![Rick Barry Releases "Relics, Volume 1" on Bandcamp](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2021/Relics.jpg "Rick Barry Releases "Relics, Volume 1" on Bandcamp")
(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- The four-track first installment of Rick Barry’s cover project Relics was released Friday, April 2, 2021 via Bandcamp. Featuring tracks originally performed by Joe Harvard, Dentist, Tara Dente, and Them Vibes, all sales of Relics will be donated to services which support mental health services.
Relics, Volume 1 expands on the premise of the collection’s lead single, a pared-down rendition of Joe Harvard’s “Boston,” by distilling songs by Barry’s peers and collaborators to their elemental forms. Co-produced and arranged by inveterate journeyman keyboardist and frequent Rick Barry collaborator Mark Masefield, Barry takes the dreamy post-punk of Dentist’s “Nightswimming,” the lush folk drama of Tara Dente’s “Blind Pilot,” and the simmering rock-and-roll emotionality of Them Vibes’ “Out of the Blue,” and unifies them with a stripped down, elegant sound reminiscent of an early Leonard Cohen record.
Relics, Volume 1 is available for free at Rick's bandcamp page
In the context of its release, Relics also serves as a meta-commentary on living through a time when our relationships with our friends and loved ones are often limited to how we remember them. But, more than anything, though, this collection is Barry’s ode to the community of independent artists whose work has helped him through the difficulties of the past year - as evidenced by the appearances of many of his past collaborators and peers as backing musicians.
“This project is kind of meant as a ‘thank you’ to the independent artists I love whose music has comforted me over the pandemic, whether it’s spinning their record with a glass of wine or getting me through the last five minutes of a workout.” And, in the spirit of creative exchange being celebrated, some artists involved in the project will be returning the thanks with covers of Barry’s own work, to be released as digital B-sides.
Relics, Volume 1 is available for purchase on Bandcamp. Because this project is a tribute to the unique struggles posed by the events of the past year, all sales from this project will be donated to MusiCares, which facilitates addiction counseling and mental health support to those in the music community, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
