Never losing touch with the heavy emotions and hard choices so many of the people in his own audience are weighted down and faced with, BJ Barham and American Aquarium deliver an impassioned, propulsive, and potent experience.
The band’s new album “New Ways to Lose” will be released on June 26th—a relatively quick turnaround time from announcement to street date. But BJ Barham’s got some things to say, and sooner than later is the time.
Mile 0 Fest is not for the passive music listener. It’s for those who put music first, who pursue those lifelong memories through musical moments that you’re only able to capture when you go seeking them out.
At this point, TikTok viralty and Spotify algorithms aren’t just the new thing or the biggest thing. They might be the only thing that matters in music anymore. This creates a dilemma.
What happens at Mile 0 Fest in Key West doesn’t stay in Key West. It resonates throughout the Texas/ Red Dirt world, into Americana, and throughout independent country for the rest of the year.
“They were good until they got sober” is often the dumb offering from social media dunces when some musician goes sober. But contrary to this common misconception, sometimes sobriety brings the best out in an artist.
Out of the wreckage of the American experience comes the pointed, propulsive, sometimes polarizing, and at other times gentle and ruminative musings of B.J. Barham and his long-running band of alt-county misfit toys.
For nearly 20 years now, American Aquarium and frontman BJ Barham have been a mostly rock band graciously accepted into Americana, Texas/Red Dirt, and independent country due to the quality of the songs.
There have been busier release days in the past year or so with 20+ albums on the Saving Country Music radar hitting the shelves all at once. But it’s who is releasing albums, and what those albums are that makes Friday, February 24th feel like an especially important release day that is worth highlighting.
Normally when the frontman of a hard-driving alt-country band announces they’re going on a solo acoustic tour, it may be a bit deflating. But when it comes to BJ Barham of American Aquarium, story time with BJ is an opportunity that some fans of the North Carolina native salivate for.
Let’s highlight some of the bands on the brink, that probably should be headlining festivals and big events themselves, and very well may be in the coming years. These are the artists and bands you better get out to see before like many of your favorite headliners, they end up only playing arenas.
It may not be as obvious of an example as the little shop down the street in a strip mall selling handmade scented candles and hippie soap, but your favorite independent music artists are all most certainly small businesses as well. So are many of your favorite locally-owned music venues, local festivals…
Held on the same grounds as the massive Rocklahoma gathering, Born & Raised boasted one of the best lineups all year on an incredibly crowded weekend. Just the Friday night lineup alone was worth the effort, with some of the best songwriters and performers in all of country music booked one after another.
At their last possible breaking point before absolute annihilation and the resignation to go get regular jobs, BJ Barham and American Aquarium pushed all their chips to the center of the table, bet hard in a last dying gasp, and won in their 2012 album “Burn. Flicker. Die” released 10 years ago today.
Now celebrating five years of gathering in festival form, KOKEFest attracts a huge crowd of local KOKEheads, as well as people from across the country who want to get the genuine Texas country experience, including those who regularly listen to the station remotely online.
Maintaining a blue collar edge to the music, and a firm grasp on the perspectives and struggles of common people is how BJ Barham has kept American Aquarium credible and current for going on 17 years now. The content and style of the songs may shift slightly…
Named after a former life-saving station built in 1874 on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Chicamacomico will be the North Carolina-based band’s ninth studio record, and they promise that this one will not necessarily be the rancorous country rock affair.
It’s a rite of passage for any artist or band. And no matter how bygone the honor and opportunity might feel to some, to any act in the country and roots realm with any notion of history, it’s a bucket list item they will cherish and remember forever.
American Aquarium and frontman BJ Barham have never been true country. But now they’re not just dipping their toes in the country water, their taking a full on plunge into the genre with the surprise release of a slew of country music covers.
BJ Barham of the North Carolina-based band American Aquarium has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Reservoir and One Riot. The deal includes the entire American Aquarium catalog, along with BJ Barham’s solo efforts. “BJ Barham is the quintessential country songwriter,” says One Riot.
North Carolina-based alt-country band American Aquarium is celebrating a career best debut for their latest album ‘Lamentations’ released on May 1st via New West Records after it appeared in numerous charts in the latest updates from Billboard.
Teeming with Shooter Jennings as producer, B.J. and American Aquarium capture ‘Lamentations’ as a postscript to the broken American Dream, sent through the filter of a Southern perspective, and stamped into 10 songs that are sure to compel your consideration.
It’s not exactly the Tickle Me Elmo craze, but in 2019, a new trend emerged in musical gift giving that we’re likely to see more of in the coming years. It isn’t just a great way to surprise the music lover in your family with a thoughtful and cherished present, it’s a way to help sustain the independent music artists out there.
If you’re going to be in Tulsa this New Years, let me just say on behalf of all the country and roots fans that won’t be, we hate you and your ugly stupid face. It’s completely unfair that you’ll get the opportunity to take in some of the best lineups of performers this side of the big festivals.