James Barker Band

It’s a tale as old as Music City: the driven country band moves to Nashville with dreams of making it big at radio or on the touring circuit. In the case of James Barker Band, many of the markers of breakout success were already behind them when they arrived in Nashville which laid the foundation for their international success today. Indeed, the multi-award-winning four-piece has fueled an incredible story over the last eight years, largely on their own, from opening for local bands in dive bars to charting multiple No. 1 singles and hundreds of millions of global streams to headlining festivals and playing stages across North America and Europe.

After notching their record-setting gold-certified fourth No. 1 in Canada with "New Old Trucks" feat. 14x Grammy-nominated and multi-PLATINUM selling artist Dierks Bentley the group currently holds the title of the most #1s for a Canadian country group in the BDS/Mediabase era. This latest spot at the top of the charts follows-up their “dynamic country-rock” single (MusicRow) “Over All Over Again,” which also went #1 in 2021. Their current single "Wastin’ Whiskey” written by JBB frontman James Barker, Jared Keim and Travis Wood, brings listeners back to the all-too-relatable pain of not being able to get over a broken heart. Driven by electric guitar licks and the group's smooth vocals "Wastin' Whiskey" is currently racing up the Canadian radio charts.

As the band continues to check milestone after milestone off their list, their vision for the future remains unchanged.

“Our goal has always been to just get better every day,” Barker says. “No matter how much we grow or how comfortable we get, there’s always things we can keep improving on, whether it’s singing, writing songs, or connecting with fans.”

It’s this passionate ethos that propelled the band from obscurity to the mainstage since their formation in 2015. In fact, it’s what initially brought them together as a band. Made up of Barker (lead vocals/guitar), Taylor Abram (guitar/background vocals), Connor Stephen (drums), and Bobby Martin (bass), the members of James Barker Band grew up within an hour of each other in rural towns surrounding Toronto.

Barker and Stephen, who were both from Woodville, Ontario, went to a summer arts camp together as teenagers. While most of the campers were dancers and actors, the two bonded as aspiring musicians and began jamming regularly. After placing second at a local battle of the bands competition, they struck up a conversation with the sound engineer of the event, Abram, who invited them to cut a few songs in the studio where he worked. Shortly thereafter, the trio invited Abram to join as the band’s acoustic guitarist and background vocalist, with Stephen leading on drums and Barker taking center stage. With Martin coming into the fold a year later, in 2015, the quartet began actively self-booking shows across Canada, renovating an old Greyhound into a touring bus and writing songs inspired by their small-town origins.

“The thing about country music is that the lyrics ring true in small towns anywhere in the world,” Barker says. “My hometown may have been in Ontario, but it wouldn’t have been out of place anywhere in the US heartland. Everybody hunts, fishes, and works hard to pay off their rent or mortgage. Coming from a place like Woodville, it teaches you to appreciate doing what you love, and we work harder for it.”

The band’s hard work paid off in droves when, in 2017, they sent their single “Chills” straight to the top of Billboard’s Canadian Hot 100 chart. The upbeat anthem also achieved Platinum status, alongside other songs from their introductory LP Game On, earning them numerous national awards. From there, James Barker Band released a string of successful singles, including the Gold-certified tracks “Over All Over Again,” “There's A Drink For That”, “Just Sayin',” “It's Working,” “Lawn Chair Lazy,” “Good Together,” “Summertime,” as well as Platinum-certified songs “Keep It Simple” and "Chills."

“To say [radio success] was a catalyst is an understatement,” Barker recalls. “Because we had already built up a fan base ourselves from playing at fairs and festivals those first two years. So then all of a sudden to be driving to a gig and hearing yourselves on the radio, and hearing fans sing all the words back to you at the shows, it was just like throwing jet fuel on a fire.”

Even still, with radio, awards, and ticket sales quickly elevating the band’s status, they remained devoted to their fan base, many of whom had been there since the very beginning. Now, as the rising stars reposition themselves in Nashville, many miles from their hometowns, the opportunities are limitless – but the band remains grounded in their small-town roots.

“To put it super simply, we don’t want to do anything else,” Abram says. “This life, doing this thing together, makes it all worth it, and it’s what we know we’re meant to do.”