Neck Barham is Making a Scene

February 24, 2024

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Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Neck Barham

When I was five years old, I knew I’d be a musician while overhearing a family friend introduce my older brother to The Beatles. I listened to their music everyday and collected new CD albums any chance I got. I believe The Beatles had the perfect style of music to raise me as a kid, with their imaginative lyrics, inventive chords and unique sound structures. However, as I got older my personal philosophy evolved and my moral pendulum began changing, longing for new answers. I was growing and becoming more exposed to the world’s cynicism and contradictions.

I met the blues when I was 12 years old rummaging through my parents’ old CD collection. Their CD’s were made up of varius genres from all around the world, the blues however, wasn’t something they knew much of nor ever talked about. Yet randomly enough I saw a CD called “The Blues is Everywhere” and that enticing title struck my curiosity along with the track list which included “Kansas City”, a folk blues song I had recognized from a Beatles cover. After a few seconds of listening, the blues had sunk into my skin and shook my bones. The name of the artist was Memphis Slim. The warm saxophone sound, the sassy piano, and Memphis Slim’s soothing voice had placed a hand on my shoulder and gently nudged me into a new direction.

I began discovering different kinds of blues exponentially, starting with the likes of Albert King, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters. In college I got into Lightnin’ Hopkins and his early style steered me towards pre-war blues. I discovered that the richest era of blues, both musically and philosophically, was in the 1920’s and 30’s; Represented by the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and Blind Blake to name just a few. I began to feel the blues and become the blues. I knew for better or worse I had allowed it to take over my soul. I often stopped playing my guitar and simply watched as my hands moved across the neck playing things beyond my skill set and imagination, an almost sinister sensation as if I had exchanged a part of myself in return for this transcendental enhancement.

To me the blues is that uneasy feeling you get when you’re alone at night and something just isn’t right. The blues is a lustful sensation with exploding endorphins yet always with a catch. The blues illustrates a thin line between good and evil. It’s a tragic-comic celebration of human imperfection and moral ambiguity.

My primary motivation to pursue a career in music is to revive the ghosts of blues from the 20’s and 30’s and reintroduce them to contemporary culture. Like any traditional blues artist my lyrics are a collection of classic blues quotes, cliches and storylines combined with my own personal insight, a modest contribution to the story of the blues. I call what I do “Trap Blues” as my songs use trap beats as percussion rather than the traditional drum set. Although there’s about a hundred year gap between trap music and early blues, the two genres complement each other brilliantly and share a similar ethos. “Trap Blues” enhances the hard/deep delta blues sound with quick hi-hats, strong kicks and deep 808’s. My mission is to use the modern attraction of trap music to resurrect the ghosts of blues.

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