If you travel in certain
circles of bitter musicians who nightly lose a piece of their soul
toiling at dives and bars for what often amounts to little more than gas
money, you’re likely to hear a few groans when the topic of Berklee
trained musicians is broached. Sure, I’ll confess that I might have
rolled an eye or two myself in the past. But it doesn’t come from a
place of jealousy as much as it relates to a bad rap college-taught
musicians have been branded with over the years. It usually goes
something like, “Yeah they may know their instrument, but they don’t
play with any feeling. It’s all academic; no heart – no soul – no street
smarts.” And like most stereotypes, that one overgeneralizes by
pointing to a small constituency of players. In fact, if one wanted to
illustrate a Berklee Education put to good use, they need look no
further than to the career of one such alumni, New England’s own Eric
Barao.
Barao was a co-founding member of local perennial power-pop favorites
The Cautions. Back in 2006, while reviewing their then-current release,
I declared them “whimsical tunesmiths,” and for good reason. What I didn’t realize at the
time was the source of that songwriting acumen. With his eponymous debut
solo release, appropriately entitled Eric Barao, his gifted
song-constructing abilities are such that they could make even the most
cynical, curmudgeonly music fan sing along with delight.
The CD kicks off with the frenetically infectious “On Holiday,” a
jaunty, bouncing piece of pop goodness, which will leave the listener
singing the refrain long after the disc is safely back in its jewel
case. Barao’s strongsuit is undoubtedly his quirky turning of a phrase,
which is apparent throughout: “Eight O’clock the hotel bar’s loud, the senior sales department took control of the crowd.”
Barao invokes a softer approach on the subtly Lennon-esque track
“Trying Too Hard.” Replete with mellotron “strings” and some very
tasteful guitar work, the track features a haunting melody from Eric: “Your friends and my friends don’t mix, they try to hurt us with their dumb politics, maybe I’m just trying too hard.”
With a beautiful opening slide guitar part that sounds as if it came
from George Harrison himself (apologies for repeated Fab referencing),
“New World” is clearly a standout track. On it, Barao conjures up a
slice of wry social commentary: “Let the polar ice caps drift and
drive your hybrid off a cliff, they’ve found a new solution – Let’s line
the streets to point and shoot a million aerosol can salute to a new
Earth.”
After several nonstop listen-throughs of the album, it’s quite
evident that Eric has spent a great deal of his life learning the magic
formula that goes into making a great record. Songwriting aside for the
moment, Eric Barao as a complete piece of work sounds rich,
warm and dense, yet all the while retains the mandatory high-gloss of
today’s pop records. One would imagine this dichotomy is due in no short
measure to the production team Barao amassed for the project. The
enlisted control room sidemen includes Ducky Carlisle, whose mixing
credits include blues legend Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Eddie “Knock On
Wood” Floyd, and the album’s producer Bleu, who’s written songs for the
likes of Selena Gomez, the Jonas Brothers and Hanson.
It’s no surprise that Barao has had his songs used in national
commercials and major studio movie releases such as the hilarious Balls of Fury
(a must-see flick, if for no other reason than Christopher Walken’s
role as the criminal mastermind Feng.) Talent this big does not go
unnoticed very long. If public taste ever returns to its collective
senses and starts rewarding artists for things like clever songwriting
and strong production value, Eric Barao should be a household name
before long.
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