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Pizza With Tim Barry
The Revival Tour isn’t your normal tour. Instead of four artists one after the other, Chuck Ragan decided to gather some of his friends and hit the road in a bus for two months bringing punk tinged folk music to audiences across the United States.
Tim Barry is one of those artists. As the singer of Avail, he’s been singing his heart out for over a decade, but since Avail has taken a bit of a breather, Barry has recorded three records on his own including his newest LP, Manchester.
The plan for the day was to interview all four artists performing on the Philadelphia date of the Revial tour together, keeping with the theme that the tour is built on. I got to the First Unitarian Church around 4:30 with instructions to just “Look for Tim.” I found Tim sitting on the steps with two friends who’d driven up from Virginia, the sound engineer and the tour’s merch guy who rode his bike from Asbury Park, New Jersey to Virginia to get in the bus.
“Hey Steve,” said Barry. “The bus isn’t here yet so let’s just hang out for a while until I can get everyone together.”
We sat on the steps and listened to some stories from Barry’s friend who was one of many musicians on the tour who happened to be a mover. I didn’t know what I was in for when I got the e-mail saying this interview was a go, and a half hour in I still had no idea what was going on. I was however, having fun.
The bus showed up and still there was no sign of getting Ragan, Barry, Ben Nichols and the night’s special guest Jesse Malin all together.
“Hey Steve?” Barry asked. “You wanna go get some pizza?”
We walked a half a block away from the Church to Mix.
“I usually don’t do interviews anymore. Only with weeklies and dailies. I did an interview on Punknews last year and I was reading the comments and one of them said ‘Tim Barry sucks, but I’d fuck his sister.’ I was mortified. I was so offended and I knew my sister saw it. I don’t my little notoriety causing my family pain. Vanessa vouched for you though so it’s all good.”
We sat down. “One of my friends saw you a few months ago and said you gave a pretty impassioned speech about the gentrification going on in Richmond…”
“I suppose the real gentrification question is what’s happening in this entire country. Gentrification’s a played out word that anyone who’s in their early twenties uses because it’s easy to remember, but the reality is it’s hard watching families get run out of houses. When I tweet on it, that’s all I’m thinking about. I’m not thinking about the big picture. The neighborhood I used to live in, Oregon Hill, had houses as cheap as $30,000 about 8 years ago and now they’re up to $350,000, which in some places isn’t a lot of money but in Richmond it’s a lot of money. I don’t have any interests for gentrification, I just have feelings about watching people get rooted out.”
After some more talk about urban decay and more pizza, the conversation shifted to the Revival Tour itself.
“The tour is pretty obvious. Anyone who follows independent music saw this tour coming. Chuck was the one who spearheaded and took it on, it’s a lot of work and I love him and thank him for it. Ben and Chuck were at a bar and had a handshake like, ‘Let’s do this,’ and I called Chuck one day and he was like ‘It’s time, we’re doing it’ and I said ‘Alright, I’m on board.’”
The three main artists on the tour met in Barry’s stomping grounds of Richmond, Virginia and hung out and learned each others songs in preparation.
“I wish there was a video camera around,” said Barry. “It was a lot of fun. I live in a shed behind a friends house and it’s a perfect kind of setup. That became our practice space. It was so much fun to be in that practice space, we had fires every night, we officially started the tour by jumpin’ in the James River at ten one morning, but it was extremely focused. There was so much work involved. We had to learn a lot of songs, retain a lot of songs and even wrote a song.”
The conversation wrapped up and the wait began. Around 8:30 Ben Nichols, Chuck Ragan (mandolin in hand) and Tim Barry all took the stage and started the show with one of Barry’s songs then Ragan’s “Do You Pray” and finished the introduction with a Nichols song. The stage had four front microphones, a stand up bass player, a pedal steel guitar and a keyboard.
As the three men exited the stage, Jesse Malin took the stage. Malin’s set bored the crowd except for his cover of the Bad Brains’ “Leaving Babylon.” Even while covering one of the most loved hardcore bands of all time, Malin’s piano tinged songwriter approach was a little too much for Philadelphia.
The only artist on this tour I’d seen perform solo before was Nichols who on this night performed both songs off of his new solo EP and Lucero songs. Even with a bum leg, Nichols was amazing as usual. His gruff voice and delivery sound like he’s an old man sitting in the corner of a bar waiting to tell you his life story and for some reason you decide to listen.
Tim Barry’s new album Manchester contains some of the most solemn songs he’s ever written. Live, these songs hold a brand new weight. Especially after talking to Barry, I was amazed at how emotional his music is. After all those years fronting a band as energetic and important as Avail was and is, Barry seems to be lifting a weight off of his shoulders with his new songs.
Ragan’s solo set contained all the same intensity of his shows with Hot Water Music, but none of the same songs. Why would you need to when you have a catalogue as strong as Ragan’s? The songs off of his full length studio album Feast or Famine sounded better than they do on his live album Los Feliz thanks to over a year of touring on these songs. The crowd was as into it as they would be for a Hot Water Music set, and that’s saying something.
The night ended with the “supergroup” taking the stage one last time and performing the song they wrote specifically for the tour. The name “The Revival Tour” doesn’t exactly imply what these men are trying to revive, but after an evening of watching them perform, it’s clear. They’re reviving the days of the collaboration at folk shows, they’re reviving the days before music had to be pretentious to be accepted, and most importantly they’re reviving the passion for real music that’s missing from so many bands in 2008. Here’s to hoping this tour happens again next year and every year after that.
