Sam Barber

Artist Bio

Now that Sam Barber has your attention, he’s looking forward to holding onto it a while.

“I love making anything that can affect someone emotionally,” Barber says.

The 21-year old singer-songwriter from Southeast Missouri has already seen his career begin on
a meteoric rise, and his upcoming debut album, Restless Mind, is set to send him into orbit when
it drops on November 1. The accompanying Restless Mind Tour in fall 2024, which features
Barber’s Ryman Auditorium debut and a showcase slot at the GoldenSky Festival, will introduce
tens of thousands of new fans to Barber’s energetic and emotional live show as well.

Recorded in Nashville and in Barber’s bedroom during breaks in his hectic 2024 touring schedule,
Restless Mind will feature music that dates to the first songs Barber ever wrote. “It sums up my
whole music career, and everything I’ve done,” he says of the record. The album ranges from
stripped-down acoustic to fill-the-room melodies, so he tapped multiple producers, including Eddie
Spear (Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak as well as Barber’s 2023 EP, Million Eyes) to create
the album, as Barber wanted to bring multiple perspectives to his sound.

Barber announced the album with the single “Thought of You” in October 2024. The stripped-
down, acoustic-first track places Barber’s showstopping vocals front-and-center for diehard fans
and casual listeners alike. It was written with Amy Allen (Sabrina Carpenter “Espresso,” “Please
Please Please” and “Feather,” Tate McRae “Greedy,” Harry Styles “Adore You” and more).
Restless Mind also includes the song “Better Year,” which Barber released in August 2024 along
with a B-side cover of Tyler Childers’ “Jersey Giant.”

“It’s kind of about my life,” Barber says, “leaving home and struggling at the start, like anybody
does. And I’m just hoping that next year’s a better year, that it’s all going to be worth it.”
But it is the album’s title track that Barber holds dearest to his heart and believes fans will feel the
same way about.

“‘Restless Mind’ is a song that’s on the album. It’s my personal favorite song. It means the most
to me. It’s a very raw song, and I just love the absolute world out of it,” Barber says. “As soon as
I found it, I knew that I wanted it to be the album title.”

Barber grew up in a town of 200 people, on a 400-acre farm, surrounded by a supportive family
and with his grandparents in the next house over from his parents. His youth was spent playing
baseball, football, basketball, or hunting and fishing. He recalls a ton of Steel Drivers and early
Chris Stapleton being played around the house. Eventually, an old Gibson guitar in his parents’
home struck Barber’s fancy.

“My great grandpa used to play guitar, and my parents kept his guitar in the house like a
showpiece,” Barber says. “One day when they weren’t home, I just thought, ‘It would be fun to
play guitar.’ So, I just picked it up with no clue how to play it, started strumming, trying my hardest
at it.”

Not long after, his mother caught him singing in the living room, and she told him it wasn’t half
bad. Barber took that as a compliment and decided to give music a go. While enrolled in a
technical college, a friend suggested he post some music to TikTok. Barber caught on: “After like
a month, one video just took off. Playing for a living was never even a possible thing in my mind,
I was just doing it for fun.”

He began releasing original music in 2022, including “Straight and Narrow,” a bedroom recording
of a song he’d written when he was just 16. A powerful acoustic track about overcoming life’s
countless hurdles, “Straight and Narrow” proved an RIAA PLATINUM-certified sensation,
reaching #1 on viral charts worldwide while landing on such multi-format Billboard charts as “Hot
Rock Songs,” “Hot Rock & Alternative Songs,” and “Hot Country Songs.”

“It’s done everything for my career. It’s the whole reason that I’m here,” Barber says of the song.
In the three years since, a lot has happened. He just missed the cut for the 20th season of
American Idol in early 2022. He made his live debut in June 2023 at The Basement in Nashville
— which sold out. Three months later, he made his Grand Ole Opry Debut. In between, he played
at Bruce Springsteen’s BST Hyde Park series. Million Eyes followed in October 2023, and Barber
found himself in nearly every conversation about Country music’s next big thing.

“In my mind, people still don’t know who I am,” he says. “It’s still weird when people walk up to
me and go, ‘Oh, you’re Sam Barber!’ I still don’t think about myself like that.”

If the Restless Mind album and tour go as planned, Barber will have no choice. For now, however,
he’s just enjoying the ride and the thrill of sharing his music with fans.

“I’m looking forward to meeting more fans, meeting more fans, and pushing my career,” Barber
says of his tour plans. “Playing live is one of the coolest things. It’s a feeling you can’t really
replicate or explain, but being on stage with a crowd screaming back to you your own music is a
feeling that will definitely never get old.

“I’m getting better every show. So that means that every person who comes to a show right now,
is going to get my best show.”

Now that Sam Barber has your attention, he’s looking forward to holding onto it a while.
“I love making anything that can affect someone emotionally,” Barber says.

The 21-year old singer-songwriter from Southeast Missouri has already seen his career begin on
a meteoric rise, and his upcoming debut album, Restless Mind, is set to send him into orbit. The
accompanying Restless Mind Tour in fall 2024, which features Barber’s Ryman Auditorium debut
and showcase slots such as GoldenSky Festival, will introduce tens of thousands of new fans to
Barber’s energetic and emotional live show.

After the success of his PLATINUM-certified 2023 single “Straight and Narrow,” Barber combines
raw honesty and youthful enthusiasm in a way that has forced him into nearly every conversation
about the future of Country music. If the Restless Mind album and tour go as planned, that future
will belong to Barber.

GENRE

• Country