BOBBY BARE
Darker Than Light
Going Down The Road Feelin’ Bad – John Hardy
– Boll Weevil – Farewell Angelina – House of the Rising Sun – Lookout
Mountain – I Was Drunk – I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For –
Dark As A Dungeon – I Was A Young Man Once – Banks of the Ohio –
Shenandoah – Woody – Tennessee Stud – Tom Dooley – The Devil and Billy
Markham
– Boll Weevil – Farewell Angelina – House of the Rising Sun – Lookout
Mountain – I Was Drunk – I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For –
Dark As A Dungeon – I Was A Young Man Once – Banks of the Ohio –
Shenandoah – Woody – Tennessee Stud – Tom Dooley – The Devil and Billy
Markham
Without a doubt this is the best Christmas present I’ve
ever received from my lovely wife Sheila, and now I get to review this
incredible piece of musical work for you. As a Smithsonian recording
artist, and preservationist of old-time rural music all of my life, this
particular CD is one of the freshest breaths of air I’ve had in a very
very long time from the field of ‘country’ music. One of my many heroes
in this genre of music, has been Bobby Bare for the longest period of
time. Originally from Ohio, he was playing guitar by age 11, and the
very first artist to begin recording Kris Kristofferson songs. That
already is a combination hard to beat. Bobby Bare got his first break
in country music when he signed with RCA and worked with Chet Atkins,
releasing “Shame On Me” in 1962 followed by “Detroit City” in 1963, and
then my favorite “500 Miles Away From Home” in 1964. By 1965 the
Grammys were rolling in, and now it’s happening again with this CD.
“Darker Than Light” are songs Bobby Bare has had in his head for a very
long time, 50 years or more, and some are still there, waiting. He’s
had an enviable career doing what he does best, but he’s a modest man,
you know, the ‘quiet’ outlaw. I believe he says it best in 500
Miles…in his own poetic words “I know this is the same road I took the
day I left home, but it sure looks different now. Well, I guess I look
different too, cause’ time changes everything.” But, Bobby Bare
doesn’t stop there. On this very album he answers that same statement
in his song “I Was A Young Man Once”… “You’re just an old man once.
An old man dreams of what he wants. He wants the world to know, that
not too long ago, he was a young man once.” Bobby Bare is ‘home’ now,
somewhat older and a lot more wiser, and to many of us, he’s still the
monument we look to for authenticity, reality, and goodness in ‘real’
country music. He has a sort of ‘sad’ look about him sometimes, maybe a
regret or two, but maybe seeing, hearing, knowing, and realizing the
loss of ‘real’ country music, and why this album is so important and
necessary, might be causing that. It was released on Plowboy Records,
created in 2012 by Shanon Pollard, grandson of Eddy Arnold, with one of
the goals of this particular CD to re-introduce Bobby Bare to a national
Americana fan base, and to remind the Country Music Association that
Bobby Bare is worthy of induction into their Hall of Fame. This album
“Darker Than Light” led to that actual induction in 2013. Darkness, you
might know, or the color black, is merely the absence of light. Bobby
Bare adds the ‘light’ to this album, and indeed it shines darker than
light, full circle. This album is, without a doubt, one of the most
amazing contributions to ‘country’ music in its history, and especially
important because this is the spirit, the story-telling ability, the
‘guts’ of country music, the music we don’t hear anymore. The last song
“The Devil and Billy Markham” uses some ‘naughty’ words. Isn’t it
amazing, we live in 2014, and we still have ‘naughty’ words. I believe
Bobby went into the studio and laid his tracks, and then let this
amazing assortment of musicians come in and finish it off. Throughout
the taping, he sounds like a young Bobby Bare, but sometimes he slips
into the reality of being an older singer. In total, this one album
will obviously go to the Rural Roots Music Commission for their album of
the year consideration, but more importantly we desperately hope Bobby
Bare will consider letting rural America put him into their ‘America’s
Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame’ now. Don’t you think it’s neat
that he opens this CD with a Woody Guthrie song, and then includes his
own song “Woody” inside the fabric of the CD as a dedication to another
of my heroes, and obviously one of his. Five stars all the way around
for this one. As many know, I forward CD’s to the RRMC for award
consideration and those that don’t go there go to seniors in a homes not
able to get good country music anymore. This one, however, stays in my
own private collection, proudly displayed in the Pioneer Music Museum
located in the heart of the corn country, Iowa.
ever received from my lovely wife Sheila, and now I get to review this
incredible piece of musical work for you. As a Smithsonian recording
artist, and preservationist of old-time rural music all of my life, this
particular CD is one of the freshest breaths of air I’ve had in a very
very long time from the field of ‘country’ music. One of my many heroes
in this genre of music, has been Bobby Bare for the longest period of
time. Originally from Ohio, he was playing guitar by age 11, and the
very first artist to begin recording Kris Kristofferson songs. That
already is a combination hard to beat. Bobby Bare got his first break
in country music when he signed with RCA and worked with Chet Atkins,
releasing “Shame On Me” in 1962 followed by “Detroit City” in 1963, and
then my favorite “500 Miles Away From Home” in 1964. By 1965 the
Grammys were rolling in, and now it’s happening again with this CD.
“Darker Than Light” are songs Bobby Bare has had in his head for a very
long time, 50 years or more, and some are still there, waiting. He’s
had an enviable career doing what he does best, but he’s a modest man,
you know, the ‘quiet’ outlaw. I believe he says it best in 500
Miles…in his own poetic words “I know this is the same road I took the
day I left home, but it sure looks different now. Well, I guess I look
different too, cause’ time changes everything.” But, Bobby Bare
doesn’t stop there. On this very album he answers that same statement
in his song “I Was A Young Man Once”… “You’re just an old man once.
An old man dreams of what he wants. He wants the world to know, that
not too long ago, he was a young man once.” Bobby Bare is ‘home’ now,
somewhat older and a lot more wiser, and to many of us, he’s still the
monument we look to for authenticity, reality, and goodness in ‘real’
country music. He has a sort of ‘sad’ look about him sometimes, maybe a
regret or two, but maybe seeing, hearing, knowing, and realizing the
loss of ‘real’ country music, and why this album is so important and
necessary, might be causing that. It was released on Plowboy Records,
created in 2012 by Shanon Pollard, grandson of Eddy Arnold, with one of
the goals of this particular CD to re-introduce Bobby Bare to a national
Americana fan base, and to remind the Country Music Association that
Bobby Bare is worthy of induction into their Hall of Fame. This album
“Darker Than Light” led to that actual induction in 2013. Darkness, you
might know, or the color black, is merely the absence of light. Bobby
Bare adds the ‘light’ to this album, and indeed it shines darker than
light, full circle. This album is, without a doubt, one of the most
amazing contributions to ‘country’ music in its history, and especially
important because this is the spirit, the story-telling ability, the
‘guts’ of country music, the music we don’t hear anymore. The last song
“The Devil and Billy Markham” uses some ‘naughty’ words. Isn’t it
amazing, we live in 2014, and we still have ‘naughty’ words. I believe
Bobby went into the studio and laid his tracks, and then let this
amazing assortment of musicians come in and finish it off. Throughout
the taping, he sounds like a young Bobby Bare, but sometimes he slips
into the reality of being an older singer. In total, this one album
will obviously go to the Rural Roots Music Commission for their album of
the year consideration, but more importantly we desperately hope Bobby
Bare will consider letting rural America put him into their ‘America’s
Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame’ now. Don’t you think it’s neat
that he opens this CD with a Woody Guthrie song, and then includes his
own song “Woody” inside the fabric of the CD as a dedication to another
of my heroes, and obviously one of his. Five stars all the way around
for this one. As many know, I forward CD’s to the RRMC for award
consideration and those that don’t go there go to seniors in a homes not
able to get good country music anymore. This one, however, stays in my
own private collection, proudly displayed in the Pioneer Music Museum
located in the heart of the corn country, Iowa.
REVIEW BY BOB EVERHART – www.ntcma.net
for Country Music News International Magazine