Danny Barmes,
Get Myself Together



Label: Terminus Records

(4 out of 5)

Danny Barnes' Get Myself Together is a wry portrait of the rural downtrodden. Through tales of painkiller addicts, habitual drunkards, jailhouse denizens, and the generally down-and-out, Barnes sketches a blues and bluegrass portrait of Southern life on the skids.

"Get Me Out of Jail" serves as the centerpiece of sorts. Crying fiddle and backwoods banjo frame this saga of a sorry scoundrel who stumbles through the day drunk, breaks into his missus' house, and lands in jail. The same louse reappears in "Cat to the Rat," with the devil appearing to get his due.

Similar characters pop up in the tuba-tinged title track, the cynically standoffish "Rat's Ass," the hoedown of "Cut a Rug", and the multigenerational miseducation behind "Get It on Down the Line."

These character studies demonstrate a keen linguistic playfulness that lends an amusing sense of absurdity even while generating empathy, if not sympathy.

Of course, the music is what draws most people to Danny Barnes recordings. And the instrumentation on Get Myself Together is outstanding, especially the full-fledged Appalachian instrumental "Cumberland Gap" and the driving bass lines of "Corn Kingdom Comes."

Barnes includes a couple of covers, a bluegrass version of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" and multi-part vocal harmony on Blind Willie Johnson's "Let Your Light Shine on Me." While these covers have a certain novelty appeal, they fail to sustain the energy of Barnes' originals.

2005 is shaping up to be a very good year for Barnes. Earlier this year he produced Robyn Ludwick's outstanding debut For So Long. And now he follows with the solid, sardonic Americana of Get Myself Together. A very good year indeed.

Buy Get Myself Together from Lone Star Music for only $15.99.

August 02, 2005