Danny Barnes' first collection in six years showcases a singular songwriter and player in peak form as Got Myself Together (Ten Years Later) reworks his classic album a decade on (“Big Girl Blues,” “Get Me Out of Jail”). The Seattle-area resident simply strips songs to their essence on the new recording. “I spend a lot of time developing new contexts like the barnyard electronics aesthetic,” Barnes says. “Get Myself Together was my last acoustic-type recording and I get quite a bit of fan mail about it, but the label that released it went out of business. I wanted to make something with this record that featured more of my raw acoustic sound, as though I was kind of playing in your living room.”
Folks notice Got Myself Together (Ten Years Later) Longtime fans immediately will recognize Barnes' quirky lyrics and unimpeachable banjo style jumping toward the fore with little distraction on the new record. “I had to come up with a different scene for each song,” Barnes says. “The original context for these songs was as though I had made a movie and everything was all committed to celluloid. However, with music you tend to shape things as you play them live. The routine: You write something, you record it, then you go play it for ten years on the road. So, in returning to the music, I had a different perspective. It's more like a dramatic work in that the company that performs it and the venue it's performed in necessarily changes the meaning.”
Icing on the cake: The Temple, Texas native – and this year's Steve Martin Excellence in Bluegrass and Banjo winner – offers a buoyant bonus track rerecording of his former band the Bad Livers' high watermark “I'm Convicted.” The song's equally rambunctious and robust. “Danny Barnes doesn't sound like anyone else,” says iconic instrumentalist Bill Frisell, whose “Big Shoe” closes out the album proper. “I was knocked out when I first heard him play and continue to be.” “I enjoy these songs and I think they are 'real songs,' if that makes any sense,” Barnes concludes. “They can be strummed on a one-string instrument and they still make sense and tell the story. They don't depend on effects or processing. I think they are worth a busy person taking time to jam on them.”
