American Aquarium ~ Things Change Tour ~ at The Blind Tiger NC
Friday June 22, 2018
Doors at 8pm show at 9pm
American Aquarium
In the lush tobacco fields of North Carolina where BJ Barham was raised, people work hard.
Families stay nearby, toiling and growing together. BJ loves those farms and his tiny Reidsville
hometown, but he had to run off and start American Aquarium, a band now beloved by
thousands.
BJ couldn?t stay. But he couldn?t really leave, either: he?s still singing about the lessons, stories,
and lives that define rural America??and him.
?I moved to the big city to go to college and fell in love with music,? BJ says. ?But half the songs
on our record are about small towns??little pieces of my childhood. I?ve had moments where it
turns out a piece of broken English my father repeated twice a week is the most accurate way
to say something. So I put it in a song.?
American Aquarium?s seventh studio album Things Change offers the band?s finest collection of
folk-infused Southern rock-and-roll to date. Stacked with BJ?s signature storytelling??always
deeply personal but also instantly relatable??the record questions and curses current events,
shares one man?s intimate evolution, and leaves listeners with a priceless gift: hope.
?In my early 20s, I was not as hopeful,? BJ says. ?Now, as I?m getting ready to become a father,
I think I have to be hopeful??especially with the situation our country is in now. For her sake, I
have to be positive.? He pauses. ?Her? is his daughter, due in the spring of 2018. BJ adds, ?Being
self-aware has always been a blessing and a curse. But that?s what?s always made my
songwriting relatable to people. I don?t hold back. I?m almost too honest.?
BJ?s candor has fueled American Aquarium?s runaway appeal, visible most clearly in consistently
sold-out shows across the country and throughout Europe - between 200 and 250 dates a year.
Much has changed for the band and BJ since their acclaimed last effort, Wolves. In 2017, every
American Aquarium member save BJ quit the group. American Aquarium has featured about 30
players since BJ founded the outfit in 2006, and while each member has left indelible marks, the
band has always been anchored by the literary songs and sometimes roaring, sometimes
whispering, drawl of BJ Barham. BJ?s personal life also underwent seismic shifts: He got sober.
He got married. Soon, he?ll be a dad.
Featuring a new band lineup that includes Shane Boeker on lead guitar, drummer Joey Bybee,
bassist Ben Hussey, and Adam Kurtz on pedal steel and electric guitar, as well as a reinvigorated
frontman in BJ, Things Change is American Aquarium?s first release on a label after selling
thousands of records on their own. ?As an artist, your goal is for the newest thing you do to be
better than the last. You?re slowly whittling away the bullshit to try and get to the truth,? BJ says.
?With this album, I learned how to cut some of that fat so that it?s just truth. It?s our best record.?
Recorded at 3CG Records in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Things Change was produced by Grammynominated
singer-songwriter John Fulbright and features cameos from Americana standouts
including John Moreland and Jamie Lin Wilson. Brazen album opener ?The World is on Fire? is
a richly layered rock-and-roll anthem that documents BJ and his wife?s stunned reaction to the
last presidential election. Emotional and conversational, the song taps into widespread feelings
of confusion and fear: ?She said, ?What are we going to do? What?s this world coming to?? / For
the first time in my whole life, I stood there speechless.? But what begins as despair builds into
defiant faith, as BJ growls a call to action to cap off one of his favorite songs he?s ever written.
?I?m complaining about the state of things, and then the third verse almost serves as a challenge
to myself: hey, you?re in charge of another human being. You can create change,? he says.
Driving rock-and-roller ?Crooked + Straight? explores the small-town consequences of
questioning religion, and the tightness of family in the face of one member?s rejection. His father?s
advice anchors the song. ?I come from a blue-collar family. I?m the only one who didn?t go into
farming. I learned if you want something, you have to go out and take it. You can?t expect
anything from anybody,? BJ says. ?You can only go out there and work harder. My dad always
said you can outwork anybody else.? Love for hard work and the people who carry it out appears
repeatedly throughout Things Change. Guitar-heavy ?Tough Folks? is a snarling ode to those
with dirt under their fingernails, while bass- and pedal-steel-infused ?Work Conquers All? spins
a tale in praise and pursuit of Oklahoma?s state motto.
The album?s love songs are the kind of achingly beautiful that only comes with maturity and a
willingness to expose one?s own flaws. Haunting ?Shadows of You? recalls a lover?s flight as the
protagonist longs for what he let get away. Gorgeous ?Till the Final Curtain Falls? celebrates
loyalty and pledges endless devotion. The moving title track takes an often doleful topic??
people?s tendency to change??and turns it on its head, tracing BJ?s personal growth and
recognizing his now-wife?s steadfast love.
BJ?s other two favorite tracks are album standouts. Moving ?When We Were Younger Men?
addresses the break-up of American Aquarium head on. As BJ professes love for his former
bandmates over stripped down acoustic guitar, his voice is honeyed and deep. ?It?s an open
letter to five guys who I spent eight years of my life with seeing the entire world,? BJ says. ?I think
anyone who has ever had to walk away from a friendship or has had somebody walk away from
them will relate to the song.? Stunner ?One Day at a Time? is self-perceptive and vulnerable,
detailing BJ?s battles with himself. Even within his career full of well-written gems, the song is a
towering accomplishment.
?At the end of the day, if you?re not writing songs to affect other people?s lives, you?re in it for the
wrong reasons,? BJ says, reflecting on the new album, where he?s been, and where American
Aquarium is headed. ?Money may come and go. You may never get fame. But if you sit down
and write songs to affect people, you can do it your whole life and be happy.?

