band membership

?-1989: The 45's
1989-1990: The Apples
1990-1993: The Wallflowers
1994-1995: Natalie Merchant

Instruments

Bass, Guitar, French Dulcimer, Keyboards, other
C

personal/professional history

Barrie was born in Philadelphia and played with various bands throughout high school in Philadelphia and his college years at Kansas University.

After college, Barrie moved to Los Angeles looking to join a band. One night, at a bar called the Anti-Club in West Hollywood he met Tobi Miller. Tobi was there with the other members of his band The 45's, including Luther Russell (who went on later to form The Freewheelers). They were looking for a bass player.

Barrie explains the meeting: "Tobi walked up to me and asked me, "Do you play Bass?" I said " Yeah, why?" He explained that they were looking for bass player. Now, I hadn't really ever played bass in a band before, I was always a guitar player in all my previous High School bands. But I had recently bought a bass for fun. So I pretended I was a bass player." (personal correspondence, 01/23/2000)

The bass playing obviously went well. Even after the 45's broke up, Barrie continued to play bass. This time he played in a new band that Tobi had begun with Jakob Dylan, a boyhood friend of Tobi's. They called themselves The Apples. With the eventual recruitment of a drummer, Peter Yanowitz, who just moved to L.A. from Salt Lake City, and Rami Jaffee, a much sought-after local organ/piano player, the group was complete.

Before too long, the group changed its name to The Wallflowers. They played at a number of L.A. clubs and individual members played at Canter's Kibitz Room. Barrie reflected on the band members playing at Canter's:

"Rami and I were always playing. Tobi and Jake would hang out most nights. I think Jake actually played at most 2 or 3 times, including for the story Rolling Stone did. Tobi played hardly ever. The night after the band and I broke up was the only time me and Jake ‘jammed' together other than the Rolling Stone session." (Personal Correspondence, 1/23/00).

Based on the strength of their local performances, The Wallflowers were signed by Virgin.

Barrie appeared on The Wallflowers self-titled debut recording (1992, Virgin), providing bass and background vocals as well as contributing to the song "After the Blackbird Sings." Tobi complimented Barrie's contribution to the band, "Barrie's got a really great sense of arrangement and he works off the melody very well, which is all you can hope for in a bass player. He's pretty amazing at that." (Album Network 9.11.92)

With the record release, the band began an extensive promotional tour opening for such bands as Cracker, The Spin Doctors and 10,000 Maniacs. Barrie talked about playing with the band,

''But the best performance of any song is the second time we play it. It's weird - every time we do a show, the most comments we get are for a new song. And we say, 'Yeah, it's a new one; we're working it out.' And by the time we work it out, we have another one everyone likes better. We need four more albums, like now, just to get stuff documented so we can go on.'' (Orlando Sentinal, 11.6.92)

Barrie toured with the band until early 1993, at which time he left the band due to internal conflicts. He soon joined Natalie Merchant's band (along with former Wallflowers drummer Peter Yanowitz), playing bass and 12-string electric guitar on her album Tigerlily. They recorded the album in Bearsville, NY during December 1994 - March 1995. Before recording, the band spent 5-months rehearsing. The group members lived in the same house for most of that time.

In 1995, Barrie returned to Philadelphia to work with Ben Arnold on his album Almost Speechless on which he played bass and guitars. He also co-produced and engineered the album. Barrie worked with Ben again in 1999, contributing to several songs on Ben's new release In Case I'm Gone Tomorrow.

Since 1999, Barrie has been working with a wide assortment of artists including Kirsti Gholson (whom he formed a band with in 1999), Rozz Williams, 4 Way Street, and more recently Amos Lee and LA-based artist Priscilla.

Barrie Speaks:

''I remember the '70s, and I had hippie parents, so my '70s were really just discovering my parents' '60s,'' he said. He's a big fan of the Grateful Dead (''Phil Lesh is pretty close to God'') and the Beatles. ''I don't talk about the Beatles anymore, though - it's too hard to think about it because they're so close to perfection. I can get depressed if I think about them.''

"Jakob's dad (the famous Bob) had influence on him and me and everyone else in the world. I think we all looked back for music and then kind of picked out the cream of what was available in the now C the punk movement and the Replacements and stuff like that and the continuing music, the Stones and the Dead." (Orlando Sentinal, 11.6.92)

"What struck me from reading all the talk on the Woodstock Websites was that there are a ton of factions in pop. A Metallica fan and a Jewel fan want nothing to do with each other. And in fact, Metallica fans want to hurt Jewel fans." (Barrie played at Woodstock '99 at the Emerging Artist Stage with singer Kirsti Gholson) (Philadelphia Inquirer 11.29.92)

Speaking of Barrie:

"Get your banjo. Let's play something, Barrie says when I walk into the room. He's settled comfortably into the far end of the couch next to the Christmas tree, my guitar on his lap. The house is full of family, and Barrie's been noodling around on the guitar for the last half hour. I've been listening, marveling at how well my old Martin sounds in his hands. " Naw, I say. "I'd rather just listen to you." (Barrie Maguire Sr., writer and illustrator, Philadelphia Inquirer 11.29.92)