Bobby Bare Jr.’s latest effort, his fourth with the Young Criminal’s Starvation League, is titled Undefeated. While the roots of his musical upbringing can still be sporadically detected in his recent stuff, the 10 tracks from this new record continue to present the veteran singer-songwriter-guitarist as his own artistic man.
One of this writer’s earliest memories is of grooving in the living room as the 1974 LP Singin’ in the Kitchen spun on my folks’ wooden hi-fi cabinet stereo system, a long-ago state-of-the-art unit sporting durable tweed material covering its speakers, an appliance truly doubling as a piece of deluxe furniture with the hugeness and functionality leaving this young lad fascinated.
Singin’ in the Kitchen was a country sing-along album credited to Bobby Bare and the Family, its songs deriving almost entirely from the pen of Shel Silverstein. While not a children’s record exactly, the kid-friendly disc’s oft-boisterous intent was plainly to enhance familial camaraderie, and in the household of my youth it chalked-up smashing success.
To this day Singin’ in the Kitchen remains an admirable endeavor, showing off the 1970s country scene’s more progressive leanings, though its usefulness for aging bachelors (like me) or for that matter bachelorettes (perhaps like you) is truthfully pretty limited. I mainly mention the LP because Bobby Bare Jr. was a singing member of the Family; he in fact made his recording debut earlier that same year (age five) on his father’s #2 C&W hit “Daddy What If.”
Bare Jr. is now a vet with eight full-length releases to his credit. That might lead one to assume he’d be tired of references to/comparisons with his father, but somehow I doubt it. For instance, he could’ve simply taken another name to establish distance from that past, but instead he called his late-‘90s band Bare Jr.
Along the way he’s also maintained close ties to his kin, and up to the point of the diversely-talented Silverstein’s unfortunate 1999 death from a heart attack he was an extended member of the family (in 2010 Bare Jr. and his dad produced the multi-artist salute Twistable, Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein).
A few have used Bare Sr.’s commercial achievement to contrast Jr. as some kind of renegade (a la Hank III), but the reality’s actually a lot closer to a “like father like son” situation. Though the overall heft of their musical personalities is distinct, there is connective tissue, and it’s important to note that Bare Sr. has been (accurately) described as country-folk in orientation (his second collab with Silverstein produced ‘75’s underrated Hard Time Hungrys, a concept album on poverty from the midst of the decade’s economic recession).
Even though Bare Jr.’s songs are better than most of what you’ll hear during a random sampling from across the radio dial, he’s never made any serious attempts at the charts, country or otherwise. And frankly refreshing is the lack of any calculated badass outlaw image on his part. Bare Jr. isn’t pissed off and he has nothing to prove; rather, he’s frequently witty, displaying the influence of his dad and Silverstein, and he’s confident enough in his abilities to give co-billing to his band.
That’s ultimately more than just a nice gesture. Songs are the crucial start, but smart execution is just as vital, especially since Bare enjoys writing some rockers. On Undefeated those rousing numbers mingle with tunes of an introspective nature covering reliable C&W topics like infidelity and the burdens of domesticity.
“North of Alabama By Mornin’” features edgy yet cleanly delivered guitar, bursts of Hard-Rock organ and Bare’s emotionally resonant but precise vocalizing riding atop. Quickly established is a crisp, large-scaled atmosphere, with the LP’s engineering and production unsurprisingly well-done by in-demand knob-twiddler and Lambchop member Marky Nevers.
Exhibiting a little too much sheen to be effectively swampy, the instrumentation’s tangled qualities do help in undercutting any inclination toward slickness, and it gets Undefeated off to a solid start. Even nicer is “If She Cared,” which begins in the mode of country-soul, that exquisite and all too rare southern phenomenon with roots in the wide-open late-‘60s, though it swiftly redirects into some achy cheatin’ heart action enhanced with femme backing vocals and some outstanding piano from Matt Rowland.
“The Big Time” offers rock-hued warmth that’s mildly reminiscent of Lambchop, the similarity in large part due to the humor of Bare’s lyrics (the employment of a horn section also brings to mind Calexico), while the relative lushness of “Don’t Want to Know” explores the singer’s range and his ability to harmonize to fine effect. Near the end it even dishes a strong, almost underwater-sounding guitar spot.
From there “The Elegant Imposter” emits a moody ambiance, with the brushwork on the snare-drum bringing a lightly tweaked jazziness (a la Twin Peaks) to the fore. On the title-track echoes of country-soul return in a big way as lap steel mingles with what sounds like Fender Rhodes. However, Bare also integrates enough guitar gristle to please alt-country fans, in particular a raucous solo. It extends into a drifting finale reinforcing Bare’s background in playing gigs in fields for sweaty summertime crowds.
Indeed, he’s been occasionally compared to My Morning Jacket, and while “Undefeated,” “Blame Everybody (But Yourself)” and definitely “Don’t Stand at the Stove” do engage with that sort of vibe, other selections are notably different. For example, “My Baby Took My Baby Away” deals clearly but humorously with a somewhat touchy subject; specifically, how the birth of a child can ruin, or at least permanently alter, a relationship.
Co-written with Hayes Carll, the tune initially comes on a tad too bold in its clever marriage of word-slinging and imagery, but by song’s end things settle down as the amplifier knobs get turned up. And by the time the horns arrive in “Blame Everybody (But Yourself),” the cut’s taken on an inflection decidedly sunshine-pop, with the results showing how far afield Bare Jr. has traveled from his ‘70s origins.
The Southern-fried slide guitar found on “As Forever Became Never Again” connects more than a bit like Little Feat, and Rowland’s bubblegum-barrelhouse piano helps to seal the deal. Undefeated’s biggest rocker, a blend of chunky locomotive riffing and soaring psychedelic licks, is saved for last; “Don’t Stand at the Stove” is a tidy surge of assured heaviness.
This LP offers the occasional moment of excellence, and when it falls short of that standard it provides a consistently pleasing listen. Undefeated is the work of a guy that’s spent nearly his entire life on stages and in studios. After all that time Bobby Bare Jr.’s music still possesses creative spark. Bluntly, that’s a circumstance very much worth celebrating.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B+
