It takes a serious (and nervy) group of musicians to stake a claim as a revitalizing force in classic rock. You’d need an unabashedly rocking vocalist who’s unafraid to sing about small towns and girls in strip clubs; two guitarists who handle electric and acoustic six- and 12-string guitars with equal aplomb; and a rhythm section seasoned by years of studio work with everyone from James Taylor to Robert Plant to Bonnie Raitt.
Fortunately, that’s just what Barefoot Servants have done on their self-produced second album. Comprising guitarists Jon Butcher and Ben Schultz and session aces Lee Sklar on bass and Neal Wilkinson on drums, the band pounds out 13 tracks of nouveau-classic rock in a sequence that actually feels like a good old-fashioned rock concert. It’s all the more impressive that it’s been 10 years since their well-received debut album, as a true “band” feel shines on every track; you wouldn’t know it was a “supergroup” without reading the credits.
Blessed with an abundance of studio experience, the Servants clearly get the point across, inviting the listener to imagine sitting on a barrel on an old wooden porch on a hot, sticky summer day, the sun beating down as musicians sing and play, their friends clapping, stomping, and nodding to the beat.
The middle section of the album leans heavily on the acoustics, with “Take My Breath Away” and “Monsters of Bethlehem” serving as showpieces
for storytelling over a variety of acoustic guitar flavorings. “Brown Penny” is
a raunchy slice of authentic acoustic rock amidst the folkier tunes, echoing vintage Rod Stewart.
But when this band wants to just plain rock, as on “When The Day Comes”, the grindy “Dog Days”, and “Crack The Sky” (replete with phased guitars a la Jimmy Page), it’s a deep, heavy thing; you can almost feel the walls of the studio shaking and buckling from the power of the grooves. And through it all, they show that, in the hands of pros, acoustic guitar in rock music can be either a delicate or a decidedly indelicate positive force. That should serve them well for an upcoming live DVD release based on a recent show in Boston.
Most bands couldn’t wait a decade to release a sophomore effort and produce something as cohesive and constantly charged as Barefoot Servants 2. And they made a time-tested genre rock anew while doing it.
— Bryan Beller
It takes a serious (and nervy) group of musicians to stake a claim as a revitalizing force in classic rock. You’d need an unabashedly rocking vocalist who’s unafraid to sing about small towns and girls in strip clubs; two guitarists who handle electric and acoustic six- and 12-string guitars with equal aplomb; and a rhythm section seasoned by years of studio work with everyone from James Taylor to Robert Plant to Bonnie Raitt.