Barton Carroll – The Lost One
You can forgive an album for getting a little sticky towards the end when the first two-thirds of it are as good as this. I’m still in a surprisingly country vein at the moment, although this is less smooth than the excellent Christopher Denny.
There’s plenty of archetypal, wistful country music here, at times witty and at times angry or even downright unnerving (Burning Red & Blue). Slipping from vaguely close to the sort of dustbowl drifter tale that I seem to fall for at every opportunity, to a kind of gentle, rolling alt-country that you could even imagine being wasted on Radio 2, it flirts with being a bit nice, but always maintains enough nasty to keep well away from the saccharine.
It’s odd actually, it’s by no means a sweet, easy country album, but at the same time it rarely has that kind of tense edge that would mark an album as ‘indie’ or ‘alternative’ in that vague and badly-defined classification system I keep stashed away in my gin-addled brain. He doesn’t write happy songs at all, but there’s little bitterness in his gorgeous delivery which makes for an oddly detached listen. It sounds more like he’s reading someone else’s stories than recounting anything that might have scarred him personally earlier in his life.
The album does tail off a little towards the end, but to complain about that would be a bit mean-spirited, because until tracks like the mealy Ramona come along, the rest of the album is such a joy you can’t begrudge him the slight lack of stamina. And, of course, the delivery is good enough that they aren’t jarring anyway, and you can drift off to do whatever it was you were doing before.
Barton Carroll – Brooklyn Girl, You’re Going to Be My Bride
Barton Carroll – Burning Red & Blue
How dare you misappropriate my witticism, sir, to defame Christopher “The Second Coming of Christ” Denny?! I’ll see you in court. This Barton feller is good, TOO, though. Perhaps if he keeps practicing he can open a few gigs on Chris Denny’s next wold tour.
I saw Barton perform live last fall at CMJ in New York, and he was SO great. The album is really good, but it can’t capture his weird, dark wit. He closed the set with “I Must Have Done Something Good” from Sound of Music, and it gave me the chills.
“I must have had a wicked childhood, I must have had a horrible youth, but somewhere in my wicked childhood, I must have done something good…” It’s such a gorgeous melody, and rendered so less corny than the Julie Andrews version. There was an underlying menace to his interpretation, which I found to be strangely humorous.
Anyway, I think there is a podcast of that track somewhere out on the web. I know he did it in a session at KEXP and it’s worth the search.
Also, his work with Eric Bachmann and Crooked Fingers is stellar. Great pedal steel and bass player.
Ooh, I should check the live dates then and see if there’s a snowflake’s chance in hell he’s playing over here shortly.
I just played Superman on my Fresh Air Radio slot too, and very satisfying it was too. That scraping fiddle is just brilliant on a couple of these songs.
Everyone should also take careful note that despite the avalanche of shit I get from promo people, Wendy here is the one who introduced me to Barton Carroll as well as arranging my interviews with My Brightest Diamond and the Willard Grant Conspiracy.
Ergo she is ace.
Now see, this is good. Much better than Christopher Denny’s “towering edifice of shite”.
(Sorry, that’s probably a deeply inappropriate insult, but C&B coined that delightful little phrase on the Portishead thread the other day and I thought it was briliant! I’ve been dying to use it!)
Carroll isn’t breaking any new ground with the Wilbury-esque vibe to Brooklyn Girl…, but it’s sunny and disarming enough for that not to matter. And that pedal steel is gorgeous.
The second track is much more unusual. I don’t know if prog-country exists as a genre yet, but if not Mr. Carroll may have just invented it. Intriguing yet approachable. I like it.
I do get what Matthew’s saying about the oddly unengaging tone to his singing voice. It’s a strange thing, but he is keeping everything very restrained. It’s a very measured delivery. I’m also picking up hints of Robyn Hitchcock about him from time to time, particular in his lower vocal registers.
Overall, very good though. This is what should happen when country and indie collide. Chris Denny; take notes.