BJ Barham delivered a heartfelt solo performance that had fans alternating between crying and laughing at The Sanctuary in Hamtramck.
BJ Barham is known for leading the gritty roots-rock band American Aquarium, which has built a dedicated following for their ability to combine energetic country-infused performances with exceptional storytelling. For this solo tour, however, American Aquarium gets stripped bare.
On stage with only his acoustic guitar and a microphone, there was nothing left but the raw emotion behind Barham’s music. Right out of the gate, he hit the audience with a gut-punch of a song, “Unfortunate Kind” from his 2016 album Rockingham. It’s a beautiful yet tragic story about the kind of deep, long-lasting love everyone hopes to someday experience, and then having to watch that person battle terminal illness, and face the heartbreak and loneliness that comes afterward.
Fortunately, Barham didn’t let his fans wallow in sadness for too long. He is a natural storyteller and captivated the room between each song with personal anecdotes that gave insight into his songwriting. Each story was delivered with the witty humor and expert timing of a seasoned stand-up comedian, which ensured the mood constantly swung like a pendulum between heavy and lighthearted.
In one story, he talked about how he had instructed his agent to give anyone who reached out about wedding bookings what he called the “f-you price.” This exorbitant amount successfully deterred all but one father of the groom, who was willing to spend whatever it took to surprise his son by getting his favorite band to perform for their first dance. Hilariously, BJ then revealed the first dance song in question by going to be the 2012 Burn. Flicker. Die track “Lonely Ain’t Easy,” which starts with the wholly inappropriate for a wedding lyrics “the only thing certain is we end up alone.” That punchline to his story gave a moment of laughter before the full emotional delivery of the song set in.
In addition to giving fans the acoustic version of some of their favorites, Barham also previewed several songs from American Aquarium’s upcoming album, planned for release later this summer. One of those was “Favorite Hello,” about his dog, Bueller. True to form, Barham had eyes watering as he passionately sang about the tragedy that everyone with pets eventually experiences, with the lyric “loving you your whole life means missing you the rest of mine” hitting especially hard.
Another new song was titled “4 x 60,” which refers to how his dad used to cool down the car – four windows down going 60 miles per hour. Barham joked about how he finally got to use that line on his daughter while they were on a road trip to the Grand Canyon.
As Barham began to wrap up the night, he talked about the loaded and lazy question he sometimes gets from music journalists about picking his favorite song. He explained that there are many ways to define “favorite” and that he prefers to think of the song that changed his life. That life-changing song was “Burn. Flicker. Die.” from the album of the same title. Barham talked about how it came at a time when he was almost ready to set aside his music career, but Jason Isbell encouraged him to record it and offered to produce the album. It was a perfect close to a night that offered fans an inside look into Barham’s songwriting and journey as both a person and a musician.
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