‘We’re having a blast playing’: Lonestar to bring country twist to the holidays at Spokane Tribe Casino
Country music group Lonestar hit the ground running in the mid-1990s. The second single off their eponymous debut album, “No News,” spawned their first country chart topper, and from then on ruling the charts became an outright consistency.
Over the course of six albums and eight years, the band found the success of 10 country chart topping singles, along with a No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the form of the hit smash “Amazed.”
Last year, Lonestar revisited those songs on the record “TEN to 1,” a collection of re-recordings featuring vocals from new lead singer Drew Womack.
The main goal of the re-recordings was to give fans a listening experience that is closer to what they hear on stage now. Over the years, the band has changed a few aspects of the instrumentals and have fine-tuned them specifically for their current onstage performance.
“We just want people to be able to see our show now and be able to take something home that sounds like what they just heard,” said guitarist Michael Britt.
Another aspect of Lonestar’s recently busy schedule is an extended play they’ll be releasing next month, “ICONIC, VOL. 1.”
The EP will consist of five covers of songs by renowned female artists, ranging from more modern songs by Adele and Pink to classics by Cyndi Lauper and Fleetwood Mac (specifically Christine McVie).
The idea appeared when Womack was “messing around” during a usual soundcheck and began singing Lauper’s “Time After Time.” Something about Womack’s rendition struck a chord with the rest of the band and they decided to record a cover, leading to each member picking a favorite song sung by a female vocalist and recording those as well.
Britt brought “Here Comes the Rain Again,” by Eurythmics, to the table. He has an established history with the song as he used to play guitar for a friend that would sing it at contests and writer’s nights.
“Each song has taken their own personality,” Britt said. “We all just got to play around with ideas, and they were all different for each song. That’s always the most fun part of making music, when you’re just ‘what if I do this’ and it works; it’s awesome.”
Although a second volume of these types of covers is completely on the table, Britt said the band will most likely focus on a new, original Lonestar record first.
Not too much is set in stone when it comes to a new album, but it would be Lonestar’s first with new material since the 2016 record “Never Enders.”
The band is consistently writing, but they are currently searching for what Britt calls a “seed song,” a track that “becomes the seed” for the record and sets the tone for the entire process.
But before anything else, they are focusing on their extensive touring schedule that averages 80 shows a year.
Even after all these years, Britt still doesn’t tire of life on the road much. In fact, he believes they are having more fun now than they maybe ever have, primarily because of the close-knit, family-type bond the group holds. So much so, that a recent two-week Thanksgiving break felt strangely unfamiliar.
“It felt like we were both unemployed and homeless without a family because we’re so used to being on the road together,” Britt said. “When you finally take time off it feels like something’s missing.”
The touring lifestyle will bring Lonestar to the Spokane Tribe Casino for a special show on Friday. The group only plays a handful of Christmas-themed shows a year, and the performance will feature their rendition of multiple Christmas classics alongside their own hits. Concertgoers can expect a country twist on songs like “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer,” “Please Come Home For Christmas,” “Silent Night” and more.
“We’re not really the new people or the new kids on the block getting all the radio play, but fans love coming out to see our show and we’re having a blast playing,” Britt said.