Satisfied with a sleeping dog at his feet and a simple song in his head, Virginia-born songwriter Tim Barry looks outward over the banks of the James River — and is king.
Anchored to the simple faith of “riding fast and living slow,” Barry, of Richmond’s Oregon Hill neighborhood, has since 1990 fronted hardcore mainstay Avail, a band with a legacy for loud, melodic punk rock that’s endured as one of the genre’s most revered.
“I’ve always had all these songs laying around, songs that didn’t work for Avail. I think it was January of 2003 or 2004, where some friends of mine who have an alternative newspaper down in Asheville, NC. They’d asked me to come down and do a benefit, they needed some loot to keep it going. That was the first show. There was really no preparation for it.
I just flat-out sucked, like honestly sucked. But it felt really liberating to try, to not be confined to any set list, just hanging out with all the guys. It challenged me. Because after a thousand or two shows with Avail, and of course every event is a challenge, and I give it my all, but it becomes easy, ’cause the fans are there to see you and they’re going to sing along, and suddenly that challenge is gone. So here I am with an acoustic guitar and microphone and I’m like, “This is a challenge, this is (frigging) frightening. And that got me really into it. Scaring myself. Like “Can I do this? Can I stand up here by myself and play a guitar and keep people’s attention. And that’s how it fell into place.”
Barry’s latest, “Manchester,” will be available in stores Nov. 4, and can be preordered at www.suburbanhomerecords.com. The album features Barry’s younger sister, Caitlin, on violin.