 2020
Banjo player Danny Barnes is not broken up about the fact that he’s not better known. “I’m really lucky. To find out I even exist, you have to be a pretty smart person (and) like read books and stuff.” As he explains, “In order to find out about me at all, you kind of have to do research and dig in there. I’m not really a household name, so it’s been pretty consistent.” Man On Fire, his latest effort features the kind of talent who have done the work to find out about Barnes. The cast of characters is impressive, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, drummer Matt Chamberlin, and executive producer Dave Mathews. Not exactly a bunch of lightweights.
Barnes’ approach to banjo, going back to his days with the Bad Livers, is based on redefining the possibilities of the instrument using an approach he’s named “folktronics.” As he describes it, “I wanted to make songs that sounded like some hillbilly got a hold of a bunch of oscillators and stuff and incorporated it all into a hoedown. That weird conflict of old and new has always been a part of my music.”
As a result, this is not your average LP. Mule offers a take on farm life from the perspective of the mule that works the farm. For Awful Strange Barnes uses a narrator trying to accept the reality that his life and labour simply are being used as cogs in a machine. Yet instead of giving up, there are still glimmers of hope to keep him going.
An ode to an Austrian motorcycle, Zandapp, features Dave Matthews singing the verses, adding even more weight to a band who recorded their parts from various locales around the world before emailing them to Barnes. Singing about the people who are working hardest, Enemy Factory outlines how tough it is in this brave new world, “I’m trying to do right in a world that’s turning wrong.”
Part of Barnes’ mission is to help people understand the relevance of this kind of music. “People forget how much this music used to mean because nowadays it feels more like advertising or lifestyle branding, but I’m trying to capture that relevance, that spiritual connection, that essence of where it came from.”
The album draws to a close with The Ballad of Nope, a duet for banjo and guitar. Gentle plucking and strumming reveal a tale that didn’t really turn out the way it was planned, “She was a mystery, we never did agree about the ups and the downs that went all over town, so it seems.” Instead of looking at a lot of negatives, Danny finds the courage to sing, “It didn’t turn out the way I was hopin’, but it’s still alright with me.” That message is at the heart of Man On Fire. Finding the good helps us get through these hard times. It’s one thing you can always count on. Just like the music of Danny Barnes.
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