Reprinted from The Word Magazine March 2006 THE BARKER BAND Keen and keening, Lonesome Waltz cries the beloved country and western in new ways By David Quantick There's something wilful about the banjo. Forced into hoedown servitude, compelled to make rednecks dance, some banjos rebel and mutate their jol- lies into a slow, sullen melancholy. Such, anyway, is the impression given by The Barker Band's debut album. With threatening tunes that still glide and roll like they all want to be called Sweet Home Counties Alabama, and vocals with an edge of bloodied gravel to them, twin vocalists Sam and Jake Barker and their bandmates (and their dad Lenny Barker) make music like they have been living under a bridge for 80 years and have secretly quiet enjoyed it. Last Kiss Goodbye has a leathery winsomeness that could make it a shoo-in  for  Australia's   Kasey Chambers, Never The Same has the same harmonised menace as those other fraternal cult heroes, The Webb Brothers, while there really should be more songs about with names like Boy Got Killed In Town. Lacking the dead-throated studenty faux-dear-me sound of much of the alt. crew, this is as British as Camden Town's own sweethearts of the rodeo, the great lost Rockingbirds, with a bluegrass swing all its own. In an ideal world... well, in an ideal world The Barker Band would have a name that sounded less like some musicians who had toured with Sooty, but noth- ing is perfect. In another ideal world, Westlife would weakly attempt to cover these strange, hooky moody and melodical songs, which would then rise up and eat Westlife's stupid faces. For now, the interested should visit www.barkerband.com or their local weird shop and investigate more. Those of us who already have this unique CD will sit at home, tapping our feet slowly and trying not to upset any banjos.