David Barrows Personal Blog

Synopsis (from the liner notes of the CD " Dead Man's Cake "). I am a singer, songwriter and saxophonist, born in Los Angeles in 1964 and now living with my English wife in London.  Dead Man’s Cake is an attempt to make sense of a tragic event that happened in my childhood.  During the 1960s, my parents were successful television writers in Hollywood, working on shows such as Mission Impossible, The Green Hornet and many others.  They had achieved what would seem to be the Hollywood dream, but then the dream began to unravel.  One night when I was 6 years old, my mother Judy drove to the cemetery where her father was buried and committed suicide by taking an overdose of pills. “Dead Man’s Cake” is a metaphor for those pills she took, and for suicide generally.  In the course of the album’s 11 songs, I try to examine what happened that night and its aftermath, and how this traumatic event affected my winding path to the present time. The ...

Hello.   I’m proud to announce the release of my new record entitled “ Dead Man’s Cake .”   It’s a very personal, autobiographical concept album, mainly consisting of rock songs, with some elements of other genres including jazz, funk, blues, world music, and even a touch of country music. I’ve previously put out three other CDs on my independent record label “Hounds of Renown Records,” all very different from each other.   This is my first new release in over seven years.   It’s also the first record I’ve done where I’ve written all the words and music, and where I’m singing lead vocals on every tune. I feel it’s the best musical work I’ve ever done.   It’s a record which I think finally gives a proper sense of my abilities as a songwriter, composer, arranger and co-producer.   I wrote horn section parts for all four saxophones – soprano, alto, tenor and baritone – and I solo on each of the four saxes on various tunes. I’m fortunate to...