Johnny Barnes has the blues

Johnny Barnes

has the blues

Johnny Barnes’ life has been a cornucopia of roles and experiences. He has been behind the wheel of a taxi cab and behind the wheel of a police car. He has sat in a classroom at the seaN Harvard Extension School and in front of his

MCCarthy keyboard as he’s typed up multiple murder mysteries. He has been the manager of a popular Boston nightclub and has run a detective agency out of the city’s Chinatown district. And while he has evolved through a variety of identities, one thing has been a constant throughout: his love of making music.

At the age of 69, this Fairhaven resident has just released “Blue River of Dreams,” an eight-song collection of his own musical creations, backed by a group of local performers and recorded at an area studio. This will be another piece in an extensive catalog of recordings he has amassed since leaving New Bedford to emerge onto the Boston music scene in the early 1970s. It is a career that has put him in the company of some of the music industry’s foremost figures, building a resume of experiences and inspirations that culminates in the unique feel of his sixth full-length record. “I’m stuck in the 60s,” Barnes says. “You can tell by the music I play and write, and the instruments I use. I love the sound of drums, guitar, and bass – they have so much dynamics between them. I’ve listened to three-piece power trios like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience for 50 years, so if I can sound like them, that’s great. When you have a good guitar player over a great rhythm section there’s nothing better.”

From the blues to psychedelia, to rock and pop, “Blue River of Dreams” is a smooth blend of Barnes’s lifelong influences. Whether it’s B.B. King or the Beatles, Pink Floyd or Santana, Barnes’s inspirations are on display throughout the record. There is the Latin-infused track, “Ooh Baby,” the dreamy atmospherics of the title track, and the pop rock of “Let Love Go” and “Peace, Love, and Rock ‘N Roll.”

“I’m a blues guy at heart and I love the psychedelic era,” Barnes says. “The blues are about feeling; it’s soulful, it’s from the heart. They’re telling stories that teach you something about real life. I love the early blues of Willie Dixon, Bo Diddley, and Buddy Guy.”

NeW bedford blues

But “Blue River of Dreams” is somewhat of a departure for Barnes. A New Bedford native, he built a reputation for his brand of hard-driving blues rock when his groups took to stages and airwaves throughout New England. His numerous singles would find their way onto Boston radio stations such as WBCN and WCOZ. His 1976 single, “Steel Rail Blues,” received airplay around the world. His followup, “Sudden Death Overdrive” was at the top of the local charts on WBCN for 11 weeks. “Steele Rail Blues” showed its staying power when it was re-released as part of a compilation record in 2020 by Easy Rider magazine, on an album named “Brown Acid.”

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Barnes was part of a vibrant Boston music scene. He fondly recalls members of the band Mother’s Milk (which would go on to become Boston), marveling at the fact that his music had found its way to local radio. He would also find himself in the company of future esteemed rockers such as Aerosmith, The Cars, The J. Geils Band, Billy Squier, Extreme, Til Tuesday,

“I got to jam with a lot of cool people who became my friends”

and others. Barnes would also team with Producer Jimmy Miller who had achieved fame for his work with The Rolling Stones and Blind Faith.

“I got to jam with a lot of cool people who became my friends,” Barnes says. “I was surprised that a lot of the stars that I met were really nice people and very friendly.” Barnes’s music is still being played on radio stations across America, including satellite radio stations such as Little Steven’s Underground Garage Channel, B.B. King’s Bluesville Channel, and a channel helmed by Rolling Stones’ producer Andrew Loog Oldham. Barnes’s big city odyssey began when he relocated to Boston shortly after graduation from Marlboro Academy in Great Barrington, MA. The move north led to a variety of occupations that would support his passion to make music. His early jobs included selling newspapers on street corners, followed by work as a taxi driver, something he describes as “an education in life.” With some background in paralegal investigations (thanks to work he had done with his brother Donald Jr.’s Cape Cod law firm), he was eventually able to find work as a Boston detective. His detective career advanced to the point where he was able to open up his own investigation company in the Chinatown district of the city, American Detective Agency, and American Patrol and Security. Late night poker games with friends translated into the opportunity to become Head of Security at The Channel, Boston’s premier location for live music. The job lasted for three years and opened the door for him to play his music at high-profile shows as the opening act for numerous national artists, including Thin Lizzy, Stray Cats, Ten Years After, Blue Öyster Cult, Eric Burdon & The Animals, and George Thorogood. Eventually the club gave him the chance to be their manager. Living across the street from the venue, Barnes would often find himself at late-night jam sessions with performers who had been at the club earlier in the evening. But as the club was about to change ownership, Barnes saw it was time to move on. He used his detective and security backgrounds to land work as a police officer in Sanford, Maine, a job he held for 11 years. He would eventually return to the South Coast as a patrolman for the Rochester Police Department, a job that lasted for another 11 years, until his retirement from the force due to injuries he sustained while attempting to apprehend a bank robber. During his tenure with the Rochester Police Department, Barnes began taking an interest in creative writing, using his personal experiences and real life crimes to craft stories of murder mysteries. To date, he has self-published four books. He says he writes the books with the goal of having them become feature films one day. Also on Barnes’s life resume are a stint at the Harvard Extension School where he studied psychology and astronomy, and a semester at the Berklee School of Music, where he studied guitar. With the exception of Berklee, Barnes is a selftaught musician.

hoMetoWN harMoNy

But Barnes’s return to the South Coast would prove beneficial. After decades in the competitive music scene of Boston, he was pleasantly surprised to discover what the area’s music community had to offer. “There’s a lot of top-notch musicians in this area, a variety of great players,” he says. “The musicians are very nice people, they respect each other and help each other out. People aren’t battling with each other for recording contracts. When I wanted to record this album I knew I wanted to do it with musicians from this area at a recording studio in the area. The engineers around here are dynamite.” “Blue River of Dreams” was recorded at Feedback Studios in Freetown with Ron Poitras engineering. The album includes performances by bassist Rick Rubin Pacheco, drummer JB Borges, percussionist Dan Schwartz, Sax Gordon Beadle on saxophone, Skip Mahler on keyboards, and cellist Ian Legge. The record is available on CD’s, and is being released on vinyl by Purchase Street Records out of New Bedford. “As a guitar player and singer I love the interaction with the rhythm section,” Barnes says. “If there’s a nice back beat and a walking bass line I’m just thrilled to add my guitar. When I’m playing a guitar solo it takes me to another place, and hopefully people listening get taken to another place as well.” For more info, visit johnnybarnes.com.

“There’s a lot of top-notch musicians in this area, a variety of great players

seaN MCCarthy has been a freelance journalist for 27 years. He lives in New Bedford.

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