The James Barker Band is a Canadian country group formed in

Woodville, Ontario Woodville is a community in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, Canada. It is located west of Lindsay, Ontario, Lindsay. The population is 718 (2021). History Known in the late 19th century as Irish Corners, the name of the town w ...

in 2013. The band consists of James Barker, Taylor Abram, Connor Stephen, and Bobby Martin. In Canada, they have six number one country singles with "

Chills Chills is a feeling of coldness occurring during a high fever, but sometimes is also a common symptom which occurs alone in specific people. It occurs during fever due to the release of cytokines and prostaglandins as part of the inflammatory ...

", "

Keep It Simple ''Keep It Simple'' is the thirty-third album by Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison, released in the UK on 17 March 2008 and in the US on 1 April 2008. It was Morrison's first US Top 10 album, and made the Top 10 in the UK, Canada and ...

", " Over All Over Again", " New Old Trucks", " Meet Your Mama", and " You Didn't Hear It From Me".

Career

In 2015, they won the Emerging Artist Showcase at the

Boots and Hearts Music Festival The Boots and Hearts Music Festival is a multi-day country music and camping festival produced by Republic Live Inc. and owned by Stan and Eva Dunford. The festival is held annually at the Burl's Creek Event Grounds in Oro-Medonte, Ontario, Can ...

and the following year, they were signed to

Universal Music Canada Universal Music Group (UMG) owns, or has a joint share in, many of the record labels listed here. According to the UMG official website, the main labels are Abbey Road Studios, Capitol Music Group, Decca Records, Def Jam Recordings, Deutsche Gra ...

. The band's debut

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

, '' Game On'', was released April 21, 2017. The band received two

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

nominations for Breakthrough Group of the Year and Country Album of the Year at the 2018 Juno Awards, winning the second. In 2018, the band's song "

", cowritten by Barker, Gavin Slate, Travis Wood and Donovan Woods, received a

SOCAN Songwriting Prize The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, SOCAN Songwriting Prize, formerly known as the ECHO Songwriting Prize, was an annual competition recognizing the best in Canadian emerging music, both anglophone and francophone, fro ...

nomination and won the award for Single of the Year at the

Canadian Country Music Awards The Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) was founded in 1976 as the Academy of Country Music Entertainment to organize, promote and develop a Canadian country music industry. The groundwork for the association began on June 3, 1973, when a gr ...

. The band became the first artist to record a globally released

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session in Canada in November 2018. Their second extended play, '' Singles Only'', was released May 24, 2019. They would follow that up with the standalone single "

Summer Time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time, daylight time (United States and Canada), or summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks to make better use of the long ...

" in June 2020, and the extended play ''JBB-Sides'' in August 2020. In May 2021, they signed a record deal with

Sony Music Nashville Sony Music Nashville is the country music branch of the Sony Music, Sony Music Group. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Sony Music Nashville includes its three country recording labels Arista Nashville, Columbia Records#Columbia Nashville, Colu ...

and Villa 40, and released the single " Over All Over Again", which became their third Canada Country number one. In October 2021, they released the song " New Old Trucks", which features American country singer

Dierks Bentley Frederick Dierks Bentley (; born November 20, 1975) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Bentley moved to Nashville in the late 90s to pursue a career in music, leading up to his releasing the self-funded and independent album Do ...

. They followed that up with " Wastin' Whiskey" in 2022 on Starseed Records. In the spring and summer of 2022, the band joined

Dallas Smith Dallas Hendry Smith (born December 4, 1977) is a Canadian singer and songwriter, who performs both as a solo country music artist and as lead singer for the hard rock band Default. He is currently signed to Big Loud Records. Smith is the curr ...

as an opening act on his headlining "Some Things Never Change Tour" across Canada. In January 2023, the band signed with Records Nashville, a joint venture between

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

and

Barry Weiss Barry Weiss (born February 11, 1959) is an American music executive. He co-founded the record label RECORDS in 2015, an imprint of Sony Music Entertainment which specializes in young recording artists. Weiss got his start at Clive Calder's ...

, and released the single " Meet Your Mama". They would follow that up with the single " On the Water" featuring American country artist Dalton Dover in May of 2023. Both songs are included on their extended play '' Ahead of Our Time'', which was released on October 20, 2023. In January 2025, the band released the single " You Didn't Hear It From Me", after returning to their original label

. The song later became their sixth number one hit in Canada.

Discography

Extended plays

Singles

Promotional singles

Music videos

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

Official website
* {{Authority control Canadian country music groups Musical groups with year of establishment missing Juno Award for Country Album of the Year winners Musical groups from Ontario Canadian Country Music Association Single of the Year winners