On Friday, March 22nd, The Atlantis hosted rapidly rising country music star Sam Barber, a 20-year-old with the sensitivity, emotional honesty, and vocal range of a seasoned veteran of the genre. He played his 16-song set to a sold out and eager crowd.

Elliot Greer opened over the weekend, one of the five stops he joined Barber on during the Till I Return Tour. The audience showed up and packed the house early to see Greer perform some of his hits as well as his newer songs like the recently released “Gold,” which dropped the day of the show. Despite standing room only, you could hear the standing ovation if you closed your eyes as he finished one of the first live performances of the new song, his first release in a year he noted. A one-two punch, his lyrics are frighteningly bare and his magnetic voice flawlessly undulates between an emotional quaver to a painful howl. During his song “Undertone,” about the lingering presence of someone no longer in your life, you wonder “who hurt you” as he cries out “It’s like you’re there’ It’s like you know/ You’re always an undertone/In my cologne/ In every stranger I bring home/ An undertone.” Ouch. Check him out while he’s still one of those cool undiscovered artists that you can say you knew when.

There is no question as to why Sam Barber is gaining so much success in so little time. The trail of authenticity that he leaves behind is ever-present. Starting with his persona through his lyrics and finishing with his voice, there is nothing that Barber doesn’t touch that isn’t 100% who he is. His voice is a mix between polite and poignant as he quietly begins the story only to end it with fierce hope in the future or painful memories. His cover of Canadian duo Dani and Lizzy’s “Dancing in the Sky” is an original in every regard because of what he brings to the already heavy lyrics. Barber immediately sets us loose from the top of the roller coaster at 100mph with no build up when he opens his new arrangement with his soulful cry “And I hope you’re dancing in the sky/ And I hope you’re singing in the angel’s choir.” And that’s what he is so naturally gifted at: propelling us into those moments in life that we hide from. 

As a crescendo to the evening like a pressure valve finally bursting, the crowd was itching to sing along to “Straight and Narrow,” the first song Barber wrote and what has ignited his budding stardom. There is no substitute for watching Sam Barber roar “When they're chasing you down with an old bloodhound/ And you're running through the fields for your life/

You gotta get up son I know they're gunnin for ya.” After leaving the stage and hearing the packed house chant “one more song,” Barber and the band returned for the tour’s namesake track “Till I Return.” 

Having only first posted to TikTok in 2021 when he was 18, the same age as his idol Tyler Childers when he released Bottles and Bibles as he notes in a Billboard interview, his meteoric rise on the charts and among fans is rapidly accelerating. Barber released his first EP, Million Eyes, with Lockeland Springs/Atlantic Records in the fall of 2023 and is on tour late into 2024 between the Till I Return Tour and festival appearances. Saddle up and let Sam take you for a ride.