BARBARO
Barbaro
Two For Tea – Barbaro – Billy’s Tune – High Tide – Touch Too Much
The band Barbaro is from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
It’s made up of some very nice musicians who know their instruments
well. Max Graham on mandolin; Kyle Shelstad on acoustic guitar; Isaac
Sammis on banjo; Jeff Swanner on acoustic upright bass. This is a
‘short-list’ of five songs CD, but what we hear in these five songs is
some pretty incredible and dramatic music. One could almost describe
this group as a Bluegrass band. Well no, that wouldn’t be quite right.
One could almost describe them as an ‘acoustic jazz band using
Bluegrass instrumentation.’ No that wouldn’t be quite right either.
They stay neither in traditional Bluegrass nor do they play ‘jazz’ as it
is normally described. They add this progressive acoustic style to
original creations that makes the music even more interesting. All the
songs on this ‘short’ CD is written by Kyle Shelstad, except for “High
Tide” which banjoist Isaac Sammis wrote. Vocals are very interesting
too, although to someone from New York City they can probably hear a
definite Midwest accent on certain words. Doesn’t distract from the
very well composed and definite imagery the ‘leads’ themselves produce.
I’m sure this group performs at a lot of Bluegrass festivals, most
likely the more ‘progressive’ ones, because their instrumentation is
their strong point. The ‘arrangements’ on the songs are also worth
noting, I really like how they ‘pass the lead’ it lends authenticity to
their originality, and they keep it as their own. Who they have been
influenced by is nearly impossible to determine, but I hear an
occasional Jesse McReynolds on the mandolin parts. I also like the
‘clean’ leads they pick, that’s classy. Even the acoustic bass has some
enjoyable ‘leads’ even though they are ‘runs’ but sound great. The
album cover lists Rachel Hanson singing on “Touch Too Much” but I had
difficulty ‘hearing’ exactly where she was at, a little more volume on
her would have been nice. They recorded this live at IPR (which does
not define what that is) in Minneapolis, and then additional recording
and mixing done elsewhere. I’m going to send this CD off to the Rural
Roots Music Commission and see what they think. It’s an interesting
‘new’ sound for me, so I wish this whole band lots of good luck.
RECORD REVIEW BY: Bob Everhart, Pres., National Traditional Country Music Assn., for Country Music News International