Saturday, February 15, 2025
Upcoming

BJ Barham set to play Off Broadway May 25

Photo courtesy of All Eyes Media Photo by Alysse-Gafkjen

 

Singer-songwriter BJ Barham is hitting the road this summer on The Great 48 Tour and will perform at Off Broadway in St. Louis, MO on Thursday, May 25th. The show starts at 8:00 p.m. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. Bringing just his guitar and his songs, Barham will perform acoustic shows in 48 states across the U.S. The American Aquarium frontman is touring in support of his debut solo album Rockingham, which landed in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart and Americana/Folk Albums chart. Featured by CMT, Rolling Stone Country, American Songwriter, The Boot and more, press has praised Barham’s masterfully crafted storytelling and narratives that reflect upon the meaning of home and growing up in rural America.

Rockingham was written in the days following the Paris terrorist attacks on Nov. 13, 2015. Headlining a show that same night in Belgium, the impact and shock of the moment gave Barham perspective on the circumstances that helped shape him. The tragedy prompted him to think of all the people and places who had walked with him throughout his life. Thus, Rockingham was born, a compelling collection of songs about fictional characters set in Barham’s real-life hometown.

With stories revealing the struggle of blue-collar labor, a regional sense of pride and heartbreaking reflections of life’s twists and turns, Rockingham is easily identifiable to Barham’s hometown of Riedsville, NC. Once a thriving community supported by tobacco production and textile mills, Reidsville, like so many other towns, suffered from economic depression as the companies that supported so many shut down. With songs like “American Tobacco Company,” “O’ Lover” and “Madeline,” Barham paints his picture of small town life through a striking analysis of the brokenness of the American dream.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *