From Florence to the Nashville stage - Fledgling singer makes final cut on country TV competition
By JAMIE KELLY of the Missoulian
FLORENCE - There's something about Tyler Barham that's so different from his competition.
Sure, he's a country singer - and a talented one at that - and yeah, his heroes are Travis Tritt and Garth Brooks and Toby Keith.
But Barham doesn't look much like the others. At 18, he has a boy's face and a mop of sandy hair. And Barham, of Florence, is far from Nashville, unlike almost all the others he'll face off against in a nationally televised chance to land a record contract.
“We kept talking about the heart he brought to it,” said Sarah Trahern, senior vice president of programming at the Great American Country channel. “He has a lot of poise for someone his age, and for him, it's really about the music.”
Barham is one of six finalists for “The Next Great American Country Star” national competition, which will be televised in two shows next month on the network.
“My dad and I couldn't really comprehend it,” said Barham, a recent graduate of Florence-Carlton School. “I don't know if it's really sunk in yet.”
It did on Saturday, when Barham hopped on a plane for Nashville, setting out to spend the next four days being interviewed, meeting his competition, visiting recording studios and rubbing elbows with major figures in the country music world.
It will probably be a shock to a kid who hasn't taken a music lesson in his life, and who only started singing nine years ago, trying to imitate the Backstreet Boys in the family car.
“He would always just sing along, and pick up the songs really well,” said his father, Randy Barham. “He was able to sing whatever genre we had on.”
Tyler Barham, 18, is the youngest of the six competitors in next month’s Next Great American Country Star competition in Nashville, Tenn. Barham, of Florence, started singing when he was 9.
That was when the family lived in Colorado. When the family moved to the Bitterroot Valley, Tyler Barham was exposed to a lot more country music. He fell in love with it and spent his hours trying to emulate the best in the business.
“I listened to everybody,” he said. “There are so many contemporary country artists that I listen to - Brad Paisley, Garth Brooks, Randy Travis. I try to pick up something from each person.”
Barham's confidence grew as his voice matured and improved. He joined the high school choir, expanding his vocal range. And then he started entering competitions, the first as a middle-schooler in Wyoming.
“I can't remember what age my first competition was, but I was young,” he said. “I got stage fright just like everyone else, but it seemed like every time I did it, it got easier.”
Barham entered the Colgate Country Showdown twice, never making it past the first round. He auditioned for “American Idol” in Seattle.
Then in February, Barham won the “Montana Idol” competition at Southgate Mall.
“That was a big one,” he said. “It gave me confidence.”
Barham also discovered the power of the Internet. He began posting videos of himself singing on YouTube, and created a personal page there.
Hundreds of thousands of people have visited Barham's site, marveling at his voice and requesting songs for him to record and post.
“He kind of started doing that for fun, singing songs and putting them on the Internet,” said Randy Barham. “People started requesting this song and that song. Then radio stations called from Canada, and a person in Georgia has been promoting him. The Internet obviously is a tremendous tool in that respect.”
At the suggestion of a fan, Barham entered the GAC competition, sending in a home video of himself singing “Red Dirt Road” by Brooks & Dunn.
Like most of his videos, it was recorded on the cheap, just Barham standing in front of the camera and singing to a karaoke version of the song.
That's in stark difference to thousands of others, who turned in professional-looking music videos.
But Tyler Barham won over lots of hearts with his rendition of “Red Dirt Road,” sung in his small kitchen. Fan votes began to flood in on the GAC Web site, and over the eight weeks of voting, Barham saw himself climbing to the top.
Still, he never figured he had a chance.
But in Week Two, the judges chose Barham as the “insider's pick,” decided not by fan votes but by country music insiders. That assured him a spot in the Top 16.
After the eight weeks was finished, the judges whittled away 10 more entries. Barham made the cut. The judges loved him.
“We had a lot of entries of singers just standing there in the kitchen,” said Trahern. “And some had big-budget videos. The judges' feeling seemed to be that he was the best of that ‘unproduced' bunch, that he had passion and ‘earnestness,' one judge said.”
It's all happened so fast that Barham has trouble comprehending it. One day, he's just singing a song. The next, he's set to appear on a national stage, on a channel that reaches 54 million Americans.
And it's also nearly floored his father, who is awed by his son's sudden fame.
“We've always known that he's very talented, but to jump into the spotlight this quick was a big surprise for us,” he said.
Trahern is excited to have what she calls a “grass-roots” competitor in the show, a kid from a small town who had a big dream and saw it come true.
“He's going to experience a whole bunch of things,” she said. “I'm excited to see him, and I think his eyes will be wide open to a lot of new things here in Nashville.
“Regardless of whether he wins, I think it's going to rock his world.”
On the Web
To see Tyler Barham's numerous music videos, visit his official YouTube Web page at www.youtube.com/tyblakebarham. There is also a link to Barham's Myspace page. To see Tyler's official Great American Country video, go to www.gactv.com.
On the tube
“The Next Great American Country Star” will air Sept. 3 and Sept. 10 on the GAC network, channel 326 on DirecTV, and channel 167 on the Dish Network. The first show will introduce the competitors, and the second show will broadcast the musical competition.
Reporter Jamie Kelly can be reached at 523-5254 or at jkelly@missoulian.com.
