18-03-2012, 11:47
online listen
reminds me, I need to do my poppy seeds
pretty bland stuff here
a couple of good ones but not enough to make the hump
clip is my favorite
1.5 from me and not yet rated by the pros at allmusic
from the album - One Of Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfxL7ef-rEE
released Mar 13th, 2012
![[Image: r69632qlubp.jpg]](http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drr600/r696/r69632qlubp.jpg)
Bio - from allmusic
Although born in South Carolina, singer/songwriter Dave Barnes spent most of his childhood in Mississippi, where he formed an early attachment to hip-hop but was also exposed to classic soul, blues, and R&B by his parents. He later enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University and began writing songs for other artists. Barnes also played solo shows on campus, and by the time he graduated with a degree in recording industry management, he'd decided to pursue his own music career.
Barnes moved to Nashville, TN, and gravitated toward the city's acoustic folk scene. The desire to make more groove-oriented music convinced him to assemble a full band, though, and he did so by adding Justin Rosolino on guitar, Matt Mangano on bass, Ben Shive on keyboards, and Josh Robinson on drums. Barnes' soulful pop songs won him the support of artists like John Mayer (his labelmate on Aware Records), while the spiritual tone of his lyrics earned some support from the Christian music scene. He remained on Aware's roster for two albums -- 2004's Brother, Bring the Sun and 2006's Chasing Mississippi, both produced by Ed Cash -- before moving to Razor & Tie for 2008's Me and You and the World and 2010's What We Want, What We Get. The latter album became a surprise Christian hit, debuting in the Top 5 on the Christian charts and paving the way for a holiday album, Very Merry Christmas, which followed later that year. Another Razor & Tie release, Stories to Tell, appeared early in 2012.
Album Review - from pop matters
Dave Barnes is a Nashville-based artist who is familiar to those who follow contemporary Christian rock. His sixth album and fourth for Razor & Tie, Stories to Tell, sees Barnes moving into somewhat more secular territory by recording for the first time in Los Angeles with producer John Fields, who has previously worked with none other than the Jonas Brothers. Thatâs notwithstanding the fact that this is the first album recorded with keyboard swells and syncopated percussion in great abundance. So, Stories to Tell is a very adult contemporary affair, the sort of thing that has ambition to be played on the Top 40 with its 11 songs usually hovering at that radio friendly three-minute mark. While the album is immaculately produced to a well-varnished sheen, and sounds like the lite pop that ruled the roost in the late â80s (think Amy Grant), Barnes is really little more than a Jack Johnson imitator with songs usually built around gently strummed acoustic guitar lines. In fact, Barnes puts the word soft in the soft rock genre, and whether or not this is your kind of thing is going to depend on whether or not you have to scoop the kids up in time for them to make their soccer practice.
For the rest of us, Stories to Tell is a kind of bland, cardboard-y type of record with the same cookie-cutter songs that arenât really hooky or memorable, save for one song on the album. âHeaven Help Meâ is a great stab at the sort of late â70s AM gold that Hall & Oates might have penned. However, thatâs really it. The rest of the record runs into a kind of latter-period Phil Collins-esque lite rock territory. And being Christian, Barnes pumps his lyric sheet with references to things like sin and prayer â the word âforgivenessâ is even (possibly over)used in the first two songs â though, thankfully, he doesnât come out with his Bible swinging too heavily. However, Barnes begs, borrows and steals from pop culture: âSeventeenâ even begins with the same girl-about-to-leave-town imagery used in Journeyâs âDonât Stop Believinââ. And, sometimes, Barnes winds up writing pop songs that sound like the sort of thing that Justin Bieber might sing. Not good. In the end, you want to give Barnes high marks for making what is utterly a pure pop album, but that conversely means that it is utterly disposable and forgettable. Perhaps, I suppose that means there are some stories for Barnes that arenât simply worth telling. At least not here.
