ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
July 30, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Rolling Stone published a short piece online recently about BJ Barham and American Aquarium: ... being the biggest partier in Americana music takes its toll ... Aquarium has six current members and 31 past members. It's a sweet interview that takes place alongside the swimming pool in Barham's North Carolina backyard as he and his wife settle in after picking up their 6 year-old daughter from school. Cue the electric guitar solo.
While American Aquarium in all their iterations have scattered more than enough roots rock numbers across their ten studio LPs to burn up the stage for ninety minutes, that's not necessarily the band you'll hear on The Fear Of Standing Still (Losing Side). As with 2020's Lamentations, Barham and co. have turned to Shooter Jennings to produce these ten new tracks, a handful of which really do rock. But many of the songs simmer, or opine, they even cry at times.
On "Crier", Barham cites the shortest verse in the Bible - "Jesus wept". The song is a banger, a co-write with Stephen Wilson Jr that calls out toxic masculinity at a breakneck tempo. It's okay to be a crier, the singer declares, propelled by a pouncing bass and galloping drums, whether we're being born, falling, or experiencing heartbreak. On "Curse Of Growing Old", a midtempo acoustic number, Barham evokes a father who won't cry at the funeral of his own father, but who sheds tears at the death of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Two very different songs present a songwriter who is refreshingly comfortable with his feelings. Raise hell / Praise Dale / Death is coming for us all.
2022's Chicamacomico focused largely on grief and loss, with American Aquarium rarely playing above a simmer. Fear Of Standing Still is more of a band-driven collection, with drummer Ryan Van Fleet and pianist Rhett Huffman deserving of special recognition. Neil Jones adds sweet pedal steel to the title cut, portraying Barham as he embraces the slow change between life on the road and a healthier work-life balance. In praise of his spouse, he sings: You taught me that there was more to life than a constant state of motion / Introduced me to the fine art of staying in one place. A heartland rocker, "The Getting Home" is a co-write with Lori McKenna and Hailey Whitters that fleshes out the perennial challenge of a life on the road: When I'm home I miss the road, and when I'm on the road I miss it all.
Settling down, life on the road, getting clean and sober. Granted, these aren't new issues for our kind of music. Heck, they're not even really new to BJ Barham, who has been facing down these questions for at least ten years' worth of American Aquarium records. But he does it as well as anyone, especially as he turns his songwriterly attention to living as a progressive in the South. The warm childhood memories that he suggests on "Cherokee Purples" (set to a sticky, chiming guitar line) are brought to task on "Babies Having Babies". The lilting country number that begins as a story of young love shifts focus as the couple cross a picket line blocking their entrance to a woman's health clinic: They called her names while they called themselves Christian / Sort of hate's got no place in any faith of mine. A co-write with Katie Pruitt, "Southern Roots" addresses the challenge head-on: There's great responsibility / That comes with this geography. Barham's voice bears a slightly weathered quality, both his accent and his outlook unmistakable.
While Dave Cobb has carried the mantle of americana producer extraordinaire for years, it's high time Shooter Jennings took a couple laps. Fear Of Standing Still is a terrific sounding album, presenting American Aquarium largely live in studio, but also clean- and current-sounding. The upbeat "Messy As a Magnolia" is an anthemic slice of roots rock: I'm gonna love you / Til the wheels fall off this thing. The set closes with the pounded piano and bar band fervor of "Head Down, Feet Moving", a cri de coeur that promises American Aquarium is in it for the long haul. Jennings has cultivated the perfect setting for BJ Barham's songs, songs written by an adult about adult things. If he's more dull for no longer being the biggest partier, he'll at least be around long enough to write some great songs about hangin' around in his backyard: There's a reason why / The windshield is bigger / Than the rearview mirror / There's better days ahead.
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