2008 Woodie Awards
Hardcore frontman releases surprising bluegrass debut
Grant Smith
Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: Entertainment
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If you are not familiar with Avail or Barry, this album may surprise you-it's not a hardcore album, but more of a bluegrass record with little tinges of indie pop.
"Rivanna" opens with the bluegrass-sounding "Trash Inspirations," a song about not caring what people think.
"There's no need for validation, that ship just sunk," Barry sings on the track.
"Trash Inspirations" sets the tone for the record-catchy, carefree and honest. It also sets up the album's themes of riding fast and living slow and cutting out what isn't needed and embracing what is.
Barry is known for hopping into boxcars and riding them to distant locations. He has songs about this, including "Steel Road" and "Church of Level Track." He is known for getting drunk and thinking about failed relationships like he does in "Avoiding Catatonic Surrender," "Exit Wounds," and "C'mon Quinn."
The most surprising song on "Rivanna" is, by far, "Cardinal in Red Bed." Thematically it is not much different from Barry's other work in Avail. It's about the gentrification of his hometown Richmond and how students who will sign a six-month lease are driving up the rent. Which, according to him, has left him living without running water in the shed behind the house where he used to live.
This song is surprising musically because it's a ballad in every sense of the word. Barry comes off sounding like Bob Seger with credibility, which may be attributed to the piano, or it may be the novelty of Barry singing a ballad or just the fact that Barry is into guys like Mellencamp and Seger.
Anyway "Rivanna Junction" is sliced, it represents both growth for Barry and proof that dudes in hardcore bands can branch out and write interesting and thoughtful bluegrass/country/indie pop records.
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