James Reams & The Barnstormers
Litchfield Park - Arizona - United States

James Reams formed James Reams & The Barnstormers in 1993 and celebrated 20 years as a bandleader in 2013 with a Coast-to-Coast Celebration tour. James and the band play traditional bluegrass music with an old-time country edge and a sound that’s very much his own. They feature driving rhythm and hard-edged harmonies that take you back to a time before bluegrass was smoothed out for the uninitiated, the ill-prepared or the faint of heart.

There were traditional singers on both sides of James’ family and his father played in a string band. Taking to music like a fish to water, James has played both old-time and bluegrass music since he was a child. Originally from southeastern Kentucky, the Reams family migrated north to Appleton, WI when James was in his mid-teens. He stayed in the midwest until he moved to Brooklyn, NY in the early 1980s and then headed west to a suburb of Phoenix, AZ in 2011.

James is deeply involved in the bluegrass and old-time music community both in Arizona and NYC. He has made several old-time and bluegrass recordings with such noted artists as Tom Paley and Walter Hensley.  His original songs are important additions to the bluegrass repertoire and his guitar playing was highlighted in Flatpicking Guitar Magazine’s Masters of Rhythm Guitar column. In addition to leading James Reams & The Barnstormers, he is the organizer of the Park Slope Bluegrass/Old-Time Jamboree, an annual music festival he started in 1998 that attracts 700+ musicians and fans of traditional music to its workshops, jamming and concerts. It’s the only event of its kind in or around New York City and was nominated as IBMA Event of the Year in 2014.

In 2013, James released a documentary film, “Making History with Pioneers of Bluegrass: Tales of the Early Days in Their Own Words”, in which he interviewed over 40 first-generation bluegrass musicians about their life as a musician when bluegrass was just getting started. This the full-length feature film is available on CD Baby and through the James Reams website.

In 2020, James released his documentary "Like A Flowing River: A Bluegrass Passage" on Amazon Prime Video. The 30-track soundtrack releases January 2021.

Rhyme & Season
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Label: Mountain Redbird Music