BARRY THOMAS GOLDBERG was inducted into The MID-AMERICA MUSIC HALL OF FAME (formerly The MINNESOTA ROCK & COUNTRY HALL OF FAME) at the annual gala ceremony at The MEDINA ENTERTAINMENT CENTER (Medina, MN) on May 2, 2008.
Barry Thomas Goldberg's first recording session was with his band "The Shambles" at Dove Recording Studios in 1966. He went on to write, record and release several singles with major labels, the best known of which is "Twenty Years Ago in Speedy's Kitchen". Later in his career he formed the group "The Batch". His solo career began in 1974 with the album "Misty Flats", produced by Michael Yonkers. He did two other solo albums, "When the Night Comes" (1983) and "Absolute Zero" (1986). In the '90s Goldberg along with former Batch members, Gary Paulak, Arne Fogel, Jay Lee and new drummer Scott Homan, formed "The Ironweeds" and released one album, "Dr. Wormwood's Monkey Theatre". After sixteen years, in 2002, Goldberg released his fourth solo album "Empire Moon".
Barry Thomas Goldberg has released several critically acclaimed solo albums:
Empire Moon (2002), Cottonwood ( 2004), American Grotesque (2005), The Last Guitar (2006). He is also featured on the compilation: Candy Floss - The Lost Music of Mid-America 1967-1969 (2006). Barry Thomas Goldberg released "Mapleton Memoir" on June 12, 2007. On April 18, 2008 "The Batch - Transistor - Lost Basement Recordings 1968 - 1971" was released. On July 17, 2008 The Batch signed with the Greek label Anazitisi Records for a special limited vinyl release in Europe. The Batch "Wait 'Til Tomorrow", a beautiful special edition vinyl, was released October 30, 2008. Barry Thomas Goldberg's "The Creek", a digital CD, was released December 19, 2008 and is available at CDBaby. For further details, reviews and free MP3's check out Barry's website, Ironweeds.com.
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_____'Round The Dial
1/23/09
By: Tom HallettBarry Thomas Goldberg
The Creek
2009
HIJ Recordings
Local alternative/folk-rock stalwart Barry Thomas Goldberg has made a name for himself among the current generation as an outspoken, fearless political commentator and a musician who can adapt to a bevy of different styles, but he has, in fact, been playing and writing his original brand of protest songs for over 4 decades. You can check out his early work (An absolute must-have for collectors of sixties-era Twin Cities bands, much of which is psychadelic-inspired garage rock that's reminiscent of artists ranging from The early Who to Buffalo Springfield to Frank Zappa And The Mothers and CCR) by visiting www.ironweeds.com or CD Baby and picking up the album The Batch: Transistor- The Lost Basement Recordings, 1968-1971.
The Creek was originally intended to capture live the raw essence of some of his most memorable past compositions, but during rehearsals, Goldberg found that he could not refrain from penning new material and making some of the boldest statements of his career. That, it turns out, is a very good thing, considering that although we've finally voted into office some apparently honest and empathetic politicians, we'll be dealing with the last administration's fall-out for decades to come.
Barry's illustrious catalog gives new credence to the old adage, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." His first songs came to fruition during the height of the Vietnam War, and today's social, political, and economic climate is a stark reflection of those tumultuous times. Goldberg was right to avoid making some grand, final statement just as the world needs his brand of raw, gutsy folk rock the most. This album is an amazing amalgam of musical approaches with a common thread- the world around us- even though the subject matter may not be exactly what the average club-going party animal might want to hear.
Goldberg's voice is a curious melding of Warren Zevon's smart-aleck howl, Elvis Costello's inscrutable, dry vocal tease, and Springsteen's devil-may-care holler. Not exactly what you'd think of when picturing a modern folk-rocker, but that's where the "alternative" derivation comes in. This isn't the stuffy, collegiate folk so common in coffee houses and on open stages, but a decidedly ballsier, more brash musical statement barely held in check by a time-wise pen. Simply put, it's music for the people made by a person, nothing more, nothing less.
Whether he's yelping indignantly about the state of the economy ("Hard Times,") musing on the effects of the real estate melt-down ("The Creek,") or growling along with gritty rhythm and sobbing slide guitars ("My Honeybee,") Goldberg undeniably makes each cut his own personal rock n' roll stump from which to impart his hard-won personal philosophies. His staunch backing band (Gary Paulak on guitar, slide, bass and backing vox, Marc Partridge on lead guitar, Jim Steinworth on organ and accordian, Gregg Kubera and Larry Hofmann on bass, and Scott Homan and Steve Thielges on drums) is obviously at home in the studio and onstage with him, and judging from the sound thrashing they give their instruments here, are in complete agreement with his earthy, pro-Democracy stance.
"Afghanistan" is ablaze with righteous anger, guitars sizzling and snare positively cracking along with a timely tale of one of the several wars the U.S. is currently involved in, and rings out a hard truth with lines like, "I wonder where I am/I must be in Afghanistan/Get me home, get me home right now/I got a wife and a child I love/I was answering freedom's call/Get me home, get me home right now..." "Propaganda" tumbles out on a funky drum beat and gleefully off-kilter keyboards, coming off like an alternate-galaxy blending of The Minutemen and The Monks.