Tim Barry is one of those artists. As the singer of Avail, he’s been singing his heart out for over a decade, but since Avail has taken a bit of a breather, Barry has recorded three records on his own including his newest LP, Manchester.
The plan for the day was to interview all four artists performing on the Philadelphia date of the Revial tour together, keeping with the theme that the tour is built on. I got to the First Unitarian Church around 4:30 with instructions to just “Look for Tim.” I found Tim sitting on the steps with two friends who’d driven up from Virginia, the sound engineer and the tour’s merch guy who rode his bike from Asbury Park, New Jersey to Virginia to get in the bus.
“Hey Steve,” said Barry. “The bus isn’t here yet so let’s just hang out for a while until I can get everyone together.”
We sat on the steps and listened to some stories from Barry’s friend who was one of many musicians on the tour who happened to be a mover. I didn’t know what I was in for when I got the e-mail saying this interview was a go, and a half hour in I still had no idea what was going on. I was however, having fun.
The bus showed up and still there was no sign of getting Ragan, Barry, Ben Nichols and the night’s special guest Jesse Malin all together.
“Hey Steve?” Barry asked. “You wanna go get some pizza?”
We walked a half a block away from the Church to Mix.
“I usually don’t do interviews anymore. Only with weeklies and dailies. I did an interview on Punknews last year and I was reading the comments and one of them said ‘Tim Barry sucks, but I’d fuck his sister.’ I was mortified. I was so offended and I knew my sister saw it. I don’t my little notoriety causing my family pain. Vanessa vouched for you though so it’s all good.”
We sat down. “One of my friends saw you a few months ago and said you gave a pretty impassioned speech about the gentrification going on in Richmond…”
“I suppose the real gentrification question is what’s happening in this entire country. Gentrification’s a played out word that anyone who’s in their early twenties uses because it’s easy to remember, but the reality is it’s hard watching families get run out of houses. When I tweet on it, that’s all I’m thinking about. I’m not thinking about the big picture. The neighborhood I used to live in, Oregon Hill, had houses as cheap as $30,000 about 8 years ago and now they’re up to $350,000, which in some places isn’t a lot of money but in Richmond it’s a lot of money. I don’t have any interests for gentrification, I just have feelings about watching people get rooted out.”
After some more talk about urban decay and more pizza, the conversation shifted to the Revival Tour itself.
“The tour is pretty obvious. Anyone who follows independent music saw this tour coming. Chuck was the one who spearheaded and took it on, it’s a lot of work and I love him and thank him for it. Ben and Chuck were at a bar and had a handshake like, ‘Let’s do this,’ and I called Chuck one day and he was like ‘It’s time, we’re doing it’ and I said ‘Alright, I’m on board.’”
The three main artists on the tour met in Barry’s stomping grounds of Richmond, Virginia and hung out and learned each others songs in preparation.
“I wish there was a video camera around,” said Barry. “It was a lot of fun. I live in a shed behind a friends house and it’s a perfect kind of setup. That became our practice space. It was so much fun to be in that practice space, we had fires every night, we officially started the tour by jumpin’ in the James River at ten one morning, but it was extremely focused. There was so much work involved. We had to learn a lot of songs, retain a lot of songs and even wrote a song.”
The conversation wrapped up and the wait began. Around 8:30 Ben Nichols, Chuck Ragan (mandolin in hand) and Tim Barry all took the stage and started the show with one of Barry’s songs then Ragan’s “Do You Pray” and finished the introduction with a Nichols song. The stage had four front microphones, a stand up bass player, a pedal steel guitar and a keyboard.
As the three men exited the stage, Jesse Malin took the stage. Malin’s set bored the crowd except for his cover of the Bad Brains’ “Leaving Babylon.” Even while covering one of the most loved hardcore bands of all time, Malin’s piano tinged songwriter approach was a little too much for Philadelphia.
The only artist on this tour I’d seen perform solo before was Nichols who on this night performed both songs off of his new solo EP and Lucero songs. Even with a bum leg, Nichols was amazing as usual. His gruff voice and delivery sound like he’s an old man sitting in the corner of a bar waiting to tell you his life story and for some reason you decide to listen.
Tim Barry’s new album Manchester contains some of the most solemn songs he’s ever written. Live, these songs hold a brand new weight. Especially after talking to Barry, I was amazed at how emotional his music is. After all those years fronting a band as energetic and important as Avail was and is, Barry seems to be lifting a weight off of his shoulders with his new songs.
Ragan’s solo set contained all the same intensity of his shows with Hot Water Music, but none of the same songs. Why would you need to when you have a catalogue as strong as Ragan’s? The songs off of his full length studio album Feast or Famine sounded better than they do on his live album Los Feliz thanks to over a year of touring on these songs. The crowd was as into it as they would be for a Hot Water Music set, and that’s saying something.
The night ended with the “supergroup” taking the stage one last time and performing the song they wrote specifically for the tour. The name “The Revival Tour” doesn’t exactly imply what these men are trying to revive, but after an evening of watching them perform, it’s clear. They’re reviving the days of the collaboration at folk shows, they’re reviving the days before music had to be pretentious to be accepted, and most importantly they’re reviving the passion for real music that’s missing from so many bands in 2008. Here’s to hoping this tour happens again next year and every year after that.
