DannyBarnesVEVO

While the liner notes of Danny Barnes’ remarkable new album, ‘Man On Fire,’ are stacked with a slew of heavy hitting friends—you may recognize Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, jazz pioneer Bill Frisell, and executive producer Dave Matthews, to name just a few—it’s Barnes’ characters who shine brightest on the album. Rendered with rich detail and deep empathy, they’re timeless figures grappling with the essential questions of their humanity, ordinary folks just trying to get by in a world that’s been rigged against them. Their stories walk the line between past and present, and Barnes’ virtuosic banjo and unassuming vocals manage to do much the same, fusing old-time tradition with modern experimentalism as they draw on a wide swath of American musical history, from Appalachian folk and Memphis rockabilly to Kentucky bluegrass and Bakersfield country.