"…Jeb Barry is one of those singer-songwriters that could have been sitting around the dining room table with Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Larry Jon Wilson and all the rest of them in Heartworn Highway... " Paul Jackson Fatea Magazine UK
The new album ordinary folks
The Band
Jeb Barry – lead vocals, guitars, banjo All songs (except "New Year's Eve, Somewhere In The Midwest" Barry/Isbell)
Michael O’Neill - guitars, vocals
Chris Sampson - bass
Josh Pisano - drums
Webpage: www.jebbarry.com Contact: jeb@jebbarry.com
Band Bio The Pawn Shop Saints, led by singer/songwriter Jeb Barry, sparse, weary, hard dirt Americana....think of a combination of Steve Earle, Jason Isbell (co-writer of Jeb's song "When the Ball Dropped") and American Aquarium. Rounding out the Pawn Shop Saints are Mike O’Neill on guitar and backing vocals and Josh Pisano on drum, with Chris Samson playing bass.
ordinary folks is the groups third release (sandwiched around two Jeb solo releases; Milltown and Bury Me In A Lonely Place) and follows on the heels of 2018’s critical and charting European success of texas, inc…, which spent three months on the Euro Americana charts, peaking at #3.
A prolific songwriter, Jeb Barry has written over 4500 songs that roam through all styles of music. His more recent songs have been compared to Steve Earle, Jason Isbell and Townes Van Zandt, ….sparse, weary songs of the darker side of life. Americana at its simplest, and finest. In 2014 Jeb signed his first publishing contract with Washington Street Publishing in Nashville after two years of pitching songs. Since then he had over a dozen songs added to his publishing tally.
Jeb is a regular performer in Nashville, especially at the Bluebird Café. He and the Saints have also performed at Club Passim, the Hudson Music Fest, Chesterwood Americana Fest, Club Helsinki, and are six time performers at the Freshgrass Music Festival …just to name a few…
"…Jeb Barry is one of those singer-songwriters that could have been sitting around the dining room table with Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Larry Jon Wilson and all the rest of them in Heartworn Highway... " Paul Jackson Fatea Magazine UK
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The new album ordinary folks
Available on all streaming and downloading services, cd, and a damn good chance on vinyl in January 2021.
The new Pawn Shop Saints album ordinary folks, is 9 songs of ordinary, and maybe not so ordinary, people, and is the follow-up to 2018’s double album (and Euro Americana #3 charting) texas, etc… Two years ago Jeb wrote 50 songs in 50 days while traveling south and Appalachian sections of the US, including three he wrote in a Nashville hotel room.
“I have spent years driving around the eastern half of the country, especially to the Carolina’s and to Nashville, trying to become a respected musician. (Not sure I’ve accomplished this yet LOL) I began pulling off the interstates to hit the small towns where ordinary people live. You can drive a couple of miles and find other world, mostly small towns with non-brand name convenient stores, bars and chicken joints.”
“ I found myself interacting with the people that live there more and more, and found out that I was too quick to judge them as less than the hard working folks they were. Most were just ordinary folks trying to get through life’s hard times. These people are reflected in songs such as “Southern Mansions: and “You Don’t Know The Cumberland” . I then found myself writing about the similarities we all have, and not so much focusing on the differences.”
Recording began last summer, but was shelved to record an ep (unreleased..look for a 2021 release)
Then an eye injury to Jeb halted recording for a few months, and the covid pandemic shut down the studio with 90% of the album completed. Recording was finished once restrictions eased, but only one person was allowed in the studio at a time, which made for slow going. And unfortunately some guest musicians had to be scratched due to health concerns.
The songs of ordinary folks….
”You Don’t Know The Cumberland” Written in a hotel in Nashville after passing through the Cumberland area of the Appalachian Mountains for about the twentieth time…and a year before the Cumberland, Kentucy coal mine events of 2019.
“Old Men, New Trucks” A Mary Gauthier styled song about a common sight in Jeb’s rural small town.
“Body in The River” Inspired by the Nashville Flood of 2010..with some added darkness to an already a dark event.
“Southern Mansions” Jeb heard this term while eating biscuits and gravy for breakfast at a Hardy’s outside of Myrtle Beach. Southern Mansions are the derogatory term for double wide trailers (as opposed to single wides, aka mobile homes) Driving through the Appalachians to Nashville, it’s a common sight to see these on the hillsides off the interstates. This songs attacks the stereotypes of their inhabitations.
“New Year’s Eve, Somewhere in the Midwest” Written, and rewritten several times since, from a Jason Isbel New Year’s Eve tweet about 2013. He sent out two lines of lyrics to a song…asked someone to finish it. Jeb waited a month, saw that no one took him up on his request, wrote this song and recorded a much faster version which he sent to Jason, who said he liked it. Stuck alone in the studio during the covid lockdown, Jeb recorded this sparse version.
“Ain’t No Mama Here” A gospel inspired Dust Bowl imaged song of hard times and high anxiety….similar to today’s experiences for many people. A slower version will be on the Pawn Shop Saints Ep, to be released in early 2021.
“Pack A Day” Simply a song about the social changes that some people have difficulty facing and the consequences . Smoking is demonized in the US, unlike many places in Europe)
“Lynyrd Skynyrd” A reminiscing tune that seems to be about the importance of music in a person’s life when they are younger, but is really about facing your mortality at a young age. (Here based on the late 1970s music scene). Jeb wrote this after watching a recent documentary of the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
“Dry River Song” A Texas styled spares campfire type sing along. A companion song the Jeb’s 2015 song “Dry Summer Rain” from the solo album Milltown.
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