Big names in country music turned out on Tuesday, May 7th, for a benefit concert for Byron Berline and his Double Stop Fiddle Shop in Guthrie, Oklahoma. But immediately as the Turnpike Troubadours began to play, long-time fans of the band could tell something was off with frontman Evan Felker.
BJ Barham and American Aquarium have pulled off quite a feat with their latest album ‘Things Change.’ Not only did they write and record what has been the band’s most well-received and critically-acclaimed album to date. Now the initial sales numbers have been tabulated, and it has sold through better than any of the band’s records previously.
These six songs are admittedly sad bastard fare if there ever was any, but that’s the way it goes when you’re looking for songs that don’t just entertain, but fulfill, or illuminate something important in life most catchy tunes fall short of.
American Aquarium should no longer be around. It was a marginal name to begin with, and for a band that was tough to define or find a home for, and that was built upon the concept of drugs, drinking, and the implosion of life before you’re 30. But frontman and songwriter BJ Barham was too stupid to quit.
Fans of American Aquarium have known the name of their upcoming album for a while. Now they have the details. This is not the situation of a band on the mend backing into an effort to survive. Arguably ‘Things Change’ sees the 12+ year project by BJ Barham just now reaching its stride.
You may have not known his name or who he was, but it would be hard not to notice the tall, lanky, dreadheaded dude in big white glasses behind the drums backing up a dozen or so different independent country artists from Nashville over the years as they toured through your town, and doing his best to not just keep the beat, but bring the energy.
For those who thought that the news of long-time American Aquarium members Bill Corbin and Kevin McClain leaving the clan in April meant the end of American Aquarium, they don’t know the indomitable spirit of the founder, frontman, and principal songwriter of American Aquarium, BJ Barham.
The American Aquarium lineup that most of its fans across the country and world have been used to seeing take the stage for some 10 years is no longer. This is the news coming from a series of posts on social media Sunday (4-2) ahead of frontman, singer, and songwriter BJ Barham addressing the breakup rumors officially.
Nobody’s ever accused American Aquarium or its frontman BJ Barham of not working hard enough to achieve the dream. As one of the hardest touring outfits out there, they’ve earned every dedicated fan they have by sweating it out in clubs across the country, and putting every ounce of energy into the music.
Rockingham—the first solo album from American Aquarium’s frontman and songwriter B.J. Barham—was an album that made me come to a pretty keen realization, yet it probably was not the one Barnham set out to impart. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what a song or album leaves you with as long as it leaves you with something.
Superstar pop R&B artist and producer Pharrell Williams spent the better part of last week in Nashville performing with the vocal troupe Little Big Town, and the entire time he’s been repping for an unlikely band: alt-country/Americana outfit American Aquarium.
‘Tis the season in Texas to get out and enjoy the outdoors before the swelter of summer starts in earnest, and to support many of the charitable events that mix music with sports. For seven years, Reckless Kelly has been throwing celebrity softball tournaments to help raise funds to support youth sports programs in Central Texas, and all told the Reckless Kelly Softball Jam has raised over $300,000 since its inception.
2015 just might be the year of American Aquarium, or that’s at least the popular sentiment being kicked around in certain circles. Written and recorded after a long hiatus between releases, American Aquarium took their time with this one, letting the songs maturate, and allowing a stylistic shift in their sound to emerge, something that would hopefully get them over that hump.