Lonestar rolls with many changes
It’s all new for Lonestar, a country band known for hits such as “Amazed,” “I’m Already There” and, appropriately, “Everything’s Changed.”
Things have changed in a big way for Lonestar, from the band suddenly being forced to find a new lead singer after Richie McDonald’s departure last year to forming its own label, Lonestar Records, after many years with BNA Records.
“In some ways, this is a new beginning for us, but in other ways we’re doing what we’ve always done,” says guitarist Michael Britt, who played down the changes.
“We do have a new lead singer (Cody Collins), but he’s been with us for a year. We’re used to Cody. The fans are just getting used to him.
“And the other stuff is peripheral. It doesn’t affect us day to day. It’s just another means for us to get our music out there,” he says, grateful that the band was able to finish up its allotted time with BNA. “A lot of people don’t even get that far. But we did, then opted not to re-sign. That left us to do our own thing.
“And if our music is just as good or better than before, we’ll still come out ahead.”
Coming out ahead is a long way from the “What do we do now?” mode the band was in when McDonald walked away.
The band pondered what it would do without him, then remembered a gig that McDonald missed at the last minute because he was recovering from surgery. The gig went on with fill-in Josh Gracin, who was on the same flight and served as Lonestar’s opening act.
“That was the first time, as far as I can remember, that someone other than Richie sang,” Britt says. “If we hadn’t done that with Josh, we might’ve thought we couldn’t move on without Richie. That told us we could do it without him.”
After McDonald left, the band considered several singers, including Gracin, who was crossed off the list early because he’s doing fine on his own.
Lonestar keyboardist Dean Sams stumbled upon Collins at a country bar. What Lonestar liked about Collins was his ability to take a cover tune and make it his own.
“We wanted somebody with their own identity and influence in their voice,” Britt says.
McDonald and Collins are very different singers, beginning with their energy, “not that there was anything wrong with Richie’s,” he adds. “Richie sang the way he sang, but Cody can sing lower and higher and has more range. He’s just a great singer.”
The new Lonestar is gearing up for the scheduled release of “The Future” on Sept. 23 and the single “Let Me Love You.”
“We want this song to show off the new Lonestar sound,” Britt says. “The song typifies the energy Lonestar has.”
Britt says the single, like the rest of the material on “The Future,” demonstrates that Lonestar is a real band, not just a lead singer surrounded by session players. He says that can happen easily in Nashville.
“That’s the trap, hiring all the same studio musicians,” he says. “It gets formulaic and plugged-in.”
The band co-produced the project, picked songs and played the instruments.
“It’s a real homegrown thing, very familiar, natural, raw and organic,” Britt says.
Lonestar titled the CD after the track “The Future” because it’s the only direction in which the band is looking.
“We’re not focusing on the stuff from the past,” Britt adds. “We’re looking at what we can do better and moving on from there.”
(The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is a Lee Enterprises newspaper.)
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