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Steve Barton is best known as one of two guitarists and songwriters in Translator, the San Francisco band that gave us \u201cEverywhere That I\u2019m Not.\u201d But while the band went semi-dormant a number of years ago, Barton remains active as a solo artist. His latest release is Love & <\/i>Destruction<\/i>. Like his earlier records, it builds upon \u2013 follows on from, one might say \u2013 the sound and style of his Translator music.<\/p>\n
In practice, that means that while one will hear strong echoes of that signature sound, Barton takes the music to places that couldn\u2019t have been conceived of within the framework of that band. \u201cFreedom\u2019s Not Free\u201d is a prime example: the album\u2019s superb opening track, it has a moody, vaguely sinister melody, but the arrangement features clarinets and horns, and Barton\u2019s guitar texture leans in a distinctly jazzy direction.<\/p>\n
But then things quickly move into more familiar territory. The chiming rocker \u201cLast for Best\u201d wouldn\u2019t have been out of place on Evening of the Harvest<\/i>. Backed by a crack rhythm section \u2013 Translator drummer Dave Scheff and bassist Hilary Hanes (the latter known for a time as Hilary Stench of Pearl Harbor and the Explosions), Barton showcases his skill at crafting a hooky tune.<\/p>\n
And he stays in contact with his other Translator bandmates. Bassist Larry Dekker is on hand for two songs, and Robert Darlington co-wrote \u201cMind Song.\u201d But everyone involved in the project is intently focused on serving the songs: this is very much Barton\u2019s show.<\/p>\n
\u201cBurying Suit\u201d has a feel reminiscent of Delaney and Bonnie: proto-Americana with a rocking edge intact. \u201cTonight You\u2019re Buying Me a Rainbow\u201d sounds like a cross between Translator and Neil Young with Crazy Horse. \u201cVelvet Curtains\u201d is a sort of Lou Reed meets the Everly Brothers (and it works!).<\/p>\n
The intimate vibe of \u201cCoulda Been Me, Coulda Been You\u201d builds a rock arrangement around his acoustic guitar. The hypnotic \u201cMind Song\u201d has a Satanic Majesties<\/i>-era Stones (or White Album Beatles) vibe. \u201cThe World is a Gangster\u201d displays a previously unheard funk side of Barton\u2019s muse. The lead slide guitar on \u201cNever Gonna Last\u201d is reminiscent of George Harrison\u2019s solo work, with \u2013 for good measure \u2013 a Dylanesque vocal.<\/p>\n
And as it happens, some of those cues \u2013 Stones and Dylan \u2013 hint at the direction Love & Destruction<\/i> takes: Dylan\u2019s \u201cTo Ramona\u201d (from 1964\u2019s Another Side of Bob Dylan<\/i>) and the Rolling Stones\u2019 \u201cThe Last Time\u201d (from 1965\u2019s Out of Our Heads<\/i>) are covered on the album. The former has a wonderfully Byrdsy jangle; the latter…well, um, go listen and find out. Elsewhere, the Beatles get a brief nod in the lyrics of the somewhat strange \u201cFrom Never and Nowhere\u201d when Barton intones in a gravelly spoken-sung voice, \u201cturn left at Greenland.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the overall focus of the record is squarely upon Steve Barton\u2019s original songwriting. And that\u2019s as it should be, because he\u2019s a fine lyricist, a compelling vocalist, superb guitarist and excellent all-around musician and arranger. Love & Destruction<\/i> draws from the best of what Barton is known for, while showing that there\u2019s much, much more to his creative abilities. Recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Steve Barton is best known as one of two guitarists and songwriters in Translator, the San Francisco band that gave us \u201cEverywhere That I\u2019m Not.\u201d But while the band went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,62,65],"tags":[2043,2261],"class_list":["post-21711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-steve-barton","tag-translator","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21713,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21711\/revisions\/21713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}