The Bad Livers were an American band from

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

whose inventive musical style defied attempts to categorize them according to existing genres.McLeese, Don. "Musical Mayhem: Bill Monroe, Metallica inspire Bad Livers' High-Speed Style" '' The Austin American-Statesman'' March 7, 1991.Alden, Grant
"Bad Livers: Deconstruction of the Labels"
'' No Depression'' #8. March–April 1997. Retrieved December 21, 2012 Their influences included bluegrass, folk, punk, and other musical styles. The original lineup, formed in 1990, included Danny Barnes on

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and

resonator guitar A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar (often generically called a " Dobro") is an acoustic guitar that produces sound by conducting string vibrations through the bridge to one or more spun metal cones (resonators), instead of to the guitar' ...

, Mark Rubin on

upright bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

and

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

, and Ralph White III on

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

and

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

. Barnes composed the majority of the group's original songs.Nitchie, Donald. "Interview with Danny Barnes". '' Banjo Newsletter''. August 1995. 6-11. When White left the group at the end of 1996, he was briefly replaced by Bob Grant on

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

and guitar. Barnes and Rubin then continued to perform and record as a duo until unofficially dissolving the band in 2000. The band has neither toured nor recorded since then, but Barnes and Rubin have played a few live shows with Grant in 2008, 2009, and 2014. The Bad Livers' music has often been cited for its influence on other groups,Staff
"Phantom Power & Spiritual Benefits: The Return of the Bad Livers"
''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogra ...

'' February 14, 1997. Retrieved December 21, 2012 creating what ''

'' described as "an impressive legacy". '' The Stranger'' credited them with "revitalizing roots music", and, according to the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'', "The Bad Livers helped open the way for old-time and bluegrass bands of today".

History

The Bad Livers formed in 1990, when Barnes "came up with this idea that it would be great to have a small-format acoustic band that could play different kinds of music t avirtuoso level, where they could play any kind of music".Morris, Chris "Banjo Widens Its Horizons" ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' October 10, 1998. p. 52. He began playing with Rubin and White,Hernández, Raoul
"Complete Freedom: Danny Barnes".
''

'' November 5, 1999. Retrieved December 21, 2012. and the trio adopted the name Bad Livers in the summer of 1990. They began playing frequently in Austin, including a weekly set at the Saxon Pub. A typical set in 1991 included a wide variety of styles and periods of music, as Rubin later explained: "We were doing

Mississippi John Hurt John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966), known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Biography Early years John Hurt was born in Teoc,Cohen, Lawrence (1996). Liner notes to ''Av ...

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

tunes,

Captain Beefheart Don Van Vliet (; born 'Don Glen Vliet'; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as the M ...

—anything, really, but it was

Motörhead Motörhead () were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1975 by bassist and lead vocalist Lemmy Kilmister, guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox. Kilmister was the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band a ...

or the

Misfits MiSFiTS was the acronym for the ''Minnesota Society for Interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy''. This organization has now changed its name to GPS, an acronym for Geek Partnership Society. It was founded in 1999 and was the parent non-profit org ...

that caught on."Riemenschneider, Chris. "Bad Livers transplant: Austin band is doing nicely after music-saving procedure". '' The Austin American-Statesman''. February 13, 1997. Imprecise descriptions of the Bad Livers' music abounded: "thrash-grass", "acoustic bluegrass with a punk death wish",Staff
"Critics' picks"
''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

''. December 24, 1992. Retrieved December 22, 2012. "something called 'contemporary bluegrass,'" and "acoustic-metal-bluegrass",Armstrong, Gene. "Pop band Overwhelming Colorfast on bill with a unique hip-hop duo". ''

The Arizona Daily Star The ''Arizona Daily Star'' is an American daily newspaper based in Tucson, Arizona, and owned by Lee Enterprises. It serves Tucson and surrounding districts of Southern Arizona in the United States. History 1877–1925 L. C. Hughes was the A ...

''. May 27, 1994. 2E. although these same sources would cite the band as "much-lauded" and note that "the musicians can really play". The recurrence of the term bluegrass, however bizarrely it was modified, along with counter-assessments of them as "good, faithful traditionalists" who "preserve the spirit as well as the technique of old-timey folk music", created a generic perplexity that led Austin country legend

Don Walser Donald Ray Walser (September 14, 1934 – September 20, 2006) was an American country music singer. He was known as a unique, award-winning yodeling "Texas country music legend." Music career Walser was born in Brownfield, Texas and raised ...

to observe that the only question he couldn't answer was what kind of music the Bad Livers played. Barnes insisted that the Bad Livers were not a bluegrass band, but had created an original sound: "This isn't bluegrass and it isn't this or that. It's Bad Liver music. We end up making our own thing." Barnes' original compositions were featured on their first album, ''Delusions of Banjer'', released in 1992 on

Quarterstick Records Touch and Go Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois. After its genesis as a handmade fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s underground and alternative rock scenes. To ...

and produced by

Paul Leary Paul Leary Walthall (born May 7, 1957), known as Paul Leary, is an American musician and music producer from Austin, Texas, best known as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist for the rock band Butthole Surfers Butthole Surfers ar ...

of the

Butthole Surfers Butthole Surfers are an American rock band formed in San Antonio, Texas, by singer Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has ...

. The album was praised for "Barnes's strong material, as well as the group's tight musical interaction". Barnes credited the latter with improving the former: "The musical telepathy is really good. I can sort of tailor-make a song to the guys' playing, make the song fit what they're doing, since I write most of the material." Rubin claimed that they had decided to incorporate the accordion and tuba into the band to counteract their growing popularity, but to no avail: their audience continued to widen and more critics saw beyond the gimmicky descriptions to the band's innovation and skill. ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' described them as "truly great", ''

The Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune , The New Orleans Advocate'' (commonly called ''The Times-Picayune'' or the ''T-P'') is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ancestral publications of other names date back to January 25, 1837. The cu ...

'' praised their "serious musicianship" and Barnes' "soulful, urgent lead vocals", while ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' admired their "striking blend of virtuoso flash and poignant simplicity". Don McLeese of the ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The distribution of the following ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', '' ...

'' twice described the Bad Livers as "Austin's best band" and raved of one live show: "The uncommon telepathy enjoyed by Danny Barnes, Mark Rubin and Ralph White makes the band's frenetic acoustic interplay sound like the work of a six-armed, multistringed monster." Barnes was voted "Best Player of Any Other Instrument" for the banjo at the Austin Music Awards in 1991 and 1992, and the Bad Livers were voted "Best None of the Above" for four consecutive years from 1991 to 1994. The Bad Livers' second album, ''

Horses in the Mines ''Horses in the Mines'' is the second album by the American band Bad Livers, released in 1994. It was released a month after their gospel album, ''Dust on the Bible'', was reissued. ''Horses in the Mines'' was Bad Livers' second album for Quarter ...

'', was produced by Barnes and released on Quarterstick in 1994. In his review, McLeese admired them as "a band drawing from the wellspring of tradition to create something fresh, vital and original". ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...

'' found that the record "sounded quite authentic—almost as if it had long held a place in the Library of Congress". Raoul Hernández poetically concurred, saying that the record sounded "like a bunch of skeletons cackling into the sole microphone that dangles from the outhouse ceiling". The Bad Livers spent 1995 and 1996 touring and working on side projects as well as looking for a new label to release their next album. Finally the band signed a three-album deal with Sugar Hill Records, which had more experience than Quarterstick at "selling banjo records". Their first album for the label, '' Hogs on the Highway'', was released along with the information that White had decided to leave the band. It was announced that he was to be replaced by Bob Grant, though Grant's tenure with the band did not last long.Langer, Andy
"Against the Grain: Mark Rubin"
''

'' November 5, 1999. Retrieved December 21, 2012. Both White and Grant appeared on ''Hogs on the Highway'', which received enthusiastic reviews from ''

Sing Out! ''Sing Out!'' was a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that was published from May 1950 through spring 2014. It was originally based in New York City, with a national circulation of approximately 10,000 by 1960. Background ''Sing O ...

'', praising Barnes' "quirky and inventive" original songs, and the ''Old-Time Herald'', admiring the "considerable skill" with which Barnes crafted his lyrics. The ''Austin American-Statesman'' agreed that Barnes was "an entirely underrated songwriter" as well as a "banjo wizard", while ''The Washington Post'' lauded his "timeless, deadpan voice". ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'' was appreciative of the "beautifully controlled ambience" of the entire album. Shortly after the album's release, Barnes moved from Austin to Port Hadlock,

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, though he and Rubin continued to work closely together on the score for the

Richard Linklater Richard Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American filmmaker. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. In 2015, Linklater was included on the annual ''Time'' 100 li ...

film '' The Newton Boys'' as well as the Bad Livers' next album. Although the soundtrack was admired by ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' and ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' as well as the Austin papers, the film did not fare well at the box office, and the soundtrack album did not sell well. The Bad Livers' second album for Sugar Hill, ''Industry and Thrift'', was released in September 1998 with only Barnes and Rubin credited as members of the band,Bad Livers. ''Industry and Thrift''. Sugar Hill Records, 1998. though the album features various guest musicians, including members of Rubin's side project, Rubinchik's Orkestyr, who are featured on the track "A Yid Ist Geboren inz Oklahoma". The album garnered positive reviews, and the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' selected it as the best bluegrass album of 1998, while ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' of London admired its "genuine originality". ''Industry and Thrift'' did not receive as much attention from the press as ''Hogs on the Highway'' had, however, and as Barnes lamented, the album "fell off the face of the earth". The Bad Livers' final album, ''Blood and Mood'', was released in February 2000 and featured, as ''The Austin Chronicle'' noted with astonishment: "''Electric'' punk rock, sample-based tunes with drum tracks, and a shocking scarcity of juiced-up banjo playing". ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' named it "the leftfield album of the week" and found that it "brims with enthusiastic ideas", while ''The Washington Post'' was puzzled but invigorated by a live show supporting the album, concluding that it had been "Fascinating. Even refreshing". Although it left '' No Depression'' depressed, Daniel Wolff found the album to be uniquely evocative of a "rural eccentricity"Wolff, Daniel. "Bad Livers: ''Blood and Mood'' (Review)". ''Rock & Rap Confidential''. April 2000. 2. that had not yet been extinguished and formed a kind of continuum with punk and old-time country: "Either the Bad Livers pick up where 'I Wish I Were a Mole in the Ground' left off, or Bascom Lunsford discovered the punk aesthetic in the 1920s." ''Blood and Mood'' did not sell well,Lieck, Ken
"Dancing about Architecture"
''

'' June 16, 2000. Retrieved December 21, 2012. and by the summer of 2000 the Bad Livers appeared to be "over for good". The Bad Livers were inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame in 2007.The Austin Chronicle
Retrieved December 22, 2012.

Discography

* ''Dust on the Bible'' (1991, self-released cassette/1994,

Quarterstick A quarter stick, colloquially known as the , is a large firecracker that falls within a range of dimensions roughly between and . These salutes typically carry 25grams of flash powder but in rare occasions have been measured and can contain upwa ...

cassette-only re-release/1999,

CD re-release) * ''Lust for Life/Jeffro's Dream'' (1991, Fist Puppet vinyl 7" single) * ''The Golden Years'' (1992,

vinyl EP) * ''Delusions of Banjer'' (1992,

vinyl LP, CD and cassette) * ''

'' (1994,

vinyl LP, CD and cassette) * '' Hogs on the Highway'' (1997, Sugar Hill CD) * ''Industry and Thrift'' (1998, Sugar Hill CD) * ''The Newton Boys'' (Soundtrack) (1998,

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

CD) * ''Blood and Mood'' (2000, Sugar Hill CD) * ''The Ridgetop Sessions'' (2000, Lumpydisc CD)

References

External links

Danny Barnes Official Website

Mark Rubin Official Website

Ralph White Official Website
{{Authority control American musical trios Musical groups from Austin, Texas Country music groups from Texas American folk musical groups American bluegrass music groups American experimental musical groups Musical groups established in 1990 Musical groups disestablished in 2000 1990 establishments in Texas