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Preview: Aaron Lewis, July 18, 713 Music Hall

Theo

Country music is hotter than Texas summer right now.

If it weren’t for Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen would arguably be America’s biggest pop star, the one who’s managed to nab the “song of the summer” title from Taylor for the past two years. Zach Bryan (that’s pretty country) is a phenomenon. Luke Combs plays football stadiums. Jelly Roll is arguably the cutest guy in music today, and female artists like Lainey Wilson and Megan Moroney are becoming household names.

Then there are the newcomers. Beyoncé recently released a very respectable country album. Post Malone has one coming out next month. As country continues to shine in today’s music scene, rest assured, there will be more.

Somewhere in the middle is Aaron Lewis.

Lewis, who will perform solo at 713 Music Hall Thursday night, is by no means a newcomer to the country scene. In fact, he has released five country records since his debut, City linereleased in 2011 (his most recent, The hillNor is Lewis considered primarily a country singer by anyone who listened to pop and rock radio in the 2000s.

Lewis is not only an accomplished country singer-songwriter; he is also the frontman of Staind, one of the most popular rock bands of the 2000s, a band with three No. 1 albums and four multiplatinum releases to its credit, a band that crossed over from rock radio to pop radio during the time both existed. In short, Staind easily ranks among the best and best-selling rock bands of its era.

It may seem surprising, then, that Lewis was able to transition so easily to a completely different genre. He admitted as much in a 2012 interview with Houston Press“Years ago, if you had told me I was going to make a country record,” Lewis said at the time, “I would have laughed at you.”

So Lewis and his fans are probably surprised that his country career — spanning more than a decade — has included five Billboard Top 10 country albums and a handful of hit singles so far.

They shouldn’t be.
Sure, Staind could play with the best, especially in his early days. Hell, it’s hard to imagine that the guy who sang “Mudshovel” would ever put on cowboy boots and sing songs with titles like “Let’s Go Fishing,” “Country Boy,” and “Granddaddy’s Gun.” The dude even collaborated with the late George Jones! That said, looking back at Staind’s catalog, the country parallels were pretty much there, right in front of our eyes, all the way through.

“It’s Been Awhile,” performed acoustically, is essentially a country song. “Outside” is an acoustic song that’s practically a country song. Slow down “So Far Away” and the same rules apply. Same goes for “Fade.” Lewis did “guts” in his rock days, and that hasn’t changed since he switched to country.

In fact, Lewis could create a chorus when he played rock, and he can do the same thing as a country musician. The rules are pretty much the same. Tell a story, captivate the listener, and give them something to sing along to. Ideally, do it in under four minutes. It helped Staind become one of the biggest bands of the early 21st Century, and it helped Lewis become a respected and prolific country singer-songwriter in his own right.

Lewis didn’t start out as a country crooner, nor did he get into the genre because it was cool at the time or for some sort of clout or commercial gain. Yes, Post Malone’s foray into country did yield two smash hits — “I Had Some Help” and “Pour Me a Drink” — and I’m as big a Posty Country fan as you can get and I can’t wait to see him F-1 billion album next month. Same goes for Beyonce, who really impressed with Carter the cowboy.

Lewis’s path seems a little more natural, as if he’d picked up a guitar and stumbled upon a second wind in country music. He sings about the working class, the abandoned, love and loss, road weariness, that sort of thing. It works now, just as it did when Staind ruled rock radio.

Classics never go out of style. Sometimes you just need to change your outfit and buy a new pair of boots.

Aaron Lewis on Thursday, July 18 at 713 Music Hall, 401 Franklin, Suite 1600. For more information, visit 713musichall.com. Tickets range from $41.25 to $118.95, plus fees.

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