Bobby Bare Jr.
American Bread
(2009)
TRACKLIST:
1.Ventura Highway / 2. I Need You / 3. Guitar Man /
4. A Horse With No Name / 5. IT Don’t Matter To Me /
6. Sister Golden Hair (Alpha) / 7. Sister Golden Hair (Beta)
Bobby and some friends (including David Vandervelde, Chris Scruggs, Carl Broemel and others) tackle those mellow bookends of smoooooth country rock America and Bread on this 7 song limited edition EP.
“American Bread is an absolute revelation. For anyone who digs his more punk, raucous numbers, you may find yourself scratching your head a bit at first. Produced and crafted with help from David Vandervelde, Bare’s vocal performance is his most reserved and restrained to date, but it also shows off a subtle power that can sometimes be hidden when he is shredding a tune like “Nothin’ Better to Do” or “The Heart Bionic”. The aforementioned, “I Need You” is the true standout performance for me, thanks to the restraint that hints at madness possibly lurking behind the seemingly calm facade of Bare’s vocal. While “A Horse With No Name”, which is well done in a minimal, almost trance like state, was an obvious choice to include on such an album – maybe too obvious, really – “Sister Golden Hair” is even more obvious. A version of Bare covering that track has made the “blog-rounds” in the last year or two, so it is interesting to see that Bare included two takes of the classic tune to close out the album. The “Alpha version” takes a laid back and gentle acoustic approach while the “Beta version” grabs that acoustic guitar and smashes it to peices with a plugged-in fervor that many Bare Jr. fans will recognzie rather easily.”—The Gobblers Knob
