8.25.2010 - Dave Barnes
September 7, 2010
Creation Cafe
Indianapolis, IN
The end of August brought the second free concert in the WTTS Emerging Artist Concert Series at Creation Cafe in downtown Indy - Dave Barnes. Barnes is a Nashville-based up-and-coming singer/songwriter - you may have heard the single "Little Lies" from his fourth studio album What We Want, What We Get played on WTTS. We also got the opportunity to sample some of Upland Brewery's great beers on Creation Cafe's amazing deck overlooking the canal.
Dave Barnes is yet another musician who could moonlight as a comedian. When he wasn't enteraining the crowd with great tunes, he had everyone in stitches with amusing anecdotes. He kicked off his set with "Chameleon", followed by "Butterflies". One observation we made about Barnes is that his voice is much more soulful than you'd expect - he has an almost John Mayer-esque sound. Dave got the crowd into his song "What I Need", asking everyone who knew the words to sing along. After that, he talked about how being married influences his songwriting process, and discussed how he had been working on a song that he had created a title for, but when his wife asked about it, he said he didn't know what it should be yet (he was afraid to tell her). So he played the song for her, and she said "I like it. I think it should be called "My Love, My Enemy". (Which was what he already had in mind, but figured he wouldn't get in trouble if she said it, not him!). Pretty quality song, talking about how the one you love can be so many opposite things to you in a relationship - pleasure/pain, sunshine/rain, shadows/light. Really showcases Dave Barnes' ability to incorporate emotions everyone experiences into a catchy song.
Next up was Barnes' song "Greyhound", after which he broke into a cover of George Michael's #1 Hit "Faith". Soon after that, Dave performed a great cover of Mark Cohn's "Walking in Memphis". He also mentioned that his song "Until You" is going to be recorded by country singer Billy Currington. Dave Barnes originally started out wanting to stick to the songwriting aspect of music, but was encouraged by others to start performing his own stuff.
Before playing crowd favorites "God Gave Me You" - which Barnes is working on creating a video for incorporating fan photos of the special people in their lives - and "Little Lies", he told a hilarious story about fried chicken flying into his yard while he and his wife were putting up outdoor lights earlier in the summer, and about seeing a squirrel carry an entire slice of pizza up into a tree in their yard. One of those "ya had to be there" stories, but it really was highly amusing. All in all, a great evening of music in a great place - thanks again to WTTS for bringing these amazing artists to such a great venue. Truely a treat for some lucky WTTS VIP's!
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