James Barker Band

Biography

The James Barker Band is a Canadian country group formed in Woodville, Ontario, 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", "Keep It Simple", "Over All Over Again", "New Old Trucks", "Meet Your Mama", and "You Didn't Hear It from Me". The band released the album One of Us on September 5, 2025.

Career

In 2015, they won the Emerging Artist Showcase at the Boots and Hearts Music Festival and the following year, they were signed to Universal Music Canada. The band's debut extended play, Game On, was released April 21, 2017. The band received two Juno Award 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 "Chills", cowritten by Barker, Gavin Slate, Travis Wood and Donovan Woods, received a SOCAN Songwriting Prize nomination and won the award for Single of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Awards.
The band became the first artist to record a globally released Spotify Singles session in Canada in November 2018. Their second extended play, Singles Only, was released May 24, 2019. It included the singles "Good Together", "Keep It Simple", "There's a Drink for That", and "Slow Down Town". They would follow that up with the standalone single "Summer Time" in June 2020, and the extended play JBB-Sides in August 2020.
In May 2021, they signed a record deal with Sony Music Nashville 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. They followed that up with "Wastin' Whiskey" in 2022 on Starseed Records. In the spring and summer of 2022, the band joined Dallas Smith 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 and Barry Weiss, 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 Universal Music Canada. The song later became their sixth number one hit in Canada. They released their first full-length studio album One of Us on September 5, 2025. The band supported the album with the headlining "Bud Light Buckle Up Tour" across Canada in the fall of 2025.
The band was nominated for Juno Fan Choice and Country Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2026. They released the single "After Dark (Carry Me Home)" in June 2026. The band hosted the 2026 Canadian Country Music Association Awards, where they were nominated in five categories, and won two awards.