Metropolis Xpress
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7/18/2011 4:03:46 AM
Barley Station Releases A New Kind Of Country Genre Blend In Their Contagious Debut Single
They coined the term “pop-a-billy” referring to their bending, mixing, and blending of genres - the paradoxical, if not paradisiacal, combination of rockabilly with pop on some songs. However, Barley Station’s music is punctuated throughout with elements of alternative pop/rock, folk, experimental at times, and rootsy alternative country. Their music features two and three part harmonies, catchy guitar riffs, driving rhythms, and contagious melodies.
It’s no wonder that Barley Station is rapidly climbing the charts at reverbnation.com.
“Songwriting is back!” proclaimed IntoMusic, a UK website, referring to the work of Barley Station’s core singing/songwriting team, Randy Wane Belt and Steve Meyers in their previous band, The Barnacles.
‘I Found You’ combines the elements of melodic pop/country with a distinctive rockabilly with a Johnny Cash kind of country feel. The mix of songs in the works for the full length album generally run somewhere in between and on top of the two singles and promises to deliver a tasty mug of sound. The songs are available via cdbaby.com to Apple iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon MP3, Emusic, and many other digital outlets.
They are currently working on their debut CD expected to be independently released before the end of the year and have just released this single in anticipation of that.
“Many hardcore genre purists even like what we’re doing, though some don’t, but its who we are, and we can’t change that. It’s just how we write and how we’ve been influenced”, explains Randy. He adds, “I was once told by a hard core country fan that mixing pop into country (or folk) in one of my songs is like spitting in beer! Though he seemed to come across as rather offended by our genre bending, the person proceeded to say he couldn’t help but like that particular song.” That kind of response comes as no surprise as songs penned and sung by Randy in his prior band had won several male vocalist awards at garageband.com and have been featured tracks despite fitting more into an “other” category rather than neatly into any one genre.
Barley Station’s core is no stranger to radio and press. Under the banner of their previous group, The Barnacles, Randall and Steve achieved the release of several CDs, national and regional tours, given radio interviews, and had airplay on over 200 land radio stations, including college, public, and some commercial radio. They received medium rotation on TABC’s ‘Best of Rock’ show and enjoyed everything from light to heavy rotations on other stations. Their genre blending sounds gave them a constant #1 pick up rate (over 90% consistently) with their radio promotion firm. Barley Station will be a group to watch as they take those previous successes to new levels.
Both Randy (guitars, vocals) and Steve (drums, vocals) have different musical backgrounds. Randy is chiefly a self-taught multi-instrumentalist and has a background in acting and musical theater while Steve has a masters degree in music and is a band director for K-12 in Kingston School district in Missouri. Bringing those factors together creates a perfect musical balance for the duo.
Fans can also check out their facebook page.
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