Artist and songwriter Dave Barnes is known for his musically eclectic offering. From the Christian hit that became a Grammy-nominated country song for Blake Shelton (“God Gave Me You”) to the pop, folk, and even soulful vibes that inhabit his latest album Carry On, San Vicente, Barnes has an impressive and diverse catalog from which to draw. When he takes the stage at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium this Saturday, he’ll showcase just that: a diverse offering from a catalog built on years of honing his sound.
“I think the first show that I went to there may have been a John Mayer show,” Barnes says of The Ryman. “I remember just freaking out because I love John and then seeing that room, which I’d never been in.”
“I’m over the moon,” he continues. Though this isn’t the first time Barnes has played the storied venue known as the Mother Church of country music, it’s the first time he’ll be headlining it, bringing Lucie Silvas and The Shadowboxers along to support. “I just feel like this is the set I want to do,” he shares. “I think even two or three records ago it would’ve been really good, but now I feel like if someone hadn’t seen me in a while, or hasn’t, this is the venue and this is the set I’d want you to see.”
Barnes writes many of his songs alone, which means both the lyric and melodic responsibilities fall solely to him. “I always think melodies are easier,” Barnes says. “I think some of that is because I’m 38 and I’ve written however many songs, especially by myself; because I’m going to the same well, it’s really hard to lyrically keep refreshing yourself. It’s really just having to tell those stories in different ways, which is fun but tough. I feel like lyric is the part that gets where I really feel like I’ve gotta sit and be still for a long time and think and figure this out.”
For creative rejuvenation, Barnes turns to music. “I’ve always been inspired by other music,” he says. “A lot of people I know can go to Rome for a week and the come back with all these ideas and I’ve just never been good at that. I tend to be inspired by other art. I think so much of my problem is I don’t realize I can do more than I can. I’ll think no, you gotta do it this way.” Listening to, say, a Radiohead song, Barnes will realize he’s not limited in the artistic choices he can make. “It’s like oh okay, I can use all the colors again,” he says.
Though Barnes’ career has included writing songs for others, playing his own music, and even performing as a stand-up comedian, it wasn’t his initial dream.
“When I went to [Middle Tennessee State University] for school I thought I was going to be drummer,” he says. I started studying drumming and it was just like, I love the thought of this, [but] I do not enjoy doing this as much. I think a lot of that was juxtaposition – I was around people, I was like this dude loves to play the drums, and I was like, I do not feel that way about this.”
My roommate my freshman year of college had a guitar and I just kind of picked up and started playing,” he continues. “I really enjoyed it – I’d sit down and write songs, and that was really fun. When that started, it was like it sent this thing to the middle of me. It was like oh, man. I really enjoy doing this.” Barnes stumbled upon a magazine at the school’s library on songwriters. “It was like I had found this community in this magazine,” he says. “They were interviewing Marc Cohn, Paul Simon, all these guys, and all of them felt like I did about this but I didn’t know that other people felt that way.” Barnes did an interview with a friend, who asked him a question that’s stuck with him since. “I remember her asking me, what’s the one thing if you couldn’t do it you feel like you’d cease to exist?” he shares. “I didn’t even think about it, I just said, I think create.”
“I think the common denominator [with songwriting, performance, and comedy] is that there’s a creation involved,” he says. It’s a creation that will come to life Saturday in Nashville.
Tickets are available here.