Bad Livers – Dust On The Bible
Two years ago Danny Barnes insisted the Bad Livers’ first, cassette-only release (not counting that seven-inch of “Lust For Life”) wouldn’t be reissued in digital form because he wasn’t satisfied with its sound quality. Happily, he has relented.
Recorded in Barnes’ spare bedroom in 1991, and intended only as a Christmas present for friends and family, Dust On The Bible offers ten tracks of traditional gospel, augmented for this release by a contemporaneous live recording of a Barnes original, “How Dark My Shadow’s Grown”.
It is the best of many worlds. Lovingly, informally recorded at home, the Bad Livers play gently, but with purpose. The songs, well, from the opening “Workin’ On A Building” through “Precious Memories” and “Jesus Is On The Mainline”, the songs are all at least vaguely familiar, even to a heathen who doesn’t come from the Southern gospel tradition. And Barnes’ vocals, brought more to the fore in this setting, are as warm as a winter’s fire crackling in the kitchen.
This set also serves to remind us of the importance the gospel tradition has had throughout country and bluegrass music. These songs, and the tradition they come from, are very much a part of a still-living tradition. Here they issue forth with care and great tenderness.