Photo by Michael Donahue // Buy this photo
Joseph Barrios
Joseph Barrios’s first gig was memorable — but not in a pleasant way.
He performed at Square Beans Coffee in Collierville. “It was a Sunday during the day show,” said Barrios, 16. “There were maybe four people in the coffee shop, all I didn’t know, except my parents and maybe a friend. I remember forgetting the lyrics to my songs, getting real embarrassed and getting really flushed. It was kind of a painful experience.”
Photo by Michael Donahue
Joseph Barrios
That would end the dream for some people, but not Barrios. He quickly got another gig at Square Beans. “If you’ve got something to say, you really want to get it out to people. And I think the best form of expression (is) to say it to them directly.”
His next show was more successful. “I had kind of improved my material a little bit. And my voice had gotten better, so it wasn’t just constantly squeaking out.”
He still plays solo, but he also performs with his band, Joseph Barrios and the Ne’er-do-Wells. “I have so much fun playing live now as opposed to that first show where I was shaking afterwards.”
Barrios grew up in a musical household. “I guess my first recollection would be dancing to John Mellencamp CDs.”
His dad got him into Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Barrios got his first guitar at age 7. “I was never really good at sports. I kind of felt like the black sheep in my little group of friends ’cause I couldn’t play basketball. I couldn’t hit a baseball.”
He wrote his first original, “Guilty Until Proven Otherwise,” when he was 12. “It had kind of a bluesy, jazzy feel to it.”
Barrios always was drawn to blues. “I think it probably came from growing up in Memphis, being surrounded by it.”
Winners by Default was the first “real band” he was in, said Barrios, who wrote the group’s biggest song, “Flight.” “When you’re in love you feel like you’re flying.”
When that band began to slow down, Barrios began working on a solo CD. “I really wanted to put something out that was a legitimate professional CD. Just to get my music out to the world.”
The songs on the CD, True, which came out last year, have an “indie-ish singer-songwriter” feel to them.
The song, “1351,” is about “being behind glass and watching the world pass by. And by the end you’re putting your fist through the glass.”
The CD includes love and break-up songs. “Questions” is “about a girl. You want to say the right thing, but when you don’t, it comes out totally skewed. Yeah, it’s happened a lot.”
Joseph Barrios and the N’er-do-Wells includes fellow Winners by Default members Barrett Kutas on drums and Evan Daws on bass.
The other members of the group came up with the idea of putting “Joseph Barrios” in the band title. “They wanted to start doing Joseph Barrios stuff. I was like, ‘All right. That sounds great.’”
Listen Up spotlights area performers. Michael Donahue can be reached at 529-2797.
Joseph Barrios
Barrios performs solo at 6 p.m. Saturday at Square Beans Coffee, 103 North Center, Collierville. Cover: $7. Call: 833-6785.
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