TALK about catching a hot property. Jimmy Barnes may be 60, but he’s far from irrelevant in today’s slipstream of Australian culture.
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![STILL GOT IT: Jimmy Barnes at Lizotte's on Monday night, the first of two shows. He's back again on November 7. Pictures: Craig Wilson STILL GOT IT: Jimmy Barnes at Lizotte's on Monday night, the first of two shows. He's back again on November 7. Pictures: Craig Wilson](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/324VkdtvqnBSp7aYw6KyqmM/4c47d662-4d2d-442c-ab47-8ca08c93d1c6.jpg/r220_292_3064_1920_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
On Monday Barnesy launches his intensely personal autobiography, Working Class Boy, that will set him on an extensive national “spoken word” tour. In November he kicks off his Stories & Songs intimate-style music tour.
On Monday night he will be a guest panelist on Q & A on ABC of all places. By telling the story of his tough childhood he’s been thrust into the national conversation about child abuse, and promoting the Luke Batty Foundation.
![Soulful: Jimmy Barnes reaching deep. Soulful: Jimmy Barnes reaching deep.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/324VkdtvqnBSp7aYw6KyqmM/95b1a1d8-97df-4793-b456-ecd0bda8dbdc.jpg/r110_0_1482_1049_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
In June he released a new album, Soul Searchin’, his fourth excursion into blues and gospel music.
But tonight, he’s all ours, playing to a keen crowd heavily populated with silver-haired gentlemen and their spouses, with plenty of orders for Jameson heard at the bar.
When you carry a voice like Barnesy’s, it’s hard to call it a stripped-back show, but that’s what it was. There was his daughter Mahalia Barnes on vocals, Jackie Barnes on percussion and keys and his gun guitarist Ben Rodgers. Younger daughter Elly-May with a few friends (including Sarah McLeod and Reece Mastin) opened the night with a set of cover songs.
![Sharp: Not missing a beat, high or low. Sharp: Not missing a beat, high or low.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/324VkdtvqnBSp7aYw6KyqmM/266dbcd7-e90a-4515-9ef6-9e7771c18307.jpg/r139_0_1593_1106_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The show starts with a ripper; a five-minute version of In The Upper Room, originally performed by gospel queen Mahalia Jackson. Not only is Barnesy, sporting a tight button-down black shirt with a good showing of chest hair at the top, in full voice, but Mahalia is breath-taking when handed the solo reins.
Wow, what a starting point, what a statement.
After the song, Barnesy says he first heard the song while watching TV as a small child. He paid attention to the credits at the end, learning it was sung by Mahalia Jackson, and yes, named his oldest daughter after her.
And thus began the night’s journey of the unexpected. It certainly wasn’t filled with songs from the Soul Searchin’ album. There was only a touch of Cold Chisel. Almost every song had a story – singers who reach Barnesy’s status are entitled to pay tribute to songwriters by cherry-picking what suits them.
Barnesy and family cut loose on Wade in the Water, a gospel classic more than 100 years old. It was followed immediately by Do Right Woman, Do Right Man, an Aretha Franklin classic, with Mahalia’s vocals doing more than justice to it.
There were classics every which way, from Reflections to The Weight (with vocals shared by all) to Shake Rattle and Roll. In between Barnes was relaxed, rolling out stories about his childhood days in both Glasgow and Adelaide, perhaps a teaser for the coming major tour.
He introduced Around The World, as a song his father, not only a boxer but also a singer, used to sing like Nat King Cole. He spoke in praiseworthy tones of his brother, John Swan, also a singer, before singing Reflections.
One of his longer passages was about wild days as a patron and musician at the historic Largs Pier Hotel in Largs Bay, South Australia. They were wild times, with great music from iconic bands like Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. It was also his own initiation into rock’n’roll, leaving Chisel briefly to front Fraternity, a band that lost its lead singer, Bon Scott, to another band...
For all the swagger of the story, Barnesy’s ensuing song about the Largs Pier Hotel was rubbish. Vivid imagery, crap song.
On the other hand, his tale about Lucretia Dunkley, the last woman hung in Australia, in 1843 in Berrima, was a perfect introduction for the song, All Hell Broke Lucy, the second song in his first encore. It’s a helluva rocker, off Chisel’s last album of new material, The Perfect Crime.
As he did four years when he played the same venue, Barnesy covered Flame Trees. Although he did not write the song (Don Walker wrote the lyrics), it owns him. It’s the equivalent of having a Cold Chisel tattoo. As one of Australia’s most enduring rock ballads, crowds melt when they hear it.
The last song of the night, bringing a second encore to the finish line, was Love Me Tender. Recorded in 1956 by Elvis Presley, it’s 60 years old, just like Barnesy.