Tim Barry Weekend

"I write standard, boring songs with standard, boring chords...",  but Tim Barry's music is anything but standard.  It is not easy to write songs that cover topics like friends that have passed, gentrification, and hopping freight trains in a way that you understand the complexity of his messages and experiences yet can still party, drink a beer and sing along with fists in air.

Like people in general there are a lot of musicians that just don't seem approachable, but Tim is the exact opposite.  Tim needs his fans; he needs his fans to have a drink and a smoke with and he needs his fans' energy when he is on stage.  The louder and more excited the audience gets the better Tim plays.  When you are at a Tim Barry show you really feel what music is supposed to be; a shared experience between musician and audience.

This weekend Josh Small, Tim's long time touring mate and friend, called him 'Papa Barry' and it stuck with us because, yes, Tim's band is family (Josh and usually sister Caitlin) and once you go to one of his shows you feel the same.  Tim and Josh always seem to recognize your face and are more than happy to bullshit about music, the tour, etc.  The other fans also feel like family.  Over the years, you start to see the same faces and at every show you are likely to make friends.  After the show at the Casbah, in San Diego, on Friday we partied well into the night with a couple we met during Tim's set.

On Saturday the gig was at Alex's Bar in Long Beach, a venue very close to home, and we brought friends who have never seen Tim Barry perform before.  They had much of the same experience we had when we first saw Tim at Alex's Bar years ago and so it happens...  Tim's family continues to grow.

The other great thing about Tim is the musicians he surrounds himself with.  On this tour Tim brought along Josh Small and Austin Lucas. As we mentioned before, we have known Josh for awhile since he has been on many tours with Tim.  Josh has a really strong voice and usually switches between banjo and steel guitar.  He also backs Tim with vocals and guitar during a handful of Tim's songs which really adds a great depth to the music.

Austin Lucas, who was also on the bill, is a musician we'd never really heard too much about besides a few tracks that Suburban Home Records had put out online.  This guy's a real talent.  He possesses a great voice, some crazy guitar skills and lyrics that are strikingly well-written.  Needless to say, after seeing him we spent some time at the merch table stocking up on Austin's records.

We had a hell of a weekend watching these guys play music and sitting down to write this post is depressing since we won't be able to have this kind of fun until the next time Tim and crew come back to town.

Heading South and fueling up on Sandwich Saloon

Tim had some technical problems so he just hopped into the crowd and played

Mr. Josh Small

Austin Lucas