Bobby Bare Jr.: Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost)

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bbjBobby Bare Jr.
Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost)
(Bloodshot Records)

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Once again, one of the best songwriters presently working has released a new album. Bobby Bare Jr.’s Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) chronicles the singer/songwriter’s recent tour (captured on a DVD of the same name by filmmaker William Miller). Here, Bare fronts some brilliant stages like Portland’s Crystal Ballroom, Chapel Hill’s Local 506, and Nashville’s The Basement.

With “Valentine,” we get a staccato, hot, heavy bass, Bare’s warble and a pedal steel crying over the top. The lyrically thick, wry, autobiographical “Visit Me In Music City” is here with its poppy beat (and again sweet pedal steel) and harmony vocals as is the slushy, swingy, “Sad Smile” with the players cresting a wave behind Bobby and things get sounding like The Monkees at the end. There are moments here too where it is just Bobby Bare Jr. and his acoustic, like on “Mayonnaise Brain,” the more metallic and biting “One Of Us Has Got To Go” or the satirically silly “Rock and Roll Halloween.” Church organ, pedal steel (again) and ragged, strummed acoustic sets the bed for “I’ll Be Around” (which gets a big reaction from the crowd). From the opening “bababababa” to the easy beat, this is one of the best tunes here to swallow, a downright commercial rock/pop ditty. Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) serves as a wonderful introduction to this truly American songwriter’s work and a kick-ass 13-song retrospective for the ardent fan.

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