Vetiver Axeman Cuts LP w/Joanna Newsom, Others

Kevin Barker enlists Newsom, Wilco's Pat Sansone and more; Thom Monahan produces.

By Blurt Staff

You And Me may be Vetiver guitarist Kevin Barker's debut album, but he is far from a newcomer to the scene. For the last few years he's been recording, touring and collaborating with Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Vashti Bunyan, Antony and the Johnsons, and Espers, to name just a few and being a regular member of Vetiver.

Now he has assembled an empathetic group of musicians to record his debut album, You And Me. Produced by Thom Monahan (Vetiver, Lilys, Gary Louris, Devendra Banhart), the album features Pat Sansone (Wilco), Joanna Newsom, Jonathan Wilson (Elvis Costello, Jenny Lewis), Eric Johnson (Shins, Fruit Bats), and Otto Hauser (Vetiver, Espers). The album will be released by Gnomonsong - the label helmed by Devendra Banhart and Andy Cabic - January 2010. It's described by the label as recalling at times "the rustic grooves of The Band and the Grateful Dead, the heady melancholy of Roy Harper, and the golden harmonies of CSNY."

Growing up in Washington DC, Kevin was well-versed in the DIY punk culture typified by Fugazi and Dischord Records. While in high school He and his brother formed a vinyl-only punk label, Nervous Wreck Kids. He also organized numerous shows at local VFW halls and art
spaces.

In college he became interested in the fingerstyle guitar playing of John Fahey and Bert Jansch. He began to write songs and recorded under the name "Currituck County" for Teenbeat Records, Troubleman Unlimited, and Track and Field Organisation in the UK.  He then moved to Brooklyn, NY where he attended film school at Columbia University and began playing with Devendra, Antony, and Vetiver.

While finishing his masters at Columbia, he began to tour more as a sideman with Vasthi Bunyan and Joanna Newsom, and began work editing his documentary film The Family Jams, which chronicled the summer 2004 tour of Devendra, Joanna and Vetiver. The film is slated to be released in spring 2010.

[Photo Credit: Peter Sollett]