Tim Barry - Live 2018 (2020)

Tim Barry is always working, that's just how he operates. "I wake up early, I run far, take care of my kids, I get to work, and I only sit down when I go to sleep," Barry says of his day-to-day. That's proven by the fact that, if you're a fan of his work, you'd be able to fill a shelf with records of his — five full-lengths, a collection album, and a live record — each one documenting his progress as an artist, but also as a person. And on October 11, Chunksaah Records will release Barry's sixth album, The Roads To Richmond, another step in the journey that began nearly 15 years ago.

While Barry's albums are always built on his personal experiences, none have felt as raw as The Roads To Richmond, which plays like journal entries ripped out of a notebook then set to music. Written largely outside of his hometown, the songs on The Roads To Richmond chronicle a period of transition, the product of an artist working to re-establish normalcy an find his way forward.

Recorded once again with Lance Koehler, this time around Barry completely shifted his process, recording once a week in three-hour sessions without any concept of what The Roads To Richmond would end up being. There were no demos, and there was no map for what the album would look like when he was finished. He had 40 songs, and he recorded as many of them as he could, only letting the very best of them surface here on The Roads To Richmond. "This record is pretty harsh, in a lot of ways," says Barry. "Many of the songs that are first-person on this record, the ones that seem really miserable, were written as those things were happening. When you go through a really dark spot, it really is just a matter of time before you gain perspective and things aren't so dark. But to capture the moments in those dark spots is really remarkable." That's part of why talking to him about the album not only feels intrusive, but a little redundant. Everything you need to know is right there in the music, and that's the way it should be.

From the very start of "Big Ships," Barry appears as vulnerable as he's ever been. Always a commanding presence, on The Roads To Richmond, his voice quivers delicately, each word cracking under the weight of his thoughts. "It ain't the years that aged me, it's the miles on this sea / And there's no one to blame but me," he sings, an acknowledgement of his restless ways, and the toll those things have taken. It builds to a simple, tossed-off phrase, one that's both plainspoken and poetic, "I'm just trying to get through another day."