Track Listing
1. White Flag
2. How Long
3. Mine to Love
4. Heaven Help Me
5. Love Will Be Enough for Us
6. Seventeen
7. Missing You
8. Find Your Way Home
9. Stories to Tell
10. Warm Heart in a Cold World
11. One of Us
reminds me, I need to do my poppy seeds
pretty bland stuff here
a couple of good ones but not enough to make the hump
clip is my favorite
1.5 from me and not yet rated by the pros at allmusic
from the album - One Of Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfxL7ef-rEE
released Mar 13th, 2012
Bio - from allmusic
Although born in South Carolina, singer/songwriter Dave Barnes spent most of his childhood in Mississippi, where he formed an early attachment to hip-hop but was also exposed to classic soul, blues, and R&B by his parents. He later enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University and began writing songs for other artists. Barnes also played solo shows on campus, and by the time he graduated with a degree in recording industry management, he'd decided to pursue his own music career.
Barnes moved to Nashville, TN, and gravitated toward the city's acoustic folk scene. The desire to make more groove-oriented music convinced him to assemble a full band, though, and he did so by adding Justin Rosolino on guitar, Matt Mangano on bass, Ben Shive on keyboards, and Josh Robinson on drums. Barnes' soulful pop songs won him the support of artists like John Mayer (his labelmate on Aware Records), while the spiritual tone of his lyrics earned some support from the Christian music scene. He remained on Aware's roster for two albums -- 2004's Brother, Bring the Sun and 2006's Chasing Mississippi, both produced by Ed Cash -- before moving to Razor & Tie for 2008's Me and You and the World and 2010's What We Want, What We Get. The latter album became a surprise Christian hit, debuting in the Top 5 on the Christian charts and paving the way for a holiday album, Very Merry Christmas, which followed later that year. Another Razor & Tie release, Stories to Tell, appeared early in 2012.
Album Review - from pop matters
Dave Barnes is a Nashville-based artist who is familiar to those who follow contemporary Christian rock. His sixth album and fourth for Razor & Tie, Stories to Tell, sees Barnes moving into somewhat more secular territory by recording for the first time in Los Angeles with producer John Fields, who has previously worked with none other than the Jonas Brothers. Thatâs notwithstanding the fact that this is the first album recorded with keyboard swells and syncopated percussion in great abundance. So, Stories to Tell is a very adult contemporary affair, the sort of thing that has ambition to be played on the Top 40 with its 11 songs usually hovering at that radio friendly three-minute mark. While the album is immaculately produced to a well-varnished sheen, and sounds like the lite pop that ruled the roost in the late â80s (think Amy Grant), Barnes is really little more than a Jack Johnson imitator with songs usually built around gently strummed acoustic guitar lines. In fact, Barnes puts the word soft in the soft rock genre, and whether or not this is your kind of thing is going to depend on whether or not you have to scoop the kids up in time for them to make their soccer practice.
For the rest of us, Stories to Tell is a kind of bland, cardboard-y type of record with the same cookie-cutter songs that arenât really hooky or memorable, save for one song on the album. âHeaven Help Meâ is a great stab at the sort of late â70s AM gold that Hall & Oates might have penned. However, thatâs really it. The rest of the record runs into a kind of latter-period Phil Collins-esque lite rock territory. And being Christian, Barnes pumps his lyric sheet with references to things like sin and prayer â the word âforgivenessâ is even (possibly over)used in the first two songs â though, thankfully, he doesnât come out with his Bible swinging too heavily. However, Barnes begs, borrows and steals from pop culture: âSeventeenâ even begins with the same girl-about-to-leave-town imagery used in Journeyâs âDonât Stop Believinââ. And, sometimes, Barnes winds up writing pop songs that sound like the sort of thing that Justin Bieber might sing. Not good. In the end, you want to give Barnes high marks for making what is utterly a pure pop album, but that conversely means that it is utterly disposable and forgettable. Perhaps, I suppose that means there are some stories for Barnes that arenât simply worth telling. At least not here.
Track Listing
1. White Flag
2. How Long
3. Mine to Love
4. Heaven Help Me
5. Love Will Be Enough for Us
6. Seventeen
7. Missing You
8. Find Your Way Home
9. Stories to Tell
10. Warm Heart in a Cold World
11. One of Us