Photo credit: Jeff Mateo
Barbaro
On Minneapolis-based Barbaro’s forthcoming debut album, Dressed in Roses, due out in January, sonic journeys unravel in unexpected ways. Songs like “Aunt Betty” and “Barbaro” spotlight the band’s affinity to blur the lines between genres. Like the namesake 2006 horse that won the Kentucky Derby, the band’s sound is agile and crafty in pursuing a winning sound.
“In a lot of the songs on the album, there is almost like a journey that happens from the beginning of the song to the end of the song,” bass-player Jason Wells says. “It has kind of an arc that doesn’t necessarily end the song where we start it, but you feel kind of taken on an experience.”
The quartet also features singer and guitarist Kyle Shelstad, banjo player Isaac Sammis and fiddle player and singer Rachel Calvert. Shelstad grew up north of Milwaukee and spent many years on the Milwaukee music scene before moving to Minneapolis where he formed the band. He credits Milwaukee for exposing him to bluegrass and jam music.
Barbaro likes to call its sound “newgrass,” since there’s a mix of bluegrass, jazz, pop and country western. The band feels it might “feel phony if we tried to just be like a straight bluegrass band.”
“We all sort of come at it from different angles,” Sammis says. “I know Rachel, Jason and I are sort of classically trained, more or less, and so we like to come at it from that angle. But I’ve certainly listened to a lot of bluegrass and sort of improvisational music, and I know that’s true with Kyle, too. And so, I think those styles really come together and kind of create this unique like chamber-y, jazzy kind of a bluegrass sound where they all just mesh together. You can’t really tell which one’s which.”
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He continues: “We like to listen to classical, straight-up bluegrass music or other genres, but then we like to use the band as a platform to express our own interests and to insert a lot of other ideas that we think are cool and not necessarily just being strictly beholden to the melody or some type of singular genre.”
Adam Greuel, best known as member of Wisconsin-based Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, helped produce the album.
“We thought he would be a great person to work with, he’s a great energy to bring into the studio,” Shelstad says. “In the studio, it’s all about capturing that moment in time, and Adam does a really good job of always living in that moment. So, I think having somebody like him with his experience for one, but also just his positive energy and attitude allowed us to accomplish that and make that moment represent us as a band.”
Barbaro’s music is like the suspense of a horse race, with plenty of spontaneity, adventure and unexpected twists and turns. The band is always looking for ways to break away from the pack.
“I see a really exciting prospect of developing the sound that we have going,” Wells says. “And kind of taking that further as we get more comfortable playing with each other and really understanding how each of us plays and what we can potentially bring to the table.”
Extended Online-Only Interview
Why did the band pick Dressed in Roses as the title for the album?
Kyle Shelstad: The name Barbaro itself comes from the horse that was a racing horse in 2006 that won the Kentucky Derby. And they dress the horse in roses when they win. It was also something that isn’t too serious yet isn’t too silly.
Bluegrass music or music in general can be so masculine. And I think we try and not push the masculinity so much. Not to say that roses are specifically a feminine thing, but it also doesn’t just reek of a bunch of dudes.
What songs had the most impact on the direction of the album?
KS: I think our final track on the album “All Those Folks,” kind of ties together our approach in which we try and have solid instrumentation. We try and do things a little bit differently and then also have quality substance to build quality lyrical content that tells more than just like drinking beers with your friends.
Isaac Sammis: I really liked the song “Loathe.” There’re a lot of thoughtful lyrics in there but then you can tell there’s a lot of effort or energy put into arranging the songs, and how and when we take solos or instrumental breaks is particular and how the dynamics rise and fall is really particular. And we like to spend time crafting those things and making them intentional but also basing that intention off of just like a gut in motion. So, it’s just trying to replicate what we consistently are feeling as you play it and just making it feel like it has a natural rhythm, and we all flow together like that in the same way.
What were some of the biggest surprises recording the album?
IS: We had a really great mandolin player named Julian Davis play on some of the tracks and he was always surprising me with the things he would do or just like the things he would say about what you’d be playing and doing. He was a nice, fresh energy. Kind of keep us on our toes a little bit, and he could rip out some crazy, crazy stuff on the mandolin. That was really fun to hear, and I think it’s something you don’t really get in some of our other recordings.
KS: A little background on Julian Davis, he’s a 19-year-old... I mean, he was 18 when he was playing with us, when he was in the studio with us, just guitar picking, and he can also play mandolin, I’m sure along with other things. But he was playing guitar with Jeff Austin for a little while there, and so it was cool to have him involved. We were hoping to tour with him on this, with this album and things like that, and then he got the call to play with Jeff Austin, which you just can’t pass up.
What’s surprising to me is that writing these songs and then presenting them to this group, and then allowing everybody to kind of have their piece and have their say, they’ve all fleshed out. The tunes have rounded out really nicely and, I think, become a nice cohesive piece of work. Like me, when writing the songs, I never kind of expected them to take on this idea. And so that was, I think, a surprising or exciting thing for me, to see these songs come to life.
Having written a good handful of them, sometimes you can get a little attached to your original idea, and why I love playing with these guys, for one reason, is that they take this original idea that I have, they respect that original idea but then they bring such a cool life to them. And so, never questioning the direction of the songs is something that was more surprising to me than being able to watch these songs come to life and then appreciate the different directions that they were going. That was exciting for me.
Barbaro, with Nickel&Rose opening, plays The Jazz Estate, 2423 N. Murray Ave., on Sunday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m.
