The fundamental reason “Am I the Only One” is resonating so widely is because it’s tapping into an unfulfilled and voraciously hungry desire for counterpoints in popular American culture. In a very granular and passionate manner, Aaron Lewis captures this fomenting frustration.
Unless you were there in person, you missed it. But now we’ll all get the opportunity to see the tribute concert that transpired on April 6th, 2017, when a hefty list of musical talent all assembled at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville to pay tribute to the legendary Merle Haggard.
Well, if you thought you were already swimming through an upside down world where the NBA and NHL seasons have just been suspended along with pretty much every major music tour and festival to speak of at least until April, well try this development on for size: Ray Wylie Hubbard has signed with Big Machine Records.
“If it ever gets to be too much for you, there are a lot of great songwriters out there who agree with you politically. Oh wait, no there aren’t,” Jason Isbell responded to a Twitter user. But this assessment severely discounts to work of conservative songwriters who’ve contributed to the American songwriting canon.
You’re a music fan. And sure, you know a little something about labels and producers and how all this stuff is necessary to get the music to you. But it so quickly gets bogged down in minutia and detail, does the sale of one huge music company to another really affect you, or affect the music in some significant way that you should care?
It really is hard to know just what the hell to do with Aaron Lewis. On the one hand, his music is definitely country, and don’t go citing his former life as the frontman of Staind as some rebuttal to this conclusion. On the other hand, Aaron Lewis comes with a very large amount of baggage.
For the second time in as many months, Staind frontman turned Big Machine country music recording artist Aaron Lewis has hard cussed a crowd out for not being quiet enough during one of his acoustic concerts, and then stormed off stage, not finishing the full show. The most recent incident occurred Saturday night (3-9).
One of the biggest discoveries in 2018 was Dillon Carmichael and his debut, Dave Cobb-produced album Hell On An Angel. This hard country, heart-pounding honky tonk record was nominated for Saving Country Music’s Album of the Year, and put this young man with a country music pedigree on the radar of the real country crowd.
There is no need to mince words here or parse expectations. Alex Williams debut record Better Than Myself is traditional country music. And if it needs any qualifiers, it would be that it leans more toward the Outlaw style. There’s no compromise, no songs getting intro’d with a drum machine beat. It is true country music in every sense.
What we know for sure is that Dot Records is no longer a label, at least for now. What we don’t know about is the fate of some of the artists that called the label home. Maddie & Tae, Drake White, and Staind frontman turned country artist Aaron Lewis have an uncertain future.
Despite the rumors and speculation, and Saving Country Music once naming him the “Country Music Antichrist,” apparently Scott Borchetta is indeed a mortal after all. We’re still trying to sift out what exactly has happened to the Big Machine Label Group’s Dot Records, which has apparently bit the bullet.
Celebrating the #1 record in country this week with his Big Machine Records debut Sinner responsible for 39,000 copies sold, Aaron Lewis continues to try and walk a difficult line between being a major label country artist, a traditionalist who wants to talk smack on the industry, all while wearing the baggage of being the successful frontman of the rock band Staind.
If you want your musical experience in life to be the most fulfilling and enjoyable, then you have to be without prejudice when approaching music. There are many reasons on paper that one might decide they would never like the country music of the Staind frontman turned occasional country crooner Aaron Lewis.
On the Bobby Bones Show Thursday (9-15) morning (listen at the bottom), Bobby spoke to Aaron Lewis after his recent blowup at pop country artists, and what did he do? Aaron backpeddled and admitted he was playing to the crowd. Then Bobby Bones finished his segment with Aaron Lewis on Thursday by bringing up Saving Country Music in a strange context.
But this is the thing about Aaron Lewis and his anti-country stance: Normally this type of thing would solicit high praise from an outlet like Saving Country Music. And hey, I will give him credit for taking a stand. But Aaron Lewis, a dyed-in-the-wool rock gone country guy, is not the one to be delivering this message, I’m sorry.
Aaron Lewis, the frontman for the emo noise band Staind, whose been dabbling in country music for years now, has just signed to Dot records—a division of the Big Machine Label Group—and will be releasing a new record called Sinner on September 16th. And as part of the announcement, Aaron has released a country protest song called “That Ain’t Country.”
Last time I was paying attention to Tyler Farr, he was touching off a firestorm for singing about parking his truck in his ex’s yard and whipping beer cans at her window. Then Colt Ford and the cast of Duck Dynasty showed up in the video, machine gunning out rolls of toilet paper at this poor chick’s abode just because she finally figured out Tyler Farr had a big bag of nothing and gave him the boot.
Aaron Lewis only had one task Sunday Night, ONE TASK! … before the upsurging Kansas City Royals took on the San Francisco Giants. And despite the patriotism he crammed down our throats in his first country single “Country Boy,” he couldn’t even get the dern Star Spangled Banner correct when singing at AT&T Park. “What so proudly we hailed were so gallantly streaming.”
On November 12th, artists from across the country and Southern rock world will be coming together to pay tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd in a unique way. Not your typical tribute concert, and not your typical tribute album, One More For The Fans! — Celebrating The Songs & Music of Lynyrd Skynyrd will be a combination of both ideas taking place on the stage of the famed Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
We’ve seen these moments more and more at concerts, especially country music concerts where an artist has to stop everything down because someone in the crowd is acting completely inappropriate, but this instance may take the cake. Recent country music convert Aaron Lewis was manning the mic as part of his other gig as the frontman for the angry emo rock band Staind….
On Friday, Jan. 24th, Aaron Lewis was playing a show at the Thirsty Cowboy in Medina, Ohio, and during his set he decided to take the recent #1 song “Redneck Crazy” by Tyler Farr to task. “I fucking hate this song,” Aaron Lewis told the Thirsty Cowboy crowd. The alternative version called “Redneck Crazy Revisited” was written by a songwriter named Zach Woods.
It was looking like Lewis was falling right in line with the procession of other country music outsiders fleeing to the country genre in the twilight of their careers to find commercial strength. But when his full-length album The Road was released in late 2012, it was actually a pleasant surprise to hear just how country and non-commercial it was.
In 2013, stories of entertainers that “go country” are routine occurrences instead of reasons for surprise, intrigue, or outrage, because country music has officially become the default repository for talent fleeing the collapse of mainstream rock or the place to find strength in the twilight of a dying entertainment career. Here are some of the most notorious “gone country” moments over the years.
All of a sudden hip-hop influences are dominating the top of the country music charts, asserting just as much influence, if not more than indigenous country influences, with a bevy of new country rap tunes from numerous artists ready to be released, and mainstream artists lining up to try and be a part of the trend. How did country music get here?