American Aquarium frontman B.J. Barham was raised in the small North Carolina town of Reidsville. The concept for BJ’s debut solo album Rockingham was born while BJ was touring Europe with American Aquarium in 2015. They were two hours away from Paris when terrorists attacked a rock club in Paris. Family members, friends, and the fans American Aquarium had amassed over the years immediately reached out, making sure the band had been far away. Over the next two days, BJ was inspired to write an entire album of songs based on the people he’d known since childhood, of those folks and places who had impacted his life in fundamental ways. Not long after the wave of good wishes had passed, Barham found himself singing into his cell phone and scribbling in notebooks, in order to put the melodies and characters floating through his mind into song. Rockingham became Barham’s remarkable and intensely personal solo debut. Still busy touring over 200 dates a year with American Aquarium, BJ’s solo performance is not to be missed.