An Evening with Aaron Barker & Billy Dean
with Aaron Barker, Billy Dean
CST
(Doors: )
$25 / $12 food/bev minimum
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THIS IS A PREPAID SHOW, REFUNDS ARE NOT AVAILABLE.
There are 18 tables, 8 bar seats and 8 church pew seats available for reservation. The remaining pew seats for this show are not reserved in advance. These seats are available on a first come/first served basis when doors open.
Ticket reservations at The Bluebird Cafe are an agreement to pay the non-refundable cover charge and applicable taxes/fees and to meet the $12.00 per seat food and/or drink minimum.
Note: When making reservations, choose the table you would like and then add the number of seats you need to your cart by using the + button. You are NOT reserving an entire table if you choose 1 (by choosing 1, you are reserving 1 seat). We reserve ALL seats at each table. If you are a smaller party at a larger table, you will be seated with guests outside your party.
Artists
Aaron Barker
Singer-songwriter Aaron Barker is best known for the string of hits he wrote for country superstar George Strait, but Barker’s long career has many other highlights. Long before his success as a songwriter, he made his mark as a charismatic entertainer.
Born in San Antonio, Barker got his first guitar at age six, taught himself to play it and was soon singing at school and church events. He also began to write songs at an early age. When asked to create a grade-school art project, Barker turned in poetry rather than work within the visual limits of his red-green color blindness. Those poems eventually became the basis for his first songs.
As a young man, he joined a show band called The American Peddlers as its bass player and lead singer. During his decade-plus tenure in the group, it played hundreds of clubs and military bases, marketed its own albums and amassed a large fan club. Barker was regarded at the time as a top stage entertainer in the Lone Star State.
But away from the band’s flashy smoke machines and laser lights, he played solo gigs, trying out his original material on audiences in small clubs and cafes. He left his successful band in 1988 with the aim of finding songwriting success.
A tape of his tunes found its way to George Strait’s manager. Strait recorded Barker’s song “Baby Blue” and scored a #1 hit with it in 1988. Strait repeatedly returned to the songwriter’s catalog for such successes as “Love Without End, Amen” (1990), “Easy Come, Easy Go” (1993), “I’d Like to Have That One Back” (1994), “I Know She Still Loves Me” (1996) and “I Can Still Make Cheyenne” (1996).
Meanwhile, Atlantic Records signed Aaron Barker as an artist. He charted with his CD’s title tune “The Taste of Freedom” in 1992 and reestablished his reputation as an entertainer. He issued further solo albums in 1998, 2002 and 2006, but Barker’s biggest “hits” as a singer remain the widely heard radio and TV jingles he wrote and recorded for Blue Bell Ice Cream.
Other artists clamored for his songs. Doug Supernaw’s record of “Not Enough Hours in the Night” (1995), Lonestar’s version of “What About Now” (2000) and Clay Walker’s renditions of “You’re Beginning to Get to Me” (1998) and “Watch This” (1997) all became Top 10 hits.
Others who have recorded Aaron Barker songs include Tyler Farr, Trace Adkins, Aaron Tippin, Tracy Lawrence, Neal McCoy, The Oak Ridge Boys, Granger Smith, Willie Nelson, Chris LeDoux, Dean Dillon and Trent Tomlinson. Barker was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.
Billy Dean
Born in the small town of Quincy, Florida, Billy Dean started his music career at the age of eight, singing with his father’s band, the Country Rocks. After touring the Gulf Coast circuit in his late teens and early twenties, Billy’s first big break came in 1988 when he won Best Male Vocalist on Star Search, hosted by Ed McMahon. His success on the show led to signing with Capitol Records and the release of his debut album Young Man in 1990. Buoyed by the singles “Only Here for a Little While” and “Somewhere in My Broken Heart,” Young Man became Billy’s first of many Gold records. His second and third albums, Billy Dean and Fire in the Dark, were also certified as Gold Records and featured the Billboard-charting singles, “You Don’t Count the Cost,” “Only the Wind,” “Billy the Kid,” “If There Hadn’t Been You,” “Tryin’ to Find a Fire in the Dark,” “I Wanna Take Care of You,” “I’m Not Built That Way” and more. Over the course of his 25+ year career, Billy has released 11 albums and has been recognized with several awards and nominations.
In 1992, he was nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year for “Somewhere in My Broken Heart,” which went on to win Song of the Year at the American Country Music Awards. That same year, Billy was named Top New Male Vocalist of the Year at the Academy of Country Music awards and nominated by the Country Music Association for the Horizon Award. Four years later, Billy won a Grammy for Amazing Grace, A Country Tribute to Gospel, an album featuring Martina McBride, Allison Krauss, the Charlie Daniels Band and others. In 2017, Billy was inducted as a member of the Florida Artist Hall of Fame.
A modern-day American Troubadour, Billy Dean has performed and toured with some of the industry’s biggest country music stars including the Judds, Kenny Rogers, Clint Black, Alan Jackson, Wynonna Judd and others. After making a home in Nashville for decades, Billy has returned to his Florida roots and now lives in Quincy with his wife, Stephanie. Billy continues to perform and write – doing what he does best – telling the stories that have become the soundtrack of our lives.
