Bernie Barlow – Walking Around This Town (2025)
The UK-born Bernie Barlow has made a career for herself in Los Angeles (where she is now based) backing up groups and singers as diverse as Janiva Magness, Sarah McLachlan, and the Moody Blues. In 2020, she released her first album, Redeemed, staking her claim in the territory of Americana. Now, having signed with Blue Elan Records, Barlow has released her second full-length album, Walking Around This Town.
Producer David Darling (Janiva Magness, LifeSize) marshals the considerable talents of Paul Bushnell (bass), David Raven (drums), John Schroeder (guitar), and Philip Trudeau (keyboards) in the service of Barlow’s songs. Barlow stands at the intersection of blues, country, rock, and soul, a four-way meeting that gives the album diversity and allows her room to explore life, love, and heartache.
Speaking of the album, Barlow says, “I wanted to make a record the way Shelby Lynn [sic] or Carol King [sic] or Bonnie Raitt made a record.” One connection between these three singer-songwriters is their ability to tell stories, and Barlow has captured a way of storytelling that puts characters on the stage of the reader’s mind or creates a kind of character of herself. Whether singing of personal revelations or the interactions of others, Barlow has created an album with a depth that bears repeated hearings.
The opening song, ‘Brave’, sets the tone with a classic country rhythm played out on an acoustic guitar in a minor key. As the song picks up a rock energy, Barlow describes a love that she wants but is “bad for me”, making her love brave in the face of the personal cost. The lyrical terrain may be familiar, but it is an opening to the theme and an indication that nothing is really settled except desire (which will blast the album to its ending on ‘Million Miles An Hour’).
The gentle country ballad, ‘Which Way To Go’, features a finger-picked guitar under brushed drums and a jaunty fiddle as Barlow describes an empty-nester mom and a musician playing covers in a bar, who are unsure of themselves and their next move. “Falling faster than they ever did before/ Torn by decisions at every open door/ Sometimes it’s scary, but there’s always dice to throw/ They don’t know which way to go.”
‘Keep My Heart’, a slow, country-rock grinder with a Latin feel, finds the singer puzzling out the sudden distance in a relationship that had been close and pleading with a lover, “Keep my heart right where you said it would be.” Like many songs on the album, Barlow’s voice keeps a measure of grit handy as she navigates the emotions. This is a great quality to her voice that reaches a full-throated growl on ‘Million Miles An Hour’, but it isn’t the only characteristic her voice has. On the beautiful ‘Don’t Wake Me Up’, a somber ballad that finds the singer in the familiar anxiety of “no risk, no reward,” Barlow jumps from regular voice to falsetto in a way that recalls McLachlan’s melodies and her use of range.
Another of the album’s standout tracks is ‘Montana Man’, which features beautiful fiddle playing under, above, and around the melody. Barlow makes use of all these qualities as she tells the story of a man haunted by “an angel in a Chevy”, and though he’s changed by her, “he remains where he stands, a Montana man.”
Walking Around This Town features a couple of guest spots from guitar hero, Philip Syace (on ‘Stand In My Way’ and ‘Million Miles an Hour’), but it hardly needs them. Darling’s production brought seasoned players to the table who engage with the material with sensitivity or guts, giving Barlow’s songs the layered depth and timelessness she wanted.
Find out more about Bernie Barlow on her Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was sent to us by Obsidian PR.
