Larry Bagby

California based singer/songwriter Larry Bagby has been a successful actor for 20 years, he recently played Johnny Cash's best friend and bassplayer Marshall Grant in "Walk the line", alongside Hollywood stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

Larry has also done many guest appearances on shows such as CSI and Buffy the vampire slayer, but he is also a talented musician and songwriter - the new 6 track EP "On the radio" is a follow up to 2005's "Where I stand" which like his previous effort is based on his own life.
Larry is a great storyteller and singer, the music leans towards contemporary country and even traces of folkrock like a mix between John Mayer, Vince Gill and Tim McGraw.

The opening track "Counting my lucky stars" should be the ticket out in the big world for Larry since it's a great spiritual song that caught my attention immediately but the emotional "Still" is truly the highlight here with a beautiful melody.
"Bone giving love" bring thoughts to Johnny Cash and I like the more rocking guitars on this tune.
My advice is: don't wait to hear Bagby on the radio, play his whole new cd at your homes first!


- Kaj Roth

Larry Bagby
Category: Music



Larry Bagby


Review by Ellen Aldridge

You may remember Larry Bagby from such roles as Marshall Grant, Johnny Cash's bass player, in "Walk The Line"…



I thought all country was about kicking the dog and losing the trailer, but Larry Bagby will make rockers like country and good ol' boys like…well, nothing's gunna change a "good ol' boy"…and songs like "Drive away" will not let down any hard core country fan.

You know, country is sort of like the original "emo" isn't it? But, the themes and ideas joked about in country songs are the truths we cover with humor. These are the songs we listen to in the dark car parked outside old lovers' houses. Good stuff…if you don't actually have a gun rack on top of your truck and a shotgun in the back with the fishing gear….

"Got plans to live in the back of a car, going make it big wind up on the radio" Larry sings in "On the Radio"…Listen to the music make you talk real funny". Yeah, have you noticed being around southerners makes you talk with that accent? I know I do it, but my mom was born in Georgia. Maybe it's in the genes…

Damn what's this song sound like? Mazzy star…believe it or not. Damn. Ironically enough this is "Lucky Stars" the way Bagby sings "counting my lucky stars tonight" sounds like the way Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You" but faster and heavier. If you actually play both songs at one you can hear how they should do a duet together. Now, that should tell you either A. this Larry Bagby has something to him or B. this writer has some serious issues in the corpus collosum (where neurons transfer information between left and right brain hemispheres). Then, again I have had a rough day.

I hear Jack Black in Tenacious D saying, "yeah, toe-tapping" and I smile because I thought I would never admit my country tendencies. I grew up in the north; no, not North Georgia, but the real north; New Jersey (can I get a hell yeah!)

So, I knew this day would come. I have a few skeletons in my closet, like a Garth Brooks album I borrowed and never returned. I can admit it now. Times are changing and so is music. The lines and boundaries of genres are being crossed, mutated, combined, evolved. So, now media snobs will need new terms like trip-hop, country-rap, folk-punk and I don't even know what more genres we can mix. I just know what I like and I am not about to be caught dead at a square dance festival or in a pick-up truck "muddin" (well, maybe I am just not ready to admit I have lived in the South long enough to know what "muddin" is up close. But that was what beer was for…)

Now, I prefer to live it up by acting a fool and dancing to country or whatever strikes me in the comfort of my sound-proof office. Ok, no. I do not have anything sound proof anywhere near me and now my neighbors know about as much about my music tastes as I do.

There are melodies and hard rock rhythms. Self-described as "a fusion of folk rock and country with the writing style and energy of The Dave Mathews Band and John Mayer with the vocal tones of Tim Mcgraw and maybe a little Elvis and Cash". Yup. That about says it.

Maybe I will get a pick-up truck and be one of those "girls mom wanted me to flee from" as Bagby sings…

And he can sing...that's straight from the voice of my mother I hear in my head when I tried to explain to her why I loved bands like Nirvana…she thought they were JUST screaming. Anyway, I am not ashamed to say I enjoy Larry Bagby. If country is your thing and even if it isn't check him out. - Ellen Aldridge

We don't get nearly enough country albums to review here at ReadJunk. And as a fan of country music (the real stuff, not what you find on CMT), I was excited to finally review some music that I'm actually interested in. Larry Bagby plays midtempo folky country songs that wouldn't be out of place in a smoky barroom. The songs are primarily acoustic and minimal, with a nice stripped-down production that really prioritizes the songs over the performance. On The Radio, the second track, and I assume the single he's trying push, is a bit more rock than what you might find on country radio (pardon the pun), but there's a certain rawness that makes me feel like it's better than that.

Bagby has a great, smooth voice to match his sort of sleazy cover photo. You can tell this dude plays music to get laid - check out his last track Player With A Heart if in doubt. His songs are decent if nothing special. I'd be curious to see what a couple years of touring and working on material might do for him. A couple of the tracks are a bit weak and only kept afloat by Bagby's voice. Still, this EP is completely harmless and pleasant introduction to some enjoyable country rock.

- Daniel Field

“I’m Alright Tonight” plays at two different styles; there is a classic, almost 19th-century country sound to the opening guitar riffs to the track, but the vocals and piano seem to paint a much more contemporary sound. Larry Bagby provides these vocals, which are smoothed-out, lending individuals the ability to find something similar to a Willie Nelson or Garth Brooks in contemporary music. The storytelling ability of Bagby on “On the Radio” is without comparison; one can literally hear bits and pieces of the best singer-songwriters, whether it be Warren Zevon or even Randy Newman. The instrumentation does not stray far from where it began during “I’m Alright Tonight”, but it goes forth and lifts up Bagby’s vocals at all the right times.

One cannot hope for a better opening, and Bagby does not disappoint with the more up-tempo follow-up to “I’m Alright Tonight”, “Player With A Heart”. The slightly sly and humorous subject material present on this track reflects another thread in country music that Bagby caters to; this humorous style is given further energy with the inclusion of a sizzling guitar line that straddles the line between country and rock music. The strength of “Player With A Heart” is not this humor, nor is it the aforementioned guitar riffs, but is rather the linkages crafted by the band. Each instrument ebbs and flows into something that can only be described as Bagby’s second straight hit on “On The Radio”. “Done Givin’ Love” showcases another stylistic shift by Larry Bagby. This track will please many of the contemporary country fans in the audience, as it has heavy pop and rock influences, while drawing away some of the instrumental arrangements and sounds (like the slide guitar) that marked earlier tracks.

These inclusions and exclusions make the track into something that more closely resembles a Lenny Kravitz track than a Merle Haggard one. That is not a bad thing, as it gives individuals yet another way to see Bagby. “On The Radio” may only have six cuts to it, but the amount and density of music that is present on this Bagby release is immense. The replay value is high, and individuals will undoubtedly keep the album in their players until that time when Bagby can release eir next full-length album. For fans of country, of solid music, and of charismatic leads, “On The Radio” may just be the best release in the country genre for summer 2007.

Top Track: I’m Alright Tonight

Rating: 6.5/10 - neufutur magazine

Larry Bagby's plaintive voice and melodic, heartland-country songs have a polished sound but a rootsy, almost archaic appeal. The hero of the intense title track is a musician playing small bars, dreaming of making it big and getting played on the radio (a primitive music distribution system popular in the 20th century). The acoustically funky "Done Giving Love" rocks unselfconsciously, like music used to do before everything became ironic, and "Player with a Heart" does right by its old-timey rockabilly feel.

"Counting My Lucky Stars" is an old-fashioned love song with imagistic lyrics and a lovely melody. The other two ballads are forgettably prosaic and could have been culled. But this an EP worth checking out if you're a fan of rootsy, Dixie-fried, acoustic-based country rock. If nothing else, it proves that Larry Bagby is a lot more than the bully from Buffy.

Listen to tracks from On the Radio here.
- Joel Sobel