POP MUSIC REVIEW : Barone in Chamber-Rock Setting

Richard Barone’s album “Cool Blue Halo” was one of the small pleasures of 1987, a live set featuring Barone (leader of East Coast hard popsters the Bongos) in a kind of chamber-rock setting that brought out the best nuances of his own songwriting in addition to his high, clear singing skills.

Barone brought the same crew that recorded “Halo” (cellist Jane Scarpantoni, guitarist Nick Celeste and percussionist Valerie Naranjo) to At My Place on Wednesday night, offering a refreshing alternative to some of the more innocuous waves of “adult pop” rising out of the New Age scene.

While Barone obviously has been influenced by the Beatles baroque-pop explorations (the set included a compelling version of “Cry Baby Cry”), this music was not some retro-’60s rehash. For all the aural subtleties involved, there was no lack of intensity, achieving both a haunting etherealness and a sense of stringency in songs like “Love Is a Wind That Screams.”

Barone’s originals held their own alongside cover versions by modern pop masters (John Lennon, David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Lou Reed), maintaining a coherent musical sensibility that managed to be embroidered yet never overly florid. With multipercussionist Naranjo providing a dynamic visual foil to Barone’s choir-boy-gone-bad playfulness and his often striking use of sustained guitar leads, this was modern pop-craft at its intelligent and inspirational best.