Bobby Bare, Jr., A Storm – A Tree – My Mother’s Head
Only a real, pedigreed country singer could marry tragedy and comedy with this much ease
Nashville has always supported its musical dynasties, from the Carters through the Earles, and while Bobby Bare Jr. — whose father, Bobby Bare, was signed to RCA by Chet Atkins in 1962 and went on to write and release a slew of country and western hits — isn’t peddling classic country, his playful, poppy bar-rock is heavy on twang, and balances earnestness and glamour in a way that feels entirely unique to Music City.
This is Bare Jr.’s first full-length since 2006′s The Longest Meow, and it was recorded, for the most part, in a log cabin in Nashville over two long days. While the title might seem like a goofy nod to Bare Sr.’s famed novelty songs, it’s actually a disturbingly literal inventory: In 2008, a storm uprooted an old birch tree near Bare Jr.’s mother’s home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, cracking the family’s white ranch house in half and pinning her in place. “A hundred years old, that tree was tired and ready to fall…Momma don’t know if she’s gonna die alone in Tennessee tonight,” Bare Jr. bellows over bare, melancholy steel guitar (don’t sweat: she’s doing fine now). Tragic as it could have been, it’s perfect lyrical fodder for Bare Jr., who almost always spikes his confessional moments with a good bit of absurdity. In the acoustic “One Of Us Has Got To Go,” which alludes to his recent divorce, Bare Jr. twists a gut-wrenching moment into a cartoon: “I saw you with your handsome new dude, kissing and smiling last night/ I would rather have poison-beaked sparrows pluck out my crying eyes.” Only a real, pedigreed country singer could marry tragedy and comedy with this much ease.
