The fear of The Fear standing still - in notes

B. J. Barham founded American Aquarium 15 years ago in North Carolina, but after promising beginnings with their emotional "Small Town Hymns" (album title), their career stalled. Alcohol and drugs; depression and shattered dreams. Barham gave up and toured solo until he reassembled the band six years ago.

The new album "The Fear Of Standing Still" is the fourth work of the new formation. Barham is now sober, a family man and musically on the trail of the classic US rockers with their hymns, open hearts and grand gestures.

Barham is one of the most progressive voices in country music, and she infuses a form of social criticism into numerous tracks on The Fear of Standing Still. On “Southern Roots,” for example, Georgia singer/songwriter Katie Pruitt joins American Aquarium to write a compelling song about pushing boundaries of traditional Southern identity.

Another song anchored in Barham’s belief in breaking generational molds is “Babies Having Babies,” which tackles the topic of abortion. “It’s a mix of fiction and personal experience, and I felt it was important to tell this story at a time when women are being stripped of their right to choose,” Barham says.

For Barham, sharing hard truths is inextricable from his sense of devotion to American Aquarium’s audience—and his belief in rock ’n’ roll as a unique, unifying force.

"The Fear of Standing Still" combines influences from alternative rock with country and steel guitar sounds with profound lyrics about social issues and observations of life in the small towns of the states in the south of the USA.

A song poet like Bruce Springsteen or Jason Isbell.

American Aquarium, The Fear Of Standing Still, Losing Side Records