Graham Barham has been causing quite the stir in the world of Country music. The singer-songwriter went viral in 2025 with his song ‘OIL MONEY’, which was inspired by Taylor Sheridan’s hit TV series ‘Landman’. Hailing the arrival of a sound he labels ‘club country’, Barham quickly caught the ire of the Country music purists who were quick to decry that his music was not Country. Given he started out as a pure Country artist and he’s written hits for the likes of Blake Shelton and Tyler Braden, you’d think if anyone knows how to push the boundaries of Country music, it’s Barham.
Following on from the release of 2025 EPs ‘OIL MONEY’ and ‘WHISKEY RAIN’, Barham has been dropping plenty of singles and now the time has finally come for his debut studio album ‘CLUB COUNTRY’. The first radio single from the album is ‘Breakup (Down)’, which samples Jay Sean’s 2009 hit ‘Down’ featuring Lil’ Wayne. The song is a perfect encapsulation of Barham’s sound, which fuses Country with hip-hop and trap. Interestingly, for me anyway, it’s not one of the stronger tracks on this 16-track debut that firmly establishes Barham as a disruptor who couldn’t care less what his critics say.
‘CLUB COUNTRY’ is exactly what you’ll expect from Barham, given the music he’s put out over the past year. There is a Country sensibility, and plenty of Country instrumentation, throughout the record and Barham could be the genre’s boldest star in quite some time. The opening track, ‘COUNTRY MUSIC’, is likely to hit a nerve with the genre’s gatekeepers thanks to its crunchy hip-hop beats and R&B inflected vocal delivery. The thing to remember though, is this album isn’t for those people – it’s for anyone that fancies something a little different that’s going to make them feel-good for an hour or so.
“SIPPIN’” is driven forward by a strong beat that is best enjoyed at maximum volume, “SPEAKIN’ MY MIND” leans harder into R&B influences for an enjoyable uptempo moment, and ‘SO LONG SATURDAY NIGHT’ sounds like a lost N’Sync track that’s been injected with a little bit of Country. The banjo opens ‘SHOOT YOU STRAIGHT’, one of the album’s more restrained tracks, and potential future smash ‘COUNTRY BOY KRYPTONITE’ is a pure pop rush that could easily have crossover appeal. The punchy ‘BAD AND SHE KNOWS IT’ heads straight to the dancefloor before giving way to the second half of ‘CLUB COUNTRY’.
Across the remaining 8 tracks, Barham sequences ‘OIL MONEY’ and ‘WHISKEY RAIN’ (feat. Tyler Hubbard) in the last stretch of the record, and he raps his way through the storming 80s-influenced ‘MATTER OF TIME’. One of the standout moments on the record is ‘MARLBORO STYLE (ASHTRAY)’, which is catchy as hell and hits a little harder than some of the other tracks on the album thanks to its trap influence. In the album’s final moments Barham swaggers impressively on the rap-heavy ‘MCCONAUGHEY’ and has fun subverting Country in more ways than one with ‘DIXIE CHICKS’. The album comes to a close with ‘MEAN STREAK’, keeping fans on their feet and dancing until the very final moments.
‘CLUB COUNTRY’ is an absolute riot of a record and one hell of a debut album. This music isn’t meant to be taken seriously; it’s meant to be enjoyed for what it is – feel-good uptempo tunes that will make you want to dance. Who cares what genre of music this actually is? Surely good music is good music and Barham is one of the most interesting artists out there right now. I’ll be taking out a VIP membership to ‘CLUB COUNTRY’ and playing this album to death for the foreseeable.
Track listing: 1. COUNTRY MUSIC 2. SIPPIN’ 3. SPEAKIN’ MY MIND 4. SO LONG SATURDAY NIGHT 5. BREAKUP (DOWN) 6. SHOOT YOU STRAIGHT 7. COUNTRY BOY KRYPTONITE 8. BAD AND SHE KNOWS IT 9. MATTER OF TIME 10. I’M THE ONE 11. MARLBORO STYLE (ASHTRAY) 12. OIL MONEY 13. WHISKEY RAIN (feat. Tyler Hubbard) 14. MCCONAUGHEY 15. DIXIE CHICKS 16. MEAN STREAK Record label: Sony Music Nashville Release date: 12th June 2026 Buy ‘CLUB COUNTRY’ now
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