Here’s one that’s been hiding right under my nose, Joey Barro, aka The Traditionist, a gentle-voiced crooner chronicling the details of his life through song. The liberal harmonica and slide guitar on “I Know My Ocean” makes it sound as if Barro’s an Austin 6th Street local and when he sings about the “sting of pine needles” on “Driftwood Doll” you imagine he’s recording in some cabin deep in Montana’s mountains. These assumptions would be wrong. Barro could be found guilty by association associating sonically with such surf-folk artists as Matt Costa or Neil Halstead. The loose and bouncy “A Sleep Be Told” easily charms and surprises when fuzzy guitars and a bubbly organ percolate their way through the bridge. Barro’s soft and poetic strains are a welcome antithesis to Huntington Beach’s unfortunately traditional dude-buddy-bro-jack-up-your-four-wheeler attitude.
www.betterlookingrecords.com
www.myspace.com/thetraditionist