Nola.com: Danny Barnes entertains New Orleans Jazz Fest crowd with guitar skills
Alternative folk rocker Danny Barnes toiled over his electric guitar at the New Orleans Jazz Fest this afternoon, earning praise for his agile fingers from both longtime fans and first-time listeners.
The muscles in Barnes' tattooed arms flexed and his stringy blonde hair hung in his face as he worked to crank out songs like "Caveman" for an audience gathered in the shade around the Lagniappe Stage.
Barnes, who teamed with a drummer for today's performance, is known for his unusual innovations on the banjo and collaboration with Dave Matthews, who is featured on Barnes' album "Pizza Box." Barnes is also known for heading the now-defunct acoustic punk-rock band the Bad Livers.
Brian Kelley of Fond du Lac, Wis., said he owns all of Barnes' albums, but today marked his first time experiencing a live performance by the banjo and guitar player.
"He's a virtuoso," said Brian Kelley of Fond du Lac, Wis. "I've never seen a guy's fingers move faster on the frets."
Kelley said he also likes Barnes' voice, particularly his "twang factor."
Kelley, who attended Jazz Fest with a group of friends from other parts of the country, said Barnes and John Mooney & Bluesiana formed the main attractions for him.
Pam Pacelli of Davis, Calif., said she and her husband, Mike Harty, discovered Barnes while researching Jazz Fest acts online.
"I heard him, and I thought he sounded interesting," Pacelli said, adding that she liked the pairing of Barnes with the drummer. "I like the way they work together."
Like others, Harty expressed respect for Barnes' picking skills.
"I just think he really understands his guitar," Harty said. "He makes sounds with it that are very unusual."
Dave Dikeman of Hawaii, who caught the show with a group of his college and high school friends, said he has seen Barnes perform a number of times.
"This guy has just obviously been absorbed with his guitar playing for 100 years," Barnes said. "He's a great, unique guitar player."
Caprice Castano of Fountain Valley, Calif., said she walked over to the Lagniappe Stage to relax in the shade, but wound up enjoying the sounds of Barnes. She said his sound reminds her of The Black Keys with a bit of The White Stripes.
"It's good," she decided.
Barnes' influences include genres as varied as bluegrass and metal. The musician paused near the middle of his show to compliment New Orleans heavy metal musicians, mentioning local bands Down and Goatwhore.
"You guys have got a cool metal scene down here," Barnes told the crowd.
Knoxville Metro Pulse: Danny Barnes Rescues the Banjo From Its Unfortunate History
Composer, singer/songwriter, and banjoist extraordinaire Danny Barnes is contemplating his instrument’s bad rap.
“Folks are overwhelmed with images and sounds in contemporary life,” Barnes says. “And they deal with this overstimulation by grouping things in the easiest way. ‘Oh, that guy, well, he’s rich. That guy over there only has one leg. What’s the easiest way to group them so we can get on with it?’
“I look at a banjo like a pencil. You can draw whatever you want with a simple pencil. It’s a channel to get the idea out, it isn’t the idea. But that’s not really the way our world is ordered in a meta-narrative sense, I don’t suspect. I like the way the bible talks about seeing things the way a child sees things; that’s perhaps a more creative way to see things. I like the way the philosopher George Berkeley talked about how things only exist in their particulars.”
NY Times: Astoria, Oregon, Discovers a Waterfront Chic
IT was a damp, wind-whipped Thursday night in Astoria, Ore., but inside the Fort George Brewery & Public House an eclectic, standing-room-only crowd kept warm and dry. Ol’ Danny Barnes, a Washington State-based singer and banjoist, twanged and crooned before a hooting audience of Astorians who had poured into the space on their way home from work. In the crowd were Coast Guard officers, marine biologists, nursing students — and the waitress who had served me lunch earlier that day.
I finagled a stool at the pub’s sturdy wooden counter and, taking a cue from my bar mates, ordered beer-battered fish and chips and a dark, potent stout. Occupying the next stool over was Josef Gault, a Fort George regular and self-described “wild Hungarian.” Mr. Gault — actually a native of Detroit — is a musician and cultural events coordinator at the local community college. In his estimation, the town’s blustery climate and its cultural vibrancy are intertwined. “Because of its turbulent weather,” he said, “Astoria attracts artists.”
Jambase: Greensky Bluegrass with Danny Barnes | NYE Run | Review
Barnes kicked off both nights’ festivities performing solo on the “barnjo” - a custom-made hybrid banjo/electric guitar that he debuted this summer at Northwest String Summit. Melding the hammering drive and fine detail of his banjo-work on an instrument that allows him to fully embrace plugged-in rock-and-roll aggression, it proved the perfect outlet for his own wonderfully mercurial musical nature. Unlike the FolkTronics approach he had previously taken with his music, where he used Ableton software to craft a broad palette with the banjo, looping the instrument and incorporating beats and samples, this method had a considerably more stripped-down aesthetic. But this was some pure diesel, as Barnes travelled between sonic moods and textures with a tight, dizzying quickness.
It was cool to hear the open-throttle versions of songs spanning his career over both nights, from Bad Livers (“Lumpy, Beanpole & Dirt,” “Little Bitty Town,” “Legend of Sawdust Boogers,” “Going Where They Do Not Know My Name,” “Love Songs Suck”) through his latest album, the brilliant Pizza Box. Take, “Sleep,” a claustrophobic tale based on a friend of Barnes who went to jail. He told Barnes he was relieved when the cops finally busted in his door, because he knew they were coming and he could finally get some sleep. On Pizza Box, it unfolds like an unhinged dream, but the barnjo interpretation tapped its murky, shuddering dread in direct, close-to-the-bone cuts.
Meanwhile during “Everything Fades,” on the line “Everything fades/That was made by a man,” Barnes simply let a lonely, lovely hum hang in the air, as if to emphasize that point, before spiraling down into some heavy Stooges-like stomping. Barnes utilized the instrument with equally potency on more delicate tunes like Things I Done Wrong’s “Big Girl Blues,” which he nicely segued into T. Rex’s “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” on New Year’s Eve, and “Overdue,” where he let the notes gracefully float and dissolve in the air. Plus you have to appreciate a man who wrote “Love Songs Suck” – which lent itself to a crushing barnjo interpretation perfectly - writing “Overdue.” It’s a love song which, to put it mildly, in no way sucks at all. That’s how you show ‘em how it’s done.
The barnjo also allows Barnes to more-readily tap the punk rock heart that has always set him apart from the often-tired roots music scene. He even played Minor Threat on the first night of the run for, "All the designated drivers out there," ripping out a vicious cover of “Straight Edge." It was a pretty ballsy song choice, especially on the cusp of a holiday that’s become associated with getting as FUBARed as possible. Barnes has always had that element of subversion in his music, and this latest badass development is no exception.
A LABEL LIKE "GENIUS" gets tossed around too often by music critics to be taken seriously anymore. Just about anyone with marginal talent that commits an idea to tape can and will be labeled as such.
But in the case of Danny Barnes, that label is wholly accurate. Listening to Barnes' catalog is nothing short of revolutionary for a music lover.
Successfully flying under the radar for the past decade, Barnes has made a career out of thinking outside of the box.
"I've been blessed with a lack of success and I don't have to worry about alienating any of my fans," he said.
"Most of my audience are musicians and people who have eclectic taste in music across varying genres - vertically and horizontally. I have a lot of freedom and I feel like it's my duty to exploit that."
Danny Barnes is a big ole boy. In jeans and white concert T-shirt, he doesn't exactly overdress for success and comes across very much the common man. As his set began Friday night at Last Concert Café, Barnes moved around the stage like a panther who'd just been let out of his cage.
"We've been in the car all day, so we're just glad to be up here playing for y'all."
And that was about all Barnes had to say for the first 30 minutes as he tore through a huge slice of his latest album, Pizza Box.
Whether he's whanging on something with strings or writing a tune, Barnes has always been an acerbic intellectual. Judging by his two-set performance Friday night at Last Concert Café, the always-choice picker who never stands in one spot musically for long, has moved his game into spheres of virtuosity occupied by the likes of Sonny Landreth.
Danny Barnes is a study in contrasts, a banjo player who's as comfortable at a punk-rock show or an opera as he is at a bluegrass festival. One night he may be playing his "Barnjo" with a drummer as his sole accompaniment, the next night working with Dave Matthews or Robert Earl Keen Jr.
And although he's firmly grounded in bluegrass, his musical vision stretches from Bill Monroe to jazzman Bill Frisell, from recently deceased art-rocker Captain Beefheart to punk pioneers the Sex Pistols.
“Caveman” begins with a few banjo strums before bass, drums and slide guitar come crashing in along with five-string master Danny Barnes’ easygoing voice, making this track seem like a happy mixture of equal parts John Hartford and Dave Matthews, a combination of talents that hover over the rest of this 11-track, 41-minute CD.
Danny Barnes is a fascinating individual. The Bad Livers co-founder is a banjo player who grew up playing his instrument to Ornette Coleman and Led Zeppelin records. He’s gone on to develop his “folktronics” approach in the live setting which he describes as “a highly processed banjo sound with a lot of loops and atmospheric samples flying around.” In early 2009, while recording on the Dave Matthews Band’s Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King an invitation from that band’s namesake led to a deal with ATO Records. John Alagia (DMB, John Mayer, Ben Fold Five) produced Pizza Box which ATO released earlier this year. The following conversation offers deep insight into Barnes’ creative process as well as the development of Pizza Box, which Barnes marvels at as “the best record I’ve ever made.” Ladies and gentlemen, Danny Barnes… [3-page interview at Jambands.com]
Singer-songwriter Danny Barnes’ new record, Pizza Box, came out earlier this year, featuring Danny’s quick wit and non-bluegrass-flavored banjo-picking.
He was able to take a few minutes to chat with us from his home in the Seattle area about being an Idea Generator, his banjo and—of course—what’s on his pizza.
