Danny Barnes
Pizza Box
ATO Records
4 stars (out of 5)
By Aaron Keith Harris
“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.
The Matthews connection is the most direct, as Pizza Box is released on Matthews’ ATO label. Also, the superstar sings backup on three tracks: “Caveman,” “Sleep,” which has a definite DMB groove and “Overdue,” a soulful, banjoless love song that could have been written, horn charts and all, by Van Morrison.
But it, like all tracks on this album, was written by Barnes, who, like Hartford did, delivers a great sense of humor and the common touch along with his expressive banjo (or several types of guitars, piano, organ, bass and harmonica). Whether it’s about punk rock, beer, guns, meth, the Bible, Krishna or carnations in the dirt, Barnes can sell the lyric.
“Broken Clock” is a rueful, acoustic guitar-driven honky-tonk tale, while “Charlie” and “Miss Misty Swan” are bluesy banjo bounces, the latter with some scatting that matches a dissonant banjo break.
“Bone” also has some scatting, this time amidst another DMB-type slow groove, while “TSA” is the funniest song ever written about having sex with a government security guard.
The two best tracks are “Road,” which has a U2-like intro, some buzzsaw guitar, and a great rock hook, and the especially Hartford-like “Pizza Box,” a tender ballad with a smooth banjo figure that has Barnes reminding us that “us Southern boys are sentimental.”
This one can also pick the banjo, play the heck out of a guitar and write and sing great songs that make us smile.
