Vintage Review: Bobby Bare Jr's Young Criminals’ Starvation League's From the End of Your Leash (2004)

Bobby Bare Jr’s eponymously named band cranked out two high-voltage collections of wonderfully rowdy twang-rock for two different major labels before imploding under the weight of industry expectations. Going solo, Bare Jr – scion of the country music legend of the same name – rebounded with the surprisingly morose Young Criminals’ Starvation League for alt-country indie Bloodshot. The album was a collection of lush, reflective roots-rock more akin to Nashville’s Lambchop, or maybe Josh Rouse, than to the reckless country soul of his two previous full-band albums.

For his second solo album, Bare Jr has crafted a set of songs that fall somewhere between the raucous rave-ups of his band era and the retrospective country dirges of his debut. Enlisting the help of a dozen-and-a-half of the Music City’s most talented players, including former band members Mike “Grimey” Grimes and Tracy Hackney, as well as various members of Lambchop, Bare Jr has managed to pull off the best of both worlds. “From the End of Your Leash” features songs that are, at times, rambunctious and, at other times, bitingly melancholy. No matter which speed he dials up, Bare Jr manages to seep each song in black humor and deliver his witty, intelligent lyrics in a fractured vocal style that is at once both irritating and entirely contagious.

The finest moment to be found on “From the End of Your Leash” is also possibly Bare Jr’s best song yet, the tongue-in-cheek “Visit Me In Music City.” Bare’s mythologizing of his hometown is simply priceless as he describes hills that are “filled with naked Hee Haw honeys,” guitar strings that grow on trees and police that carry capos “in case you want to change your key.” Bare Jr explains that, in Nashville, “you don’t even have to sing on key…producers with computers can fix it all.” If you visit, Bare Jr sings, “we’ll drink all night and write songs no one will sing.” The song is a glimpse of light revealing the sentimentalist behind Bare Jr’s dark worldview and an indication of the fine music we can expect from the artist in the future. (Bloodshot Records, released 2004)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine

Tape Trading: Bare Jr. at 3rd & Lindsey, Nashville TN 1999

ARTIST: Bare Jr.

VENUE: 3rd & Lindsey, Nashville TN; February 28, 1999

SOURCE: 50-minute FM broadcast, performance (9), quality (9)

TRACKLIST: Intro/ Boo-Tay/ Nothin’ Better To Do/ Give Nothing Away/ Patty McBride/ I Hate Myself/ Tobacco Spit/ Naked Albino/ Love-Less/ Soggy Daisy/ You Blew Me Off/ Faker

COMMENTS: Having more in common with 1980s-era rabble-rousers like the Replacements or Jason & the Scorchers than with the vast majority of laid-back, cornpone-eating, Hank-quoting singer/songwriters in “No Depression” garb, Bare Jr. tend to lean more heavily towards the “rock” side of the country-rock equation. Fronted by, well, Bobby Bare Jr, son of the country legend, Bare Jr. the band kick out a high-voltage mix of punk-flavored rock and roots country that plays along the fringe of the current alt-country craze.

This show was a homecoming of sorts, a triumphant return to the Music City after the band had received rave reviews in the mainstream music press for their debut LP, wired live performances and spirited television appearances. Broadcast live on Nashville’s “Radio Lightning,” WRLT-FM from a packed local club, Bare Jr. pulled out all the stops to entertain their home audience. The show’s setlist here is skewed heavily towards material from Boo-Tay, their major label debut, playing most of the album, adding plenty of running commentary from the band in between songs. Although there’s not a bad song here, a few particularly strong performances do stand out.

Among them, there’s a rocking “I Hate Myself,” dedicated by Bare to “every woman I ever dated.” The song starts out mild, focusing on Bare’s introspective lyrics, before spiraling out of control into a black hole of anguished vocals and unrequited love. The senior Bare joins the band for a raucous rendition of “Love-Less” while “You Blew Me Off,” the band’s semi-hit single from the Varsity Blues movie soundtrack, drives the audience wild with its madly discordant guitar riff and Bare’s over-the-top vocals. Ronnie McCoury, fresh from recording an album with Steve Earle and his father’s respected Del McCoury Band, joins the Bare Jr. boys for a show-closing, bluegrass-styled “Hee Haw” version of the band’s “Faker.”

Bare Jr.’s musicianship is top-notch, the band energetically mixing twin guitars, mandolin and the traditional bass guitar/drums rhythm section into a powerful, original sound. What really makes Bare Jr. stand out, however, is Bare’s off-kilter vocals which are often strained to the point of painfulness, and the unbridled recklessness that the band brings to each performance. They adhere to the cowpunk credo: twang it loud! These guys obviously enjoy what they’re doing and we enjoy hearing it.

Review originally published as a “Roll The Tape” column in Live! Music Review, 1999