Album Review: Tim Barry - 40 Miler

Tim Barry often gets lumped in with folk-punk artists such as Frank Turner and Chuck Ragan, but despite spending his formative years fronting punk band Avail, he clearly draws on more bluegrass and country influences than most of his contemporaries.

Opening track Wezeltown is as instantly infectious as anything Barry has done in the past, a perfect example of his so-simple-it's-profound lyrical content. Driver Pull is a slow and rather mournful number, with sparse keys, minimal strumming and violin. The title track is up next, with “I got miles and miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles”, one of the album's most resonating moments.

Adele And Hell, a narrative-based duet with fellow Virginian Julie Karr, tells the tale of a couple from the wrong side of the tracks and the juxtaposition between Karr's and Barry's vocals make it one of the album's strongest songs. On sombre slow-burner Shed Song, Barry seems torn between his troubadour lifestyle and the urge to settle down, before the live-in-the-moment Banker's Dilemma breathes some much-needed lightheartedness into proceedings. On Fine Foods Market (aka Tim Barry Makes Fun of Tim Barry), Barry proves he has a healthy sense of self-deprecation, poking fun at himself and the wider ex-punks-picking-up-acoustic-guitars community. The final track, Amen (Oshega) is Barry's defiant battle cry, detailing all the dive bars and festival crowds he's played to whilst delivering a subtle rebuke to his detractors with its, “Go on kick me in the head/Watch me get right back up again,” refrain. 

40 Miler is Barry's strongest collection of songs to date and although it might lack the instant appeal of some of his contemporaries' work, his likable, everyman charm is infectious.