Danny Barnes
Pizza Box
Release Date: Jan 19, 2010
Genre(s): Country
Record label: ATO
Music Critic Score
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Album Review: Pizza Box by Danny Barnes
Excellent, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Although Barnes is a banjo picker, on Pizza Box he bravely goes where no man has gone before -- with the instrument, and with arrangements that borrow elements of hard rock, R&B, rap, electronica, and country music. His lyrics, as always, are full of snide humor and keen insight, and while he claims he's not a masterful picker, his solo excursions on the banjo are full of unexpected twists and turns. "Charlie," the tale of a ne'er do well dope fiend trying to survive a long stretch in the pen for selling a rock or crack to the wrong guy, blends a looped hip-hop style rhythm with some lonesome mountain banjo for a tune that's part rap and part Appalachian moan.
Opinion: Very Good
Galactic Onstage, Galactic is a New Orleans funk band that jams through marathon dance medleys. On its albums, it’s becoming something else: a studio outfit, still funky, that merges hand-played, sampled and programmed tracks and that doubles as a tour guide. “Ya-Ka-May” (Epitaph) is named ….
Opinion: Very Good
"I don't do dope; I don't drink wine. I likes to play ... It's cheaper that way," croons Bad Livers banjo master Danny Barnes on the title track of his solo debut for Dave Matthews' label, ATO. "Basically it's all elemental: Us Southern boys are sentimental." So much so that Pizza Box dishes "TSA" even more romantic ("my baby's she's working for the TSA"), the now-Pacific Northwester's tart vocals almost as pointillistic as his picking, percussion big and roomy beneath him ("with her hair in a bun, her hand on her gun, we made love with the radio on").