Come enjoy the outdoors with some fine wine and good tunes. Gipsy Danger makes a return visit to the Grove Winery & Vineyards lake stage on Saturday, June 23. Doors open at 6 pm. They feature high-energy rock music played on bluegrass instruments. Show will start around 7 pm. Advanced discounted tickets and reserved tables are available at http://grovewinery.com/wine_song.html.

Award-winning Grove wines, local craft beers and food will be available for purchase. By order of the NC-ALE, alcohol purchased elsewhere cannot be consumed at Grove. Family and dog friendly.

Revernd Hortons Heat with special guest Big Sandy at The Blind Tiger NC
Sunday June 24th with Lara Hope & the Ark-Tones
doors at 7pm show at 8pm
Reverend Hortons Heat
Loaded guns, space heaters, and big skies. Welcome to the lethal littered landscape of Jim Heath?s imagination. True to his high evangelical calling, Jim is a Revelator, both revealing & reinterpreting the country-blues-rock roots of American music. He?s a time-travelling space-cowboy on a endless interstellar musical tour, and we are all the richer & ?psychobillier? for getting to tag along.
Seeing REVEREND HORTON HEAT live is a transformative experience. Flames come off the guitars. Heat singes your skin. There?s nothing like the primal tribal rock & roll transfiguration of a Reverend Horton Heat show. Jim becomes a slicked-back 1950?s rock & roll shaman channeling Screamin? Jay Hawkins through Buddy Holly, while Jimbo incinerates the Stand-Up Bass. And then there are the ?Heatettes?. Those foxy rockabilly chicks dressed in poodle-skirts and cowboy boots slamming the night away. It?s like being magically transported into a Teen Exploitation picture from the 1950?s that?s currently taking place in the future.
Listening to the REVEREND HORTON HEAT is tantamount to injecting pure musical nitrous into the hot-rod engine of your heart. The Reverend?s commandants are simple.
And no band on this, or any other, planet rocks harder, drives faster, or lives truer than the Reverend Horton Heat. These ?itinerant preachers? actually practice what they preach. They live their lives by the Gospel of Rock & Roll.
From the High-Octane Spaghetti-Western Wall of Sound in ?Big Sky? ? to the dark driving frenetic paranoia of ?400 Bucks? ? to the brain-melting Western Psychedelic Garage purity of ?Psychobilly Freakout? ? The Rev?s music is the perfect soundtrack to the Drive-In Movie of your life.
Jim Heath & Jimbo Wallace have chewed up more road than the Google Maps drivers. For twenty-five Psychobilly years, they have blazed an indelible, unforgettable, and meteoric trail across the globe with their unique blend of musical virtuosity, legendary showmanship, and mythic imagery.
?Okay it?s time for me to put this loaded gun down, jump in my Five-Oh Ford, and nurture my pig on the outskirts of Houston. I?ll be bringing my love whip. See y?all later.? - Carty Talkington Writer/Director
Rev your engines and catch the sermon on the road as it?s preached by everybody?s favorite Reverend. Don?t forget to keep an eye out for the 11th studio album from REVEREND HORTON HEAT, boldly titled Rev, due out January 21st.