For country music lovers who prefer the stylings of singer/songwriters like Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers, chances are rising superstar and Music Mayhem’s 2024 Artist To Watch Sam Barber will be your new favorite artist.
Who Is Sam Barber?
Sam Barber is destined to quickly become the next big thing in music, blowing listeners away with his stripped-down songs, consisting of acoustic guitars, violins, and more, as well as raw and authentic lyrics.
According to his official biography from the Grand Ole Opry, “Sam’s vision is to continue to grow and become stronger as a vocalist and songwriter. He wants to deliver songs that people feel in their soul. Above all, he wants to stay true to his faith, the man he truly is, and the type of music he wants to make without boundaries or conforming.”
Grew Up On Family Farm In Missouri
Surrounded by an abundance of family and friends while being raised on a farm in a small town in Southeast Missouri, Barber had a rather quaint upbringing, spending most of his childhood focused on his athletics, where he ultimately learned the importance of a team, practice, discipline, respect, hard work, and more.
Recently, the talented singer-songwriter took to TikTok to let his fans in on where he grew up. “This farm has been in my family since 1846, and I’ve spent my entire life here… Any quiet place out here on the farm, especially at a pond just fishing, keeping busy, all while keeping a clear head is very good for songwriting, or hearing the wind going through the trees. Anything like that can turn into a song, so it’s very vital that I get out of here as much as I can,” he shared on October 25, 2023.
How Did He become interested in Music?
As mentioned, Barber began as an athlete, refraining from taking music classes or putting on performances as a child before diving into the music industry in his teenage years. 16-year-old Sam Barber picked up his great grandfather’s Gibson, out of tune with only five strings, and unexpectedly fell in love with playing. After that, he began to sing along, growing to be stronger and stronger as a vocalist before releasing some music of his own.
He gushed about his journey within the music industry in an interview with Billboard, ultimately revealing, “I was into sports growing up. My dad is a mechanic, and my mom is a nurse, but they don’t do music. My great-grandfather had a guitar, and it was in my parents’ room. When I was 15 or 16, I just thought it’d be cool to learn it. I never actually met him, but from stories I heard and pictures I’ve seen, he used to play in bars and stuff [an] I started watching YouTube videos, learning to play, and went from there. I did a lot of Zach Bryan covers, and then mostly just started trying to write my own music.”
To the surprise of country music lovers nationwide, Barber was studying civil engineering at State Technical College in Linn, Missouri, when he began releasing music of his own, dropping “Run Away High,” “As Time Passes,” “Drowning,” and more in 2021. With an increase in his social media presence that same year, the soon-to-be superstar quickly gained some success within the music industry.
Viral Covers On TikTok Helped Launch His Career
Posting his first TikTok on March 14, 2021, the multi-faceted artist began regularly posting on the platform, sharing videos of him singing original songs, as well as covers from a wide array of artists: Luke Combs, Koe Wetzel, John Mayer, and beyond.
After a great deal of trial and error, Barber’s first viral moment was his cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man.” Since it was posted on July 27, 2021, it has amassed 394.1k views and 50.7k likes, but that is not his most viral video to date. Instead, his covers of “Dancing in the Sky” by Dani and Lizzy and “Ophelia” by The Lumineers are among his best, with the former garnering 3.8M views and 573.8k likes and the latter garnering 2.4M views and 310.2k likes. His cover of “Hallelujah” also soared and collected over 3.3 million views.
Nearing 1 million TikTok followers, Tens Of Millions Of Video Views
Since beginning to regularly post on the platform, Barber has amassed nearly 1 million followers, as he currently has a grand total of 974.4k followers. Believe it or not, his most viral video on TikTok is not a cover, but instead consists of him singing his smash hit “Straight and Narrow,” ultimately garnering a whopping 12.9M views and 1M likes. The song has gone on to accumlate over 94.5k video creations on TikTok.
Nearly three years after beginning his social media journey, the country crooner could not be more grateful for TikTok, sharing his true thoughts in an interview at TikTok In The Mix Concert Series in Mesa, Arizona last month.
“I think it’s the biggest and best promoter in the world right now, and it’s free. I don’t know why everyone wouldn’t try to promote themselves with it. You can reach so many people with just a 30 second video. I use it for promotion purposes. Any of my viral songs, most of them are covers that I’ve done and just songs that really connect to people, and I’ve just kind of did them a little different. I think every song can be worked differently and sang differently. I think that’s the cool thing about a song can be so many different things, and yeah, most of my covers have been pretty big,” he gushed.
Who Are Sam Barber’s Influences?
While he has covered songs from dozens of different artists, such as Noah Kahan, The Neighbourhood, Harry Styles, and more, Barber admitted that some of his greatest influences are country music superstars like Tyler Childers, Zach Bryan, Chris Stapleton, and beyond.
“Tyler Childers is huge. When he was 18, he put out Bottles and Bibles, and that’s my favorite album ever. I’ve definitely tried to be kind of in that lane, but of course, I listen to a lot of Zach Bryan and Chris Stapleton. Those are probably my main three, but I also listen to a lot of indie artists. I’m a big fan of Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners. They are just good dudes, but then I’m also a big fan of Kings of Leon,” he shared with Billboard in an interview.
Did You Know Sam Barber Appeared On American Idol?
While many believe that Sam Barber sprung to success via TikTok, the country crooner had quite a bit of success beforehand, securing himself a golden ticket to Hollywood Week on season 20 of American Idol.
Barber blew judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie out of the water with his audition, however, his mother Carla shared via a Facebook post on March 21, 2022, that his performance failed to make it to television. “What a great experience he had. Maybe we will see him during Hollywood Week. Thanks everybody that has been watching for him,” she continued passionately.
After his audition, Barber performed in an Indie/Folk group in Hollywood, all in an attempt to make the live shows of American Idol season 20, however, he was unlucky. The talented singer-songwriter took to Facebook to share that he was grateful for the experience nonetheless, spilling to his family and friends, “Thank you all so much for the support I have had going into and coming out of this unreal experience. If you would have told me two years ago I would be on that stage in front of @katyperry @lukebryan and @lionelrichie with thousands of people hoping for me to move on I would have called you insane, so once again, thank you.”
Debut EP, Million Eyes
As Sam Barber fans would know, being rejected on season 20 of American Idol did not mark the end of his musical journey, taking to TikTok to share more of his music, all leading up to the release of his debut EP, titled Million Eyes, on September 21, 2023.
Released through Lockeland Springs with Atlantic Records, Million Eyes contains eight tracks — “Million Eyes,” “Save Me,” “Dancing In The Sky,” “Till I Return,” “Straight and Narrow,” “Ghost Town,” “Drowning,” and “All That I Have.”
What Is His Favorite Song On Million Eyes?
While all eight tunes are phenomenal, Barber himself has deemed one song to be his all time favorite, despite having the second-least amount of Spotify streams from the EP.
Admitting that “Save Me” is his favorite track on Million Eyes, he dished in an interview with Billboard, “I started writing it in high school and kind of forgot about it for a long time. I ended up looking through my songbook and found it again. It was half-done, so a month or two before we released the EP, I finished it. I kept the first half pretty much the same. I just try to write things that connect with more people than myself.”
What Is His Most Famous Song, “Straight And Narrow?”
His favorite song on Million Eyes might be “Save Me,” however, a different song is undoubtedly the most popular out of his whole entire discography: “Straight and Narrow.”
Believe it or not, “Straight and Narrow” was the first song Barber wrote, back when he was a 16-year-old dabbling in the music industry. “It wasn’t a studio — I just recorded it with a mic in a bedroom. It was still a simple recording. There were no changes made or anything, but I wanted people to hear it… I was just trying to write something that sounded good to me, but I think it’s found its own kind of purpose and people have their own takes on it. It’s a song about whatever you’re going through, to keep going pretty well in the end,” he revealed to Billboard in an interview.
Hundreds Of Millions Of Streams
Since its release on April 12, 2023, “Straight and Narrow” has amassed a grand total of 107.6k streams on Spotify, as well as a great deal of success on TikTok. It has been used in 94.5 videos from users all around the world, seeing similar numbers on social media as Zach Bryan’s chart-topping viral hit “Something In The Orange.”
In fact, Barber himself estimates he had around 200k monthly listeners on Spotify before releasing “Straight and Narrow,” ultimately doubling that number less than a year later.
Just last year on Spotify alone he had 167.5 million streams and currently has 4.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone. With his TikTok videos getting more and more views as they days progress, chances are that the number of monthly listeners that Sam Barber has on Spotify, as well as the number of streams that “Straight and Narrow” has on Spotify, will continue to skyrocket.
Made His Grand Ole Opry Debut In September of 2023
On September 23, 2023, Sam Barber solidified his space within the music industry, performing at the Grand Ole Opry for the very first time.
Given that he was more focused on athletics as a child, Barber shared in a video posted to the Grand Ole Opry YouTube channel that it was never really a goal of his to perform at or attend a show at this oh-so prestigious venue, but he could not be more grateful for the experience nonetheless. The musical maestro dished, “My family is very close knit. We would sit down and we’d watch The Opry all the time when I was a kid, and I wouldn’t think much of it, because I had no interest in music at the time. Thinking back on that, that’s so crazy that I’m sitting here right now. I can’t fathom that in my brain.”
After making his Grand Ole Opry debut, he continued passionately, “It’s kind of a blur right now, but my heart’s kind of pumping. That’s the most nervous I’ve been in a long time. I came into it, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to get nervous.’ I get pretty nervous. There’s a lot of emotions at the same time on the stage and it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m actually here,’ but I loved every second of it.”
Sam Barber Tour and Festival Appearances
Aside from performing at the Grand Ole Opry, Barber has dozens of club shows lined up for early 2024, as well as shows supporting 49 Winchester and a set at Stagecoach Festival.
With his headlining Till I Return Tour almost entirely sold out — featuring support from Nolan Taylor, Kade Hoffman, Lily Fitts, Jake Kohn, Sam Stoane, and Elliot Greer — be sure to snag your tickets to see Sam Barber live via sambarbermusic.com/pages/tour before they are gone for good. This tour is certain to be a must-see!
