Country Strong
Aaron Lewis brings his own brand of country to Mt. Airy
You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy. Grammy Award-nominated, multi-platinum singer, songwriter and Staind frontman Aaron Lewis will perform with his country band at Mount Airy Casino Resort’s Gypsies Nightclub and Lounge on Friday, Nov. 2 at 9 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 3, at 8 p.m.
As the lead singer of Staind, Lewis sold more than 15 million albums, had three number one hits and 12 top 10 singles including rock staples “Outside,” “It’s Been Awhile,” and “Far Away”. In 2011, he arrived in the country world with the release of his debut EP, Town Line. The seven-song EP reached number one on the Billboard Country Albums Chart and featured the gold-selling single “Country Boy,” featuring the legendary George Jones and Charlie Daniels.
“Country music was the first music I ever heard,” Lewis said. “My grandfather was a huge country music fan and happened to also be my babysitter growing up. I would get up in the morning and the country music would already be on and the radio was the last thing to get shut off before the lights. It was on all day. Country music was the soundtrack to my childhood. I was exposed to it my whole childhood and as soon as I moved away from Vermont and my grandfather was no longer an everyday part of my life, country music went away too. I ended up in a heavy rock band and lost touch with country until the very first big tour we went out on and I was hanging out with Kid Rock a lot. I was on his bus and all that was playing was my grandfather’s country. I haven’t been able to get away from it ever since.”
After a whirlwind year, Lewis began working on what would become his latest record, The Road, in the fall of 2011. While balancing both a solo run and a tour supporting Staind’s self-titled seventh studio album, he recorded the album in Nashville on days off. He would visit town to record for a day or two, and then go back on tour only to return days later to continue recording once again.
“I was on tour with Staind and I was having a hell of a time with it. I would up in doctor’s office three different times and had completely blown my voice out. But a schedule had to be kept, so Staind would play for three of four days in a row and on a fifth day, when I should have be resting my voice, I was flying into Nashville first thing in the morning and recording for the day. We recorded The Road in a total of 30 or 40 hours tops, all during the time I should have been allowing my voice to heal.”
When asked what audiences should expect from the shows at Mt. Airy, Lewis called it a “full band representation of the last two records (The Road and Town Line) and the way they were recorded.”
— tom graham
Aaron Lewis will perform at Mount Airy Casino Resort’s Gypsies Nightclub and Lounge on Friday, November. 2 at 9 p.m., and Saturday, November. 3, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $55 and $40. You must be 21 or over to attend this event. To purchase tickets, call 1-866-468-7619 or visit mountairycasino.com.
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