So how did a nice suburban kid from Toronto, Canada, get mixed up with the music of the U.S. southland? "This music is my religion," Mike Barris says. "I have a very strong, primal connection to this music."
Barris, who now calls New Jersey home, is the guitarist and leader of Mike Barris & Delta Sunrise, an acoustic roots and swing-blues trio that plays on the CD, Swingbilly Blues.
Barris' guitar style, arrangements and original songs blend jazz, blues, country, western swing, rockabilly and Cajun sounds.
Yet, like most kids growing up in Toronto, Barris cut his listening teeth on the pop and rock music of the day.
One day, his father brought home old records by Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, Johnny Cash and a host of other roots musicians, castoffs from a disc-jockey friend, and the youngster was hooked.
"Those records showed me there was a lot of other music out there besides rock," recalls Barris, who was also exposed in this way to an unlikely mix of niche artists, from Eddie Layton (the New York Yankees' ballpark organist) to the United States Marine Corps Marching Band.
It wasn't long before such eclecticism found its way into his guitar style, which also took its direction from the likes of Charlie Christian and B.B. King.
Barris is highly regarded by fellow guitarists for two reasons: 1. His unusual guitar style and 2. His large body of writing for respected music-industry publications.
He has played clubs like The Stone Pony (the original stomping ground of Bruce Springsteen) in Asbury Park, N.J., and festivals like the Golden Link Folk Festival in New York State and Summerfolk in Ontario, Canada.
He has also written practical articles on musicianship for Acoustic Guitar, news items for Down Beat and features and reviews for Britain's Jazz Journal International.
"I get ideas for articles from playing, and ideas for my act from doing articles," Barris says.
"Both activities are enriched by each other." His insights on performance troubleshooting wound up as an Acoustic Guitar article, later used by the magazine's editors in "Performing Acoustic Music," a book of practical advice on performing, also featuring articles by Suzanne Vega, Leo Kottke, and Sharon Isbin, among others.
Barris says he thinks of the tips in his articles when he's searching for inspiration in working a crowd.
His writing career also includes pieces on a range of topics - musical and otherwise - in newspapers such as The New York Times and The Toronto Star; Time magazine; and Knight-Ridder Financial News.
ALBUM DESCRIPTION
Mike Barris & Delta Sunrise: Swingbilly Blues is a rollicking good album of roots-swing music played unpretentiously with just an acoustic guitar, upright bass, snare drum and bongos.
Think of Hank Williams colliding with the very early Beatles -- with Les Paul sandwiched somewhere in between -- and you'll have an idea of what Mike Barris & Delta Sunrise sounds like.
Running the gamut of roots-music styles, from bluegrass to blues, rockabilly to skiffle, western swing to Cajun, the band does surprising covers of classic songs (Steppin' Out With My Baby becomes a bluesy campfire song, for example; Home On The Range gets new life as a rhumba), as well as lively originals like Talkin' Turnpike Blues, a kind of rap-swing ode to life in the not-so-fast lane of the New Jersey Turnpike.
Adding to the organic flavor of the CD is the fact that the performances were recorded live in the studio, with no overdubbing.
Yet the band sounds extremely full, as if it were staffed by an additional three musicians.
To the music historian, this guitar-oriented record might be appealing as a tribute to the legacies of Doc Watson, Chet Atkins, Little Walter, Count Basie and a host of others.
But for simple music lovers, it's just wonderfully breezy and fun.
EDITORIAL REVIEW
(from the Asbury Park, N.J., Press) "As cheerful and refreshing as a glass of just-squeezed orange juice, the music of Mike Barris & Delta Sunrise will brighten your day and fill you with Vitamin C ....
Nutritious, loaded with the multi-grain goodness of country, swing, rockabilly, blues and coffeehouse jazz." EDITORIAL REVIEW (by Matt Moore, The Associated Press) "All the songs on this compact disc are worthy of anchoring an entire recording on their own.
To have them here, in one centralized location, is more of a gift than a well-executed plan....
Barris' musicianship sallies forth to lull the raging day into a subdued, cool evening.
And somewhere, somehow, Chet Atkins, Elvis, and Mother Maybelle are smiling down, content their talents, influences and legacies are being carried onward for another generation."
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