Cody Barnett has released a new single, Virginia, on March 21 which can be found on all musical platforms.

This single follows his self titles debut album which came out in 2018, and which you can find our review for here.

While Barnett is still earning his place in the music scene as a fledgling artist, his talent and music speak for themselves on why his place is secure and why he’s where he belongs.

This new song, Virginia, just goes to show his diversity and ability to continue evolving in his musical journey.

“This song is kind of different for us, it kind of changed the mood for our songs from before,” said Barnett. “It’s an upbeat and funky kind of a jam song , influenced by The Band and JJ Cale and those kind of jam bands that you don’t know what genre to call it, or like I describe it just as Oklahoma music. It’s just a bunch of guys with a bunch of genre backgrounds coming together to play some tunes”

Virginia was written by Tanner Miller. Caleb Shirtum plays bass and produced it, Walton McMurry plays the drums, Bryon White plays lead guitar, Jon Knudson plays the organ, keys and saxophone while Barnett is on vocal and acoustic guitar.

 “I hadn’t had Knuts play on anything yet, he can kind of just do it all, he’s amazing. It’s ridiculous. A lot of these guys I’ve looked up to, like with Bryon I grew up listening to the Damn Quails, and him and Fullbright and Mac, those are the guys I’ve listened to for all these years and now getting to work with them is kind of weird,” said Barnett. “It’s funny how life is. I think of these guys like people think of George Strait and shit. I’ve always liked Oklahoma music and these are the guys that I grew up listening to and not really styled my music around but just kind of picked up some stuff.”

 Virginia was recorded at the Boohatch Studios with Shirtum as the producer, and mixed and mastered by Steven Pettijohn.

 “We cut that song like 2 or 3 different ways I think and we finally changed up the rhythm a little bit to sort of have a little bounce to it. I think we had the drums and the bass and all the lead guitar already on it and I was like ‘hey Cody what if you let me put a saxophone on that and a funky keyboard tone kind of grooving around in the background?’  He let me go forward with it and he gave me the funds to do it and I hit up KNutz and sent it to him and as soon as I sent it to him he heard exactly what I was talking about,” said Shirtum. “So he sent me some stuff back and forth a couple times and so he actually played all of the keyboard and the saxophone solo and we got it back and I sent it to Cody. I was like, it’s a lot and it’s really different than what we had at first, but he called me back and was like dude it’s so fucking awesome.”

 The song was definitely a collaborative effort of many players and visions, influenced heavily by some musical giants as well.

 “Something about Cody’s voice, he’s got this certain soul to it, you know? In the way he delivers, it’s got a like a sass to it, like that old soulful snap to it,” said Shirtum. “I’m a big JJ Cale fan and the way JJ Cale delivers songs, like on Same Old Blues, and I was listening to that one day and I was like, shit I can hear Cody delivering like that.”

 Virginia also sparked an idea for an EP filled with songs with a similar vibe.

 “I called Cody and said what if we take this sound that we did on Virginia and we do a whole 4 track EP with that same similar vibe to it. He was totally down for it so lately I’ve just been sitting around trying to write music for Cody, trying to compose more songs with that kind of vibe to them. Myself and KNutz are teaming up again and he’s going to help out quite a bit with it,” said Shirtum. “I have a really good feeling about this sound we’re chasing with his voice. He’s got such a good voice, it’s cool as a producer to make that canvas for him to sing on. It’s cool to make music for him because he’s got such a good voice and he’s fun to work with. His voice adds to everything, he’s cool and he’s real open too and we can have him try it a different way and he’s open to that. I think we’re on to something.” 

 Barnett doesn’t have any plans of stopping the momentum anytime soon, he’s looking at the big picture.

 “The next plan is to just keep grinding, keep working on tunes, keep writing and getting this EP out. We’re shooting for the 4th of July for a release. It’s going to be a lot different, the first one was kind of a dark style from the heart and that’s the place I was in at the time. But now being married and taking on kids and life going good, I’m finding that the songs I’m working on now are more happy and upbeat. This album is going to be real heavy on rock and funk and blues,” said Barnett. “I’m not even going to genre label anything. I’m just going to do whatever we come up with, we’re going in with a blank slate and creating the songs how we feel like they should be. It’s just a lot of collective creativeness between all of us which is cool. It’s been really good so far at the Boohatch. Caleb has taken over and he’s gotten that fresh young ear, and he knows good music and he helps a lot and he’s willing to let me put in input and work with him and I think it’s going to be a really good team.”

 Virginia is just a funky, bluesy jam song layered with jazzy elements. It opens with that deep bass line and just proceeds to delve into a foray of instruments and sounds that creates this amazing depth and intensity. When you throw in Barnett’s deep, soulful voice, it just makes musical magic. Barnett has such a great vocal range and he owns his voice in a way that shows such confidence and self assuredness, which is an excellent quality in a singer. I still hold by the statement I made in my review of his first album, that he’s got a rich velvety richness while still being as smooth as good quality whisky. It’s a nice blend and balance of both grit and silk.

The saxophone solo is so tasty and makes you just close your eyes and feel the music as you groove along, which just leads into some funky finger picking that is just as impressive and brings it back around. The guitar work is superb, the keys are jazzy and add a richness to the tune, the drums are definitely  on point, the bass is thick and heavy handed in the best possible way, the vocals command attention and it all blends together to form one fantastically tasty tune. The songwriting is also phenomenal, a leaving song with some pleading to come back, but in a way that isn’t whiny or overdone. It’s just a man asking his lover to come back home. Well done fellas.