Reviews:
Next up (and bringing an enthusiastic crowd of fans), street poet and all round local legend Barnesy. He's got a nice knack of combining a sort of high speed, rap tinged vocal delivery with a surprisingly soulful voice on tracks like Estates Are In A State (his best song so far in my humble opinion and well worth a listen), a Gil Scott Heron of the Midlands if you like. And I do. (NB: the more I listen to this track the more I love it...this is seriously good stuff...) HEARING AIDE BLOGSPOT
Cockshure Kinksy-ness from bluesy bawler Barnesy is something worth noting. With both respect and disregard for the Queens English in equal measure, young Tom Barnes spins yarns of rationale beyond his years and an inquisitive eye for decadence. 'Estates in a State' is a Dylan-meets-Jamie T ramble with the haunting darkness of Johnny Cash. THE FLY
Barnsey is a Birmingham based acoustic solo artist whose fast paced delivery is a treatise on what has gone awry in our streets and hearts. He delivers a frustrated word spew at supersonic speeds that burns into our ears. He’s a poet of the British estates, a voice in the dark when The Flapper lights dip and leave him in the black and smoke. The future IS bright, when this is the kind of perfectly blended guitar and sharp, far reaching words that can speak for us. BLUE WHALE
Something of a local hero (there’s always an appreciative crowd at his gigs) he brings a touch of Ray Davies, a little Weller cool and (for the yoot) that easy street kind of style of singing that Jamie T’s trademarked. Standout track ‘Estates in a State’ is as good an encapsulation of what’s gone tits up in this country as you’re as likely to hear these days but, to be honest, there wasn’t a duff track in the whole set. It’s enough to give singer / songwriters a good name. GIG JUNKIES
He has the wry cynicism of Ray Davies thrown in with the bantering honesty of Jamie T, forming blunt and confrontational narratives of disillusionment backed by bluesy jazz chord progressions and accented with fancy work on his fretboard. His smokey, folky 5am comedown music has touches of Leonard Cohen’s stripped back, black humoured finger pointing that can be imagined decorating some hazy bordello before the whiskey hangover kicks in and the sleep deprivation starts to singe. BLUE WHALE