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 These
things are all true: (1) There really are rock and roll
bands in Nashville, TN; (2) Bobby Bare, Jr., really was
nominated for a Grammy at age seven; (3) You really can
play the dulcimer through a distortion pedal. Bare Jr. is
the band.
Bobby
Bare, Jr., is the singer in that band. But he's also a bicycle
technician, an expert in stage lighting, the proud owner
of one of Waylon Jennings' decommissioned basses, a veteran
Kinko's employee, a college graduate, and so alarmingly
nice that his current ex-girlfriend still does his laundry.
Then
there are the guys behind the guy, each terrors in their
own right. Tomasek and Brogdon are a veteran rhythm section
(Bobby used to do lights for one of their previous bands)
given to collecting and worshipping classic 1960s garage
punk. Grimey, the self-described "total musical slut" and
one-time Sony Music employee, plays guitar in his pajamas.
Well, on stage anyway. (What he's wearing at home, nobody
asks; he and Bobby used to be roommates.) Hackney's been
studying dulcimer with the legendary David Schnauffer for
years, but he and Bobby met at the bike shop where they
both worked.
Bare,
Jr. prove they're a rock band of unusual dimension on their
records time and time again. Half the "guitar" solos are
really Hackney's dulcimer crashing through the speakers.
Papa Bare sings backup (along with Carrie Akre, from Goodness)
on "Love-Less." Shel Silverstein (children's author who
is also the source of the name "StarPolish") co-wrote "I
Hate Myself." Andy Wallace mixed "You Blew Me Off." (The
next line? "And it turned me on." This is what comes of
growing up next to George and Tammy.) Peter Collins (Indigo
Girls,Queensr˙che, Suicidal Tendencies, Jewel) produced.
An unusual
rock band. Bobby wrote songs for years, back when he was
in bad bands playing bad music for bad people. A string
of DUIs, followed by jail and rehab, scared Bobby away from
the drinking and back to his guitar. Eventually he wrote
a couple songs he was willing to share and played them for
Tomasek. Tomasek thought they were worth fleshing out and
playing for the next 30 years, so he drafted Brogdon to
fill out the rhythm section. That transformed Bare's songs
from confessional shuffles to rollicking rockers.
Tracy
Hackney (present with Bobby in the StarPolish interview)
caught the embryonic band one night and told Bobby (while
they were riding bikes through the woods the next week)
that it almost made him want to play guitar again. Only
guitar wasn't really Hackney's instrument of choice anymore,
so they made him drag the dulcimer to practice and drafted
Grimey on guitar from one of the bands they'd blown off
the stage. (Sing along, now: "You blew me off / It turned
me on!")
Right
about then folks started noticing. Rounds of free dinners
and firm handshakes followed, culminating (happily enough)
in Bare Jr.'s new status as could-be rock stars.
Bare
Jr. lives by the creed "if it doesn't rock, what's the point?"
It's brought them this far, and the future looks bright.
Key into the details as Bare Jr. sit down and talk shop
with StarPolish writer and art director J Bills at Austin's
South By Southwest Festival in March of 2001. The wisdom
flows as much as the rock through these industry veterans.
Tune in and guard your speakers from the Bare Jr sonic assault.
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