Tip the Artist

Artist Bio

After more than twenty five years of making music, and a full decade as a solo folk-rock troubadour, Tim Barry presents his first ever concert recording, Raising Hell & Living Cheap – Live In Richmond. As a forward-thinker not big on sentiment or revisiting the past, Barry had sometimes toyed with the idea of releasing a live set, but only if it resonated as an authentic document of the interplay between artist and audience, which—without toting along a professional sound engineer to record a series of shows—can seem an almost insurmountable challenge.

Unbeknownst to him, tape was rolling on the Richmond, Virginia homecoming show which wrapped his 2013 travels, seamlessly capturing his set from start to finish. “I finished my tour cycle in Richmond, and about a week later, a friend was like ‘By the way, I did a four track recording of your show,’” says Barry. “I was surprised when I heard it: you could feel the ups and downs and I really liked it. Had I known we were recording something that would be heard later, it would be awful; I would sound scripted. I like that it’s an actual show from beginning to end and that it’s what I sound like without knowing I’m being recorded.”

Pulling almost equally from his studio recordings Rivanna Junction (2006), Manchester (2008), 28th & Stonewall (2010), and 40 Miler (2012), Raising Hell & Living Cheap features unretouched performances (from both on stage and the middle of the audience floor), spontaneous stage patter, and the crowd reactions to both. The album provides a palpable sense of being in the room that night, minus the mixed aromas of beer, whiskey, and the sweat of 400 devoted fans.

As mentioned, Tim has spent the better part of a quarter century playing in small, dark, dank rooms (as well as some much larger ones), first as a punk rock mainstay in the band Avail, then shifting gears in 2004 to explore the sort of roots music that surrounded him throughout his upbringing—a sound that he modestly claims is stolen directly from legends like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. “Now I understand better than I ever have the music that has influenced me. I grew up with a father who listened to classical music and a mother who listened to country and folk,” he recalls. His parents also played in a progressive church’s band during mass, featuring banjos, acoustic guitars, and harmonies that even the Slayer- and Black Flag-loving teenage Barry could appreciate. “It’s like comfort food—not the message they were singing, but the melodies and three chords that stuck with me. That’s what I like sitting with a guitar and fiddling with.”

His childhood roots may have directed him down the musical path he now walks, but his punk rock roots ensured that in this iteration of his career, he could effectively oversee all aspects of his career single-handedly. “I grew up in a DIY punk community, doing what I wanted, why I wanted; learning how to set up tours, how to participate in actions, how to live life outside a power structure, how to nickel and dime, and get by without a brutal routine that beats you down,” he says. “I can go out on the road as my own boss, bring my friends, pay them fairly, do shows that are healthy and ethical and bring people together and do it as long as I want to. I’m thankful every day for the way I was brought up and the opportunities and ethics that brought to me.”

The title Raising Hell & Living Cheap is plucked directly from one of the songs featured on the album, “Thing of the Past,” which was not even in Barry’s live repertoire for several years. After some consistent tinkering, he converted it from country rock to folk and it once again found a place on his set list the night of this fateful Richmond show. The crowd response and solidarity to that line in the recording was so strong, and the lyric so fittingly encapsulated his experience on the road that he immediately knew it should be the title for the live record. You’ll find Tim living cheap in his ’94 Chevy Astro van and raising hell in a venue near you soon, but until then, this album is the next best thing. Get it from Chunksaah Records today!