Ted Barnes
July 3rd, 2007 by sparky
“There’s an old newspaper clipping from the late seventies of a young Ted Barnes, skinny and sad looking, standing over a model town he’d built from cardboard and Balsa wood. The town itself is an amazing piece of work for a ten year old to come up with, when most kids were riding bikes or watching Grange Hill, Ted was building a ‘town on a hill’, borne from a wild imagination. A friend (Beth Orton) made the comment after seeing the clipping that they now understood Ted’s music and I guess I sort of feel the same way” – Gavin Clark (friend and colleague in Clayhill).
Ted Barnes is a national treasure. He does not make loud in-your-face music, but beautifully intricate (mostly) instrumental songs. Unlike the majority of contemporary instrumental music, Ted’s songs are rich in emotion – deeply personal and honest. Personal and honest in the same way as a record like ‘Five Leaves Left’ by Nick Drake, personal and honest in a way that you perhaps would not expect from an instrumental record.
Ted is perhaps best known for this work with Beth Orton, having played guitar and co-written songs on her first three albums. Ted also plays in the band Clayhill with Gavin Clark formally of Sunhouse and Ali Friend of Red Snapper. However, it is as a solo artist, in his own right, that Ted is at his most unique and special – somewhere between Yann Tiersen, Angelo Badalamenti and Tindersticks.
Four years in the making, Ted released his debut album ‘Short Scenes’ in 2002 (on Narwhal Records) to a wealth of critical acclaimed. It took Sketchbook another 3 years of badgering for Ted to release his follow up, ‘Underbelly’ (our Ted’s a busy man!).
Ted is a unique light in British music, a law unto himself that deserves to be cherished.
