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

Tunesday: Tim Barry

We here at The Tasty Morsel have a pretty good weekend to look forward to.  This weekend one of our favorite musicians to see live is performing a couple of shows in our area, and that means we get to travel around a little bit, chow some food in a bit of a different area and have some drinks.

We have a handful of musicians that we try to see every time they are in town.  These artists are all from out of state, so we usually only get the chance to see them once or twice a year if we're lucky.

This weekend, Tim Barry will be in town.  Tim Barry is from Richmond, Virginia and is also the singer for the now-on-hiatus Avail.  We first heard about Tim's music a handful of years ago when he was opening for Drag the River.  I think at that point he was performing with Josh Small on guitar and banjo and his sister, Caitlin on fiddle.  There were a handful of songs that caught our ear and turned us into fans that night, but I think the one that really got me fired up was 'One Quick Minute'.  Really Awesome song writing.

So, this year, we'll be down in San Diego then to Long Beach to enjoy two Tim Barry shows.  It looks like he'll be playing with Austin Lucas and Josh Small, and from what I've heard is that the show will not be in sets, but will be all three artists sharing the stage on each other's songs.

Since we are going down to San Diego, this gives us the opportunity to write about a few drinking and eating establishments that we run into along the way.  So in tow with seeing Tim Barry (Alison's 'boyfriend' as she likes to call him) we also get to find a few new places to eat and drink at, then write about said eating and drinking.  How Productive.

Here's Tim Barry Performing one of my favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rMCGoALAds