now playing: barry walsh : the crossing

The Crossing


Barry Walsh has been making music professionally for more than thirty years. Most of that has been spent in Nashville recording studios. In recent years he’s been touring in support of singer and songwriter Gretchen Peters, and with Alex Chilton and the Box Tops. His past history includes backing up Roy Orbison and Jimmy Webb, and writing songs that Waylon Jennings and The Amazing Rhythm Aces, among others, have recorded.

Thanks in part to encouragement from Peters, Walsh has now gotten around to recording his first solo album, and it’s something none of those credits noted above would likely prepare you for. Original, mostly just Walsh and his piano, it’s music that draws on both Bach and folk, and remains true to the voice of this artist. Without the first word being said, Walsh speaks clearly and movingly of connection, discovery, love’s questions and love’s certainties, and the varied landscapes of thought and emotion. David Henry adds masterful cello on several tracks, including the opening title cut, and Mark Selby brings in guitar on Nigel’s Blues. The only cover is a twice imagined take on Erik Satie’s Je Te Vieux, a piece which Walsh presents as at once somber and seeing the possibility of joy. It fits in perfectly with the rest of the collection.


more about Gretchen Peters here