You & Me is the first album credited to singer/guitarist Kevin Barker, but it feels rather strange to call it his debut. He has previously recorded several albums with his long-running project Currituck County, and as a sideman-for-hire he has performed with an impressive array of talents, including Joanna Newsom, Vashti Bunyan, and Antony and the Johnsons. Yet for better or worse the gig that seems to have most impacted Barker is touring and recording with Andy Cabic in Vetiver, and You & Me almost seamlessly continues Vetiver's trail through the rustic backwoods of dazed Americana.
One doesn't build a discography like Barker's without being awfully good at playing an instrument, and You & Me is rife with evidence of Barker's expressive skill on both electric and acoustic guitar. His vocal style is clean and laid-back, recalling Cabic certainly, but also with tints of a more grounded Sam Beam or even a young Jackson Browne. Produced by Vetiver vet Thom Monahan and featuring contributions from such cohorts as Newsom (on keyboards), Wilco's Pat Sansone, and drummer Otto Hauser, the album exudes an undeniable sense of warmth and general bonhomie.
The hitch, however, is that Barker's likable presence is not enough to rescue some of these songs, and as a result You & Me soon becomes an album that listeners may find themselves wanting to like more than they actually do. Considerably more song-oriented than Barker's abstract, improvisational work in Currituck County, the album suffers from too many songs that cross the thin line separating the loose and carefree from the downright sluggish. At times Barker can seem so lackadaisical that his lyrics sound as though they might have been made up on the spot.
Yet-- typical of an album produced by Monahan-- You & Me is impeccably recorded and filled with subtle, striking instrumental details. The album's press materials reference the Grateful Dead, a comparison that is neither entirely accurate nor especially useful, but, as with the Dead's studio albums, Barker and his group use the simple tunes of "Amber" and "Mountain & Bear" as a handy excuse for some tasteful jamming. A skillful finger-picker, Barker sticks predominantly with electric guitar here, although he does crack out the acoustic on the sprightly country folk of "My Lady" and on the riveting closer "Bless You on Your Way" which is further enlivened by a string section.
Nearly every song here falls into the easy ambling gait that should be familiar to anyone who has heard Vetiver, a fact that Barker further reinforces by titling one track "Walking Along". (And you get bonus credit if you've also guessed that he's "walking along and singing my song.") This uniformity of tone and tempo understandably causes You & Me to wilt through its middle stretches despite its relatively brief running time. The downloadable version of the album does include three extra tracks, one of which, "Ten Toes to Sister Sky" seems more immediately dynamic and engaging than just about anything on the album proper, and hopefully offers a suggestion that perhaps Barker's future travels will investigate territory that's a bit more rugged.