The whole package wraps up with the outraged rant "Big Oil," (which was picked by the prestigious Brit rock mag NME as a "Best New YouTube Video" the week of its release) a self-explanatory slice of contemporary commentary that covers not only its stated topic but also homes in on many of the rotting super-structures that are supported by it.
Bottom line, Barry Thomas Goldberg is to today's fearless, all-American folk-rock movement what past heroes such as Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie were to theirs- he's just a hell of a lot louder and more world-weary than they were. A fierce, undeniable call to attention for a new generation from a guy who's been there and back and isn't ready to hang up his guitar until either he or fascism have taken leave of this planet. Available now on CD Baby.
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07/22/06 From Chris Roberts "The Local Show", The Current 89.3 —
"... it's like being transported back through a time tunnel to a period that you won't ever want to leave."
(Candy Floss - The Lost Music of Mid-America 1967-1969)
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A true-blue American from the bottom of his heart and a born romantic in his soul, Goldberg consistently delivers delicious, mostly (sadly) unnoticed contributions to the world around him, among them albums like Mapleton Memoirs—which is chock full of hard-hitting lines like this one from "Main Street,†a stand-out among the 11 other excellent tracks on this album: "Sweet redemption wants to dance/You don't ask why/The ferris wheel and flashing light/The carnival of life...the clown found salvation with the priest/It's the time between the wars, say goodbye to peace/On Main Street." Superb stuff and highly recommended. Check Barry out at www.myspace.com/BarryThomasGoldberg or www.ironweeds.com Don't say I didn't tellya a couple dozen times now!!
That's it for this time out, pals o' mine. Keep your shades on, your feet on the ground and your dreams in the clouds- until we meet again, make yer own damn news.
If you have local/regional or print-worthy national music news, gigs, events, CD's you'd like to see mentioned in this space, send replies with the header "TOMMY CAN YOU HEAR ME?" to: [email protected] e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or just turn up your mic to "11" and give me a shout—hell, it worked for The Who between England and France, and that's in the Guiness Book Of World Records!!
—from the Magazine Reveille, Round the Dial: by Tom Hallett
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December/January 2005/06Published in Geneva, Switzerland J:Mag
Quotes from the magazine article:
"... The raw poetry of rebellious rockers."
"... Barry's words strike at the heart of America's collective unconscious."
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__SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2005
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Sept. 4-10
"Remember New Orleans" - Barry Thomas Goldberg
Not even the world-weary Goldberg, who already sounded like he'd seen it all before, has seen anything like what happened here in the U.S. last week. To my ears, he hits an appropriate combination of sobriety and passion on this simple, ragged, emotional tribute to a devastated city. It's mostly a subdued acoustic guitar and Goldberg's effective Waits-via-Springsteen voice, but there are some subtle instrumental homages added along the way--a quietly menacing piano below (can't have New Orleans music without piano), sad strings above (striking me as a conscious nod to Randy Newman), and even a slowed-down "City of New Orleans"-ish harmonica flourish. The song is available via Goldberg's web site. The veteran singer/songwriter has furthermore decided to contribute the profits from his three CDs to the American Red Cross, to assist the massive relief effort. Thanks again to visitor Paul for the head's up.
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____Barry Thomas Goldberg
The gruff but lovable Goldberg cuts an unusual 21st-century figure: an old-school Midwestern rock'n'roller who has managed to maintain a youthful sort of defiance and edginess; from the depths of his vivid, cigarette-stained voice comes a sound you just don't hear from 20-something indie rockers. Scroll through the site's willfully unpolished layout (don't forget to go to page two and three as well) and you'll eventually come across a dozen or so full-length MP3s. Honestly, it's hard to tell, they're spread out willy-nilly down the page, in and around lots of text and graphics. Included among them are two former TWF picks, "American Grotesque" and "Remember New Orleans". The latest upload, "Break Away," from his 2007 CD Mapleton Memoir, sounds like another worthy song. Thanks to visitor Paul for cluing me in to Goldberg in the first place, and keeping me posted on his comings and goings. - Fingertips.com
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"American Grotesque" - Barry Thomas Goldberg
Straightforward old-school rock with a vibrant edge. Goldberg is a singer/songwriter in his fifties who's been kicking around the Minneapolis music scene for a couple of decades; his age and experience blaze through this simultaneously good-natured and apocalyptic song. Goldberg's deep, cigarette-stained voice brings the late Warren Zevon to mind, but there's an added Graham Parker-like snap and snarl to his delivery and something Dylanesque about the whole carnival-like enterprise, with its cavalcade of characters and situations set to a rollicking 3/4 beat. "American Grotesque" is the title track of Goldberg's most recent CD, released earlier this year. The MP3 is available on Goldberg's web site. Thanks to visitor Paul for the suggestion.
Fingertips.com
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____HOMIES ALONE: THE FIRST (OF HOPEFULLY MANY MORE TO COME)
LOCAL
MUSIC-ONLY MIXES
JIM WALSH - CITY PAGES - ONLINE
Filed under: Weekly 20
1. "Remember New Orleans," Barry Thomas Goldberg. I could have picked half a dozen of the songs from cantankerous roots- rocker Goldberg's latest The Last Guitar, but this one wails with an urgency that suggests it was written in the same moment as Kanye West's infamous blurt. I also heart "Lily Of The Field" and "Post Tart Girl" and "Miss USA," and, hell, suffice to say that the whole thing is good medicine for anyone disappointed by Devils & Dust or anyone who has ever hoped Curtiss A would get his shit together enough to make a record as angry, funny, and rockin' as his rants. Now then, why isn't B.T. Goldberg famous?
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____A child of the '60s rocking at 50
by Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio
March 15, 2005
Barry Thomas Goldberg. Several times he's tried to leave rock music, but his need to have a voice always brings him back. (MPR photo/Chris Roberts)
Most 50-something musicians have left their rock and roll past behind them. But Barry Thomas Goldberg is still immersed in it. Goldberg's new CD is called "American Grotesque." It's full of biting social commentary and songs of dissent.
Minneapolis, Minn. — It would be convenient if everything you needed to know about Barry Thomas Goldberg could be found in his spot-on impression of Jack Benny. He reverts to Benny when asked how old he is.
"I'm 39. Now cut that out," he says. "Oh, Rochester!"
The 50-something Goldberg's fixation on Hollywood legends comes from his upbringing, but it doesn't fully explain his ability to craft the raw, wounded songs of an American outcast.
Goldberg is a Minneapolis native who, as a kid, suffered from chronic bronchitis. He and his mother roamed the country looking for more climate-friendly communities. Once, she got a job as a waitress at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.
"So I used to sit around and watch Dean Martin rehearse, and Frank Sinatra, and I'd go to shows at the Sands," he says. "And that's why I'm a normal guy."
Taking a drag
Goldberg says he learned his manners from the movies, and considered Robert Mitchum a father figure. After he and his mom moved back to Minneapolis, Goldberg launched his songwriting career by quitting high school and getting a job at Dove Studios in Bloomington, a bubblegum music factory in the '60s.
For the next two decades or more he was in and out the local music scene, touring the Midwest, signing record deals but seeing nothing come from them. He's tried acting and screenwriting, and even had a brief stint as a columnist for an underground newspaper. But Goldberg realizes now he was running away from who he really is, a rocker.
As the '90s progressed, and after being hospitalized for months with a near-fatal infection, Goldberg began to shed the entertainer in him and embraced the artist.
"I just decided if I'm going to write a song, it has to mean something," he says. "It just has to be meaningful. It has to do with compassion, and to say something like a poet, that has different levels that can be read in different ways and may change your life. A line may change a person's life."
Goldberg's new CD, "American Grotesque," is in part his running commentary on the state of modern America. His snarl of a voice sounds like cigarettes and whiskey, part Warren Zevon, part Nick Cave.
On the CD, Goldberg alludes to his opposition to the war in Iraq. It's something most songwriters from younger generations won't touch, even if they feel the same way. The protest or anti-war song as an idiom may die with the baby boomers, but Goldberg says it's totally applicable now.
Best of Barry
"Maybe because we've seen a 10-year war, that tragically just destroyed lives, changed all of our lives, just like this war is gonna change so many people's lives," he says.
While Goldberg makes no bones about his position against the war, he says he not a Bush-hater.
"I like the guy. I like cowboys. I like John Wayne."
In fact, Goldberg has his own explanation as to why songwriters, artists, and even the population at large have been relatively quiet lately about the war.
"We don't know," he says. "Bush could be right about all of this. We could be wrong. Freedom. You know, maybe this is all about freedom. I could be wrong. But I've been through this before. It's just a big Machiavellian game. I've seen it. I've lived through it."
He may get a band together later this summer and play a few dates, but he's mainly content to record his songs in the studio, then release his world view to the world.
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July 18, 2007 - Wednesday
Mapleton Memoir on Electric Fetus Local Top Ten
Electric Fetus One Stop
July 11, 2007
8. Barry Thomas Goldberg – Mapleton Memoir
Barry Thomas Goldberg is a Minnesota music veteran who began his career as a local songwriter. He is best known for penning the tune "Twenty Years Ago in Speedy's Kitchen" by T.C. Atlantic. Involved with Dove Recording Studios in the 1960's, Goldberg joined the ranks of local legends Arne Fogel, Gary Paulak, and Michael Yonkers. In 2006, Goldberg helped with the release of Candy Floss: The Lost Music of Mid America, a compilation of songs from Dove Studios and that era. Since 1974, he has been recording and releasing solo albums that highlight his outspoken political views and poetic way with words. Goldberg's latest, Mapleton Memoir, is a musical tribute to his late mother, who passed away in 2006. "I was displeased with my prose writing [and] the obvious choice was to write her memoir as a musical album," he says. The result is a beautifully crafted, limited edition album that includes a ten-page booklet of photos and lyrics, "tracing one family's journey through time in pursuit of the elusive American dream." Goldberg's sound has been compared to the likes of Bob Dylan (circa 1970), Woody Guthrie, and Tom Waits."
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