Bark is the latest project of Tim Lee, who first gained prominence in the mid-1980s with Mississippi power-poppers The Windbreakers. Starting in the mid-aughts, Tim and his wife, Susan Bauer Lee, now based out of my once-home of Knoxville, Tennessee, formed the Tim Lee 3 with drummer Rodney Cash. The Tim Lee 3 was more of a hard driving rock band but with pop undertones still bubbling up. Now slimmed down to a duo for Bark, with Susan on drums and Tim often playing baritone guitar, Loud<\/i> is their fourth full length and, admittedly, the first I\u2019ve heard.<\/p>\n
The baritone guitar is an interesting instrument as it sort of covers for the bass by providing a thick, fuzzy\u2014you might even say comforting\u2014tone. Ian MacKaye used one to such effect in The Evens, the duo he played (and maybe still plays?) in with his wife, Amy Farina. But whereas The Evens could be angular, the rhythms complex, their sound building on a long DC lineage, Bark strike my ears to be of a different indie milieu, one that\u2019s uniquely Southern, and may even share the ragged spirit, if not exactly the style, of bands like the Reigning Sound and Legendary Shack Shakers. Lee also uses a Bass VI, a six-string bass that is often employed for chording rather than picking because the strings are packed so close together.<\/p>\n
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But maybe that\u2019s too much shop talk before saying a word about the actual album, and Loud<\/i> introduces itself with \u201cLove Minus Action,\u201d exactly the kind of fuzzy, propulsive southern indie rock I was trying (and largely failing) to corral above. Tim and Susan\u2019s vocals weave around each other, as they do throughout the record, with little concern for lead or back-up roles. \u201cRadar LUV,\u201d seemingly a ditty about the joys of sycophancy, continues in a droll, mid-tempo vein that for some reason had me thinking of Camper Van Beethoven, who weren\u2019t from the South, of course, although singer David Lowery has long been connected to Athens, GA. Jay Gonzalez (Drive-By Truckers) contributes a little bouncy roller rink organ to this one, as well.<\/p>\n
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Susan handles most of the vocals on the shimmering \u201cFloat,\u201d which features some psychedelic sitar work, fuzzy guitar chugging away underneath it all. Things take a literary turn with \u201cJames Robertson Must Turn Right,\u201d a cover of a David Olney\/John Hadley composition. While it\u2019s never quite clear what\u2019s going on with James Robertson (are we talking about the \u201cFather of Tennessee\u201d?), the song is languid and in no particular hurry, perhaps due to high humidity or thick kudzu. Given the presentation, I can\u2019t help thinking again of a garagier Camper Van Beethoven, or the vaguely haunting songwriting of Mercyland\/Sugar bassist and songwriter (and current University of Georgia music business educator), David Barbe.<\/p>\n
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On the other hand, \u201cWork In Progress\u201d is a hard-charging, melodic, punk rock song, Tim and Susan\u2019s voices blending beautifully. It\u2019s probably my favorite tune on the record. \u201cRock Club,\u201d a cautionary tale about spending too much time in dark bars, turns the tempo down, but is a bit literal for my taste. Perhaps I\u2019m getting artsier in my old age. I mean, I\u2019m still wondering why James Robertson had to turn right.<\/p>\n
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\u201cGutters Of Fame\u201d picks things up again with more buzzing, chunky guitar and some tasteful organ by Jimbo Mathus, maybe a little \u201cBang A Gong\u201d lurking in the song\u2019s skeleton. It\u2019s a great song. \u201cBlack And White\u201d slows things down again with a further rumination on popularity and fame, and organ is again provided by Jay Gonzalez. \u201cSo Much Time\u201d and \u201cPresent Tense\u201d end Loud<\/i> on a wistful note, time seeming to slip through everyone\u2019s fingers. While \u201cSo Much Time\u201d is a churning, mid-tempo rocker, \u201cPresent Tense\u201d gets downright slow and sad and a little bit dissonant. I have to say, I like it! In fact, I wouldn\u2019t mind hearing more in this direction from Bark. <\/p>\n
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Regardless of what I want, decades on, Tim Lee and Susan Bauer Lee are lifers, and this is an honest and soulful piece of work that reflects the warm, rolling landscape from which it came.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":34964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10937],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46836","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bark","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46836"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}