Big band in tow, Jimmy Barnes revives his soulful past for Soul Deep 30 tour
For a young Jimmy Barnes, soul music was one of few comforts in an otherwise stormy upbringing where chaos was the norm.
For a young Jimmy Barnes, soul music was one of few comforts in an otherwise stormy upbringing where chaos was the norm.
When it came to recording an album of covers at his home in Bowral, NSW during Christmas 1990, he was moved to return to some of those same soothing melodies.
“There was a direct connection to the songs that I chose: a lot of them were songs I’d heard on the radio, which were windows of joy in the middle of quite a traumatic childhood,” Barnes told The Australian.
Titled Soul Deep, the 12-track set featured songs by Stevie Wonder, Isaac Hayes and Sam Cooke. Released in 1991, his fifth solo album became Barnes’s most popular. It has been certified 10x platinum by ARIA, indicating national sales in excess of 700,000 copies, and its success opened a new avenue for him as a vocalist of breadth and depth.
“Essentially, I’m a soul singer with a rock ‘n’ roll band; that’s what I’ve always wanted to do,” said Barnes, 66. “But when it gets too soft, too quiet or too smooth, then I just want to lash out and play hard.”
But at the time of recording and touring into 1991, his drug and alcohol addictions – stemming from unprocessed childhood trauma – meant he was far from healthy or present.
“I hadn’t put this together until recently, but I think starting that record is probably one of the big steps towards me recovering, because it also sent me on a downward spiral for a while,” he said.
“It was instrumental in me getting to where I am now, and I think that’s why, doing them now, there’s a sense of joy singing these songs that probably wasn’t there the first time around.”
On Friday, Barnes released Soul Deep 30, which contains remastered versions of the original dozen tracks as well as four new recordings, including duets with Cold Chisel bandmate Ian Moss, Sam Moore and Josh Teskey.
Backed by a 12-piece band that includes son Jackie on drums – and daughter Mahalia pulling double duty as vocalist and tour manager – he began a belated 30th anniversary album tour in Adelaide on Thursday, with concerts to follow in Melbourne (Saturday), Sydney (June 24-25) and Brisbane (July 2).
“Most of the band’s been with me through the dark and the good,” said Barnes. “I was pretty intense as a singer then, but I think I’m more intense now, because my eye and my ear for detail is much more refined.”
“I’m in a different headspace than I was when I recorded these before,” he said. “I expect so much more of myself, and that means I demand so much more of my band at the same time, because we’re really pushing each other to be better.”