From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Jul 13, 2002  2:08 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Joe Barry
 
JOE BARRY (By Tony Wilkinson)

Born Joseph Barrios, 13th July 1939 in Cutoff, Louisiana;
died 31 August 2004, Cut Off, LA.

Real name Joseph Barrios, he was the son of a mouth harp playing boat captain
and cousin to Columbia recording artist Vin Bruce. From 1955 onwards, he began
sitting in at local clubs trying to develop a sound that involved black gospel
as well as the locally prevalent country and Cajun, which occasionally upset the
local traditional musicians. From here it was onto New Orleans sitting in with
Crescent City musicians and gradually nurturing his own sound.

Come 1958, he and Joe Carl were part of the Dukes Of Rhythm revue that came
complete with a large horn section. The outfit came to the attention of Floyd
Soileau, but he would only release original material on his fledgling Jin
Records. Joe wrote 'The Greatest Moment Of My Life' and 'Heartbroken Love' which
was eventually laid down at the second attempt. Joe Carl and half the Dukes Of
Rhythm split and the record only sold in moderate quantities locally. Recruiting
new musicians and calling themselves The Vikings, Floyd and Joe went to Cosimo
Matassa's studio in New Orleans and recorded 'I Got A Feeling' and for the flip
'I'm A Fool To Care', the vocals of which had uncanny similarities to Fats
Domino. Released on Jin, 'I'm A Fool To Care' started to take off, selling in
excess of 40,000 copies locally within a few days. They also recorded a French
language version titled 'Je Suis Bete Pour T'Aimer'

Soileau introduced Barry to Huey Meaux who had connections with Mercury Records
and in addition became Joe's manager. Mercury was enjoying successes with
various swamp pop discs and so was receptive to Meaux's approaches. However as
Mercury's artist roster was full, it was decided to launch Smash Records as a
subsidiary with Barry as the first pacted artist and the disc being the
aforementioned 'I'm A Fool To Care' (which became a # 24 pop hit in the spring
of 1961). The next act signed two days later was Joe Dowell. Smash found itself
with two hits at its inception.

Appearances on 'American Bandstand', other top rated television shows and
national tours quickly followed. However he found time to sit in on the
recording session of Bobby Bland's 'Two Steps From The Blues' album and lay down
two singles under the names of Roosevelt Jones and Tee C. Bee. There were two
follow up releases on Jin and Smash in 1961, namely 'Teardrops In My Heart' and
'Til The End Of The World'. The same year saw 'Come What May' slip out on Huey
Meax's Pic label

With all the success came drugs and a loss of control and he gained a reputation
as a hotel room wrecker. But the record releases continued and, between 1962 and
1965, he had around six singles released on the Princess label as well as two on
Sho-Biz Records. He then had a disagreement with Huey Meaux over money,
particularly as to where his earnings had gone to. Eventually the pair severed
their business relationship.

Barry then recorded a single for the Houma label (My Shoes Keep Walking Back To
You/I'm Walking Behind You) but seemingly only 500 were pressed. Come 1967 Joe
tried to be his own boss by releasing a single on Success Records (Your Eyes/Red
Wine), which was a label he owned. He then signed with Nugget Records out of
Nashville and founded by guitarist Fred Carter Jnr. Three singles were released
to good reaction and it seemed that Barry he was going back into the big time
when the company went belly up.

Disillusioned, Barry returned to working on oil rigs for around three years and
then returned to the club scene as a performer. There is a story that, whilst in
Houston, he and Benny Barnes purchased a bar from George Jones and opened up one
night, drank everything in sight and gave booze away. They closed down early the
next day costing them around $1,500 each. Eventually Barry became a Christian
and decided to forsake the music business but come 1976, Huey Meaux came calling
again.

As a result of Meaux's success with Freddy Fender, he had access to ABC/Dot
Records. Despite their previous differences, Barry again linked up with Meaux
and a recording contract with the record company resulted. There was a three to
four month period of recording and an album and single were issued but the
company was in the process of being sold to MCA and, as a consequence, a lot of
artists were dropped and promotion ceased. Joe was one such casualty.

In 1978, Barry was forced into retiring as a singer due to serious problems with
both his heart and lungs and this is a situation that prevails to this day.

Recommended Listening:

Night Train NTI CD 2003 'Joe Barry - I'm A Fool To Care: The Complete Recordings
1958-1977' (59 tracks, 1999 issue)

Despite the title of the last mentioned, there is the odd track that appears on
the following but not on the foregoing:

(UK) Edsel EDCD 610 'The Loneliest Boy In Town: Swamp-Pop, Blues, R&B Vol. 1'
(16 tracks)

(UK) Edsel EDCD 617 'Joe Barry, Aka Roosevelt Jones (The Crazy Cajun Recordings
Vol. 2)' (17 tracks)

These last two are recordings made for Huey Meaux only and again were a 1999
release.

Updated 23 April 2005