You've probably sampled Noah Bailey's takes on music and entertainment in the pages of the Dallas Observer. He serves as a calendar editor for the alt-weekly paper. But the 28-year-old Dallas native doesn't just write about music – he also creates it as the singer and principal songwriter for Dallas' the Naptime Shake.
After three years of playing live, Bailey and his bandmates (Paul Burrough, Jake Barnhart, Chris Mayes and Glen Farris) are releasing their debut album Blood and Panic. The rootsy, earworm-heavy country tunes should appeal to listeners who like a little New Orleans brass with their twang.
We recently exchanged e-mails with Bailey about the Naptime Shake, which is playing two release shows this weekend. Hunter Hauk
Q: What music do you remember being played in your house at an early age?
Bailey: My mom played a lot of great music for me growing up. Lots of Springsteen and plenty of Texas folk and country. I vividly remember the stuff we'd listen to on road trips, especially Joe Ely, Guy Clark, Steve Earle and Robert Earl Keen.
Q: Were you a musician or a writer first?
Bailey: I've always been interested in writing, but I've been playing music for as long as I can remember. And even when I couldn't play any instruments, I was singing.
Q: Talk about a few artists or songwriters who helped influence your own style.
Bailey: Wilco's been my favorite band since I was 15 years old, but they have a lot of stiff competition. I'm a total record nerd, so I'm always listening to new stuff that probably seeps into my subconscious somehow. ... There are a lot of artists I always come back to, whether it's the stuff I grew up on (Willie Nelson, Doug Sahm, Townes Van Zandt) or the stuff I've gravitated to on my own over the years (Iron & Wine, M. Ward, Paul Burch, the Gourds, Calexico, Elliott Smith, Gillian Welch, Magnolia Electric Co.). We spend as much time talking about music at practice as we do playing it. As far as our "sound" goes, I don't think we really try to emulate one particular artist so much as create arrangements that serve each song, though I've definitely asked our drummer Paul [Burrough] to play like John Convertino as much as possible.
Q: What local bands do you feel are kindred spirits of the Naptime Shake?
Bailey: We spent last weekend on a ranch outside Goldthwaite with Slobberbone and Pleasant Grove, which was really cool since I absolutely idolized those guys when I was growing up – still do, really. There are lots and lots of bands in North Texas that we'd be honored to share a stage with anytime: RTB2, the Whiskey Folk Ramblers, Dust Congress, Doug Burr, Bridges and Blinking Lights, Dove Hunter, the A.M. Ramblers, Bosque Brown, Stumptone, Baptist Generals, Telegraph Canyon and especially the Theater Fire. ... The list goes on and on.
Q: How'd you come up with the band name? Does it have anything to do with a dog?
Bailey: "The naptime shake" was my way of describing that thing that happens when you fall asleep and find yourself jolted awake shortly thereafter. I've always just liked the sound of it. I also sent a list of band names to all my female friends and they gravitated toward that one, so there's that.
Q: Tell me about the recording of the album – where, when and how long did it take?
Bailey: We recorded the whole album live with Matt Barnhart up at the Echo Lab over one weekend in July of last year, then spent another weekend overdubbing horns and mixing the thing. We had all the songs worked up before we hit the studio, save for the instrumental that closes the album. We tried to let Glen [Farris] go wild with the Echo Lab's keyboard selection – I think he played a Wurlitzer, a grand piano, an upright piano and the big organ they've got up there.
Q: Talk about a few of the tracks you're proudest of.
Bailey: Lately I've been proudest of "Texas City." It's a story song about the Texas City industrial disaster of 1947. I wrote it after reading a book by Bill Minutaglio (City on Fire) and got a friend of mine to slip him a copy of our album a few months back. He wrote me a really cool e-mail a few days later and ended up writing some liner notes for us, which is about the biggest compliment I can think of. Other than that, I'd say "Blood and Panic" is probably my favorite lyrically, and I really like "Hawks" because it's the only one that came to me fully formed – I wrote it in about 30 minutes. I'm a sucker for horns, too, so I love all the tunes with brass on them.
Q: What effect does being a musician and playing in a band have on your music writing? Do you criticize with greater sensitivity as a result?
Bailey: I'd like to say it doesn't affect the way I write, but it definitely does. I have a hard time bashing local bands in print because I know what it's like to play to two people at Club Dada on a Tuesday night. And when I write record reviews I spend entirely too long trying to keep my comparisons from sounding flippant. That's why I usually only write about bands I really love, at least on a local level.
CD-release show Friday at 10 p.m. at Bryan Street Tavern, 4315 Bryan St. Nicholas Altobelli opens. No cover. 214-821-4447. bryanstreettavern.com.
• The band opens for Lo-Fi Chorus at the Dog Day Afternoon Humane Society benefit, Saturday at 4 p.m. at Lee Harvey's, 1807 Gould St. $15 donation, includes two drinks.
• Hear some music at myspace.com/thenaptimeshake.
Place an Ad
