BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID;X-RICAL-TZSOURCE=TZINFO:-//com.denhaven2/NONSGML ri_cal gem//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN VERSION:2.0 BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:Chris Barron is many things to many people: the voice of the Spin Doctors\, the face of the jamband scene\, an MTV superstar\, an Eas t Village troubadour\, the author of some of the 1990s&rsquo\; most endu ring radio hits\, a father and a teacher. But these days\, the Spin Doct ors singer is most at home when he&rsquo\;s simply playing rock and roll .\n&ldquo\;You tend to write yourself into the places you want to play\, &rdquo\; Barron admits. &ldquo\;There was a time when I was writing beds ide songs for the walls of my room\, but these days I am writing what I like to call &lsquo\;bar music for big theaters&rsquo\;&mdash\;stripped down\, honest rock and roll like The Last Waltz meets Exile on Main Stre et.&rdquo\;\nFor Barron\, the journey from bars to arenas to the bar-lik e theaters he now finds most comfortable hasn&rsquo\;t always been easy\ , but his songwriting has always been honest. Bursting out of seminal Ne w York watering holes like Nightingale&rsquo\;s and Wetlands in the earl y 1990s\, the Spin Doctors helped popularize the neo-jam scene with thei r funky\, infectious brand of rock and roll. The group&rsquo\;s marathon high-energy performances&mdash\; often on bills with Barron&rsquo\;s ch ildhood friends Blues Traveler&mdash\;found the Spin Doctors packing roo ms across the country and\, in 1992\, the band participated in the inaug ural H.O.R.D.E. tour. The Spin Doctors&rsquo\; multi-platinum debut Pock et Full of Kryptonite became a grassroots success story\, spawning ubiqu itous hits like &ldquo\;Little Miss Can&rsquo\;t Be Wrong\,&rdquo\; &ldq uo\;Jimmy Olsen's Blues&rdquo\; and the chart-topping &ldquo\;Two Prince s.&rdquo\; The group was nominated for a Grammy\, scored the cover of Ro lling Stone and shared the stage with luminaries like the Rolling Stones . They even appeared on Sesame Street.\nEven as interpersonal problems t hreatened to derail the band\, the Spin Doctors maintained a loyal follo wing\, but\, at the height of his career\, Barron was diagnosed with an acute form of vocal cord paralysis. Experts gave him a fifty percent cha nce of ever speaking or singing normally again and\, soon after\, the Sp in Doctors parted ways.\nWithout a band and uncertain if he&rsquo\;d eve r be able to talk&mdash\;let alone sing&mdash\;again\, Barron soldiered on and returned to his first love\, songwriting. As he struggled to save his voice through everything from acupuncture to prescription steroids and extensive vocal training\, Barron also began mentoring the next gene ration of singer/songwriters. He taught classes overseas and unknowingly blossomed into the godfather of the critically acclaimed East Village A nti-Folk scene responsible for the wildly popular Juno soundtrack.\n&ldq uo\;I used to go down to the Sidewalk Café\; to try out new songs\ , and I met Adam Green and Kimya Dawson of the Moldy Peaches\,&rdquo\; B arron reminisces. &ldquo\;I sang on some of their early albums and playe d guitar with them. At one point they did this series of shows where the y pretended to &lsquo\;fire&rsquo\; a bunch of guitarists. After the gig that I did\, Kimya&rsquo\;s dad turned around and said\, &lsquo\;Whatev er you do\, don&rsquo\;t lose that guitar player.&rsquo\; &rdquo\;\nThan ks to years of hard work and some good luck\, Barron&rsquo\;s voice even tually recovered\, and he slowly returned to New York&rsquo\;s vibrant c lub circuit. Barron also continued writing with his friend Jeff Cohen of the band Pancho's Lament\, and before he knew it\, found himself with h is freshest batch of songs since the mid-1990s.\n&ldquo\;It was just us laying down the songs Jeff and I had been writing\,&rdquo\; Barron says of his finest solo album to date\, Pancho and the Kid. &ldquo\;I recorde d it with a bunch of New York session musicians like Boots Ottestad and Espen Noreger of The Getaway People\, Teitur\, and Jack Petruzzelli of t he Fab Faux. I printed copies just to sell at gigs\, and they kind of sp read around.&rdquo\;\nBarron stumbled upon the members of his current ba nd\, the Time Bandits\, just as organically. While playing a solo gig at a small rock-joint in Amagansett\, NY\, he met keyboardist Jon Loyd. As luck would have it\, Loyd had already been playing the key Pancho and t he Kid track &ldquo\;Can&rsquo\;t Kick the Habit&rdquo\; with his own ba nd. Barron sat in with Loyd that night\, the collaboration worked and th e two musicians began gigging around New York with drummer Phil Cimino a nd bassist Brett Bass. The Time Bandits scored residencies at New York&r squo\;s Village Lantern and the Bitter End and\, almost twenty years aft er he formed the Spin Doctors just a few blocks north\, Barron found him self with another tried-and-true rock band.\n&ldquo\;You go and see a lo t of solo acts\, and they come off as a guy who pays other dudes to play his songs\,&rdquo\; Barron says. &ldquo\;But from the start I&rsquo\;ve always said &lsquo\;let&rsquo\;s form an identity as a band.&rsquo\; &r dquo\;\nYet Barron hasn&rsquo\;t forgotten about his best-known hits. &l dquo\;I love those songs\, and we continue to play them\,&rdquo\; he ass ures fans. &ldquo\;The cool thing is that we started goofing around with some of those old songs and I said\, &lsquo\;don&rsquo\;t listen to the Spin Doctors version and don&rsquo\;t worry about remaking certain part s. Let&rsquo\;s make them our own\, but make them recognizable.&rsquo\; We&rsquo\;re not going to do &lsquo\;Little Miss Can&rsquo\;t be Wrong&r squo\; as a tango or &lsquo\;Two Princes&rsquo\; as bossa nova.&rsquo\;& rdquo\;\nStaying true to his honest formula\, Barron took the Time Bandi ts on the road\, fleshing out his latest batch of songs in front of live audiences\, cramming into small hotel rooms and rediscovering his rock and roll spirit. &ldquo\;At one point I remember thinking\, &lsquo\;I ca n&rsquo\;t believe I am in a band where they are making me drink whiskey and watch The Last Waltz\,&rdquo\; Barron says with a smile.\nIn additi on\, he continues to teach songwriting at the Pop Academy in Germany\, p lay the occasional date with his old friends the Spin Doctors and remain s the primary caretaker of his young daughter.\n&ldquo\;The reason class ic-rock became classic is that it was rooted in the music that came befo re classic-rock\,&rdquo\; Barron firmly states. &ldquo\;Bands like The R olling Stones and The Band were standing on the shoulders of giants&mdas h\; guys who weren&rsquo\;t making any money but they knew how to rock. My former teacher\, Arnie Lawrence\, used to say that the only time anyo ne really sings the blues is when a baby cries before it knows it is goi ng to get picked up. After that it&rsquo\;s all show business.&rdquo\; URL:http://libertyville.patch.com/events/chris-barron-the-voice-of-the-sp in-doctors-with-thomas-ian-nicholas-from-american-pie-chris-quinlan-from -bottle-of-justus-fd8f3fb6 SUMMARY:Chris Barron The Voice of the Spin Doctors with Thomas Ian Nichol as from American Pie / Chris Quinlan from Bottle of Justus LOCATION:275 Parkway Dr\, Lincolnshire\, IL 60069: 275 Parkway Dr\, Linco lnshire\, IL END